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Muby Tech | 10 Amazing Tips to Reduce Image Production Costs for E-commerce Businesses
By David    November 27, 2024

10 Amazing Tips to Reduce Image Production Costs for E-commerce Businesses

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10 Amazing Tips to Reduce Image Production Costs for E-commerce Businesses
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It’s no secret that high-quality product images are essential for successful e-commerce businesses. The old saying that a picture is worth a thousand words holds great significance even today.

For online businesses, images, especially product images, can make or break their digital presence and consumer experience. Visual content doesn’t just represent products; it is key to building trust, encouraging conversions, and enhancing customer experience. Even a recent survey stated that approximately 75% of shoppers decide to purchase based on product photography, highlighting the importance of high-quality images.

However, producing high-quality images often comes with a high price tag, especially when you factor in equipment, editing, and potential outsourcing costs. For e-commerce businesses, especially startups or those operating on tight budgets, finding ways to reduce image production expenses without sacrificing quality is critical.

Fortunately, with the right strategies, you can possibly maintain top-notch visuals while keeping costs under control. In this article, you can explore ten practical tips that can help streamline your image production processes while reducing image production costs.

1. Monitor and Track Image Production Costs

Your first step to reducing image production costs should be to figure out where your money is going. Start by creating a detailed budget for your image production workflow, including everything from photographer fees and equipment to editing software and outsourcing costs.

It’s advisable to deploy an expense-tracking tool or software to monitor spending on image production and evaluate cost patterns. Regularly reviewing these expenses will reveal trends and highlight inefficiencies.

For instance, if you notice a recurring expense for re-editing, it might be a sign for you to communicate your brand guidelines clearly and what you expect from images to prevent or reduce the need for re-editing. By staying on top of these costs, you can make informed adjustments and find opportunities for significant savings over time.

2. Batch Process Images Where Possible

If you are engaged in the online business of selling a catalogue of similar products, it will be beneficial for you to batch-process images for those similar products. Doing this will help you significantly reduce editing time and costs.

For example, if you’re photographing products with similar specifications, like clothing in different colors or electronics in various models, consider photographing or even editing them as a group.

Batch processing helps save time by allowing professionals to apply similar edits, such as exposure adjustments or background removal, to all processed images in one go, minimizing the need for individualized attention. This streamlined approach will not only reduce the editing workload for professionals but also help make a big difference in your overall image production budget.

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3. Optimize Photography with Pre-Editing Techniques

Another aspect you should focus on to reduce your post-production needs and expenses is applying skilled and efficient pre-editing techniques.

Many e-commerce businesses, especially those operating on a limited budget, refrain from investing in quality lighting, backdrops, and props because of their upfront cost. However, little do they know that this investment can significantly reduce their image editing requirements down the line.

For instance, shooting with clean, clutter-free backgrounds will eliminate the need for background removal, and you don’t need to color-correct images by using good lighting. Therefore, remember that a little extra care in the pre-editing phase can save considerable time and money in post-production.

4. Implement Clear Brand Guidelines for Imagery

Outlining clear brand guidelines for imagery is key to ensuring image consistency and reducing revision rounds.

Have you outsourced your image pre- and post-production tasks to a third-party professional photo studio? If so, you should communicate your brand’s color palette, style, and image standards, such as composition, lighting, background, shades, etc., with the vendor. It will help the vendor to deliver images that meet your brand guidelines and standards on the first try.

Therefore, you can avoid excessive revisions and back-and-forth communication, which can help you save time, speed up image production project turnaround, and ultimately reduce costs.

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5. Train Your Team in Basic Editing Skills

Do you find it expensive to outsource even the simplest editing tasks to a third-party photo studio? If yes, consider training your in-house photography or marketing team with basic editing skills.

Someone on your team can easily handle simple tasks like adjusting brightness, cropping, and minor touch-ups, reducing the need to outsource every small adjustment. You don’t need each of your employees to be a Photoshop expert. Training them to use user-friendly platforms like Canva or Lightroom can also be effective.

Successful training sessions will further help you save money on image editing while improving your team’s efficiency in handling smaller editing tasks. This will give you more control over your image production budget.

6. Plan Photo Shoots Efficiently

Haphazardly organized photo shoots can lead to costly reshoots. Ask your marketing or product photography team to plan all your photo shoots meticulously to prevent expensive errors or reshoots. Planning photoshoots beforehand will also enable you to make the best use of your photographer’s time.

So, start by creating a shot list that includes the types of images you need for each product. Organize your shots by grouping similar products together and plan for different angles or setups in advance. This way, you’ll be able to capture everything you need in one go, avoiding the cost and hassle of re-booking studios or photographers.

7. Reuse and Repurpose Existing Images

Are you dumping your product images after using them once? This is your biggest mistake, contributing to your increased image production costs.

Instead, you should reuse and repurpose the existing images, whichever possible, to expand your image assets. For instance, you can repurpose a single high-quality product image across your website, social media, and email marketing. All you need to do is resize or crop the image to fit various platforms or use overlays to create seasonal promotions.

Doing this will not only maximize the value of each image but also reduce the need for new photoshoots. Maintaining a well-organized library of product images is advisable to easily access and reuse these visuals as needed.

8. Consider Image Compression for E-commerce Platforms

You might have heard marketing experts saying high-resolution images are the key to attracting potential customers to your e-commerce business. But remember that these high-resolution images can also slow down your e-commerce site’s loading speed. And slow websites can further frustrate users, leading to lost sales. Around 47% of consumers expect a website to load within 2 seconds, and 40% abandon the site taking more than 3 seconds to load.

So, how can you boost your shopping site’s loading speed? It’s by considering image compression. Using image compression tools will help maintain visual quality while reducing file sizes, leading to faster load times. Platforms like TinyPNG, JPEG-Optimizer, or Adobe Photoshop’s Save for Web feature allow you to compress images effectively, making them web-friendly without losing detail.

By compressing images, you can improve user experience and reduce the need for additional resolution-specific files, helping you save on storage costs.

9. Automate Simple Editing Tasks

Aside from batch processing, you can practice automating your simple editing tasks, which will reduce or eliminate the need for manual intervention. For instance, AI-based tools like Remove. bg or Pixelz can quickly handle background removal, while automated color correction tools are available in software like Adobe Lightroom.

These automation tools allow you to complete repetitive editing tasks in seconds. It will help save time and reduce your reliance on human editors for routine tasks, ultimately lowering your image production expenses.

Muby Tech | 10 Amazing Tips to Reduce Image Production Costs for E-commerce Businesses

10. Outsource Image Editing to Cost-Effective Partners

Many e-commerce business owners are still in a dilemma about whether or not to outsource their editing tasks. Sometimes, outsourcing can be more cost-effective than managing everything in-house, especially if you choose reliable, affordable vendors. Experts say outsourcing functions like photo editing can help businesses save around 10% to 30%.

Rather than hiring a full-time editor, look for companies like MubyTech that offer professional image editing services at competitive rates. Outsourcing will allow you to access specialized image production expertise, which can help reduce your overhead costs while ensuring high-quality results and faster turnaround times.

Concluding Thoughts: Partner with MubyTech for Cost-Effective Image Solutions

In e-commerce, securing high-quality images doesn’t have to be so much expensive. By monitoring your expenses, streamlining your workflow, batch processing and automating, applying pre-editing techniques, training your in-house team, and making smart outsourcing choices, you can reduce image production costs while maintaining the image quality your customers expect.

Are you seeking a reliable, expert post-production photo studio to meet your image quality standards and budget? MubyTech specializes in affordable, high-quality image production solutions that meet e-commerce needs and deliver excellent value. If you want to optimize your image production process, consider partnering with MubyTech to get the professional results you need at a price that won’t break the bank.

By MubyTech
Global Image Editing Partner

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