Is Product Photography Worth It? | Omi.so

The ROI of product photography is frustratingly difficult to calculate   

Traditional product photography costs are significant. A custom shoot is often $1,000 or more per product when you factor in props, lighting, styling, talent, revisions, post-production, and even file management specialists (yes, that’s a thing).

Not even to mention the opportunity cost of taking your time away from other marketing tasks, overseeing the shoot and keeping the end result on-brand. And it’s not like this is a one-and-done task. When you need new visuals for a seasonal launch or a trend-driven ad push, you’re starting from scratch.

When creating Amazon product images with traditional methods, costs quickly spiral out of control.

It’s never as simple as “this image drove X conversions”  

Although all marketers understand that high quality images have some positive impact on their KPIs, it's hard to directly tie product photography to ROI. Firstly, if a well-photographed product converts well, how can anyone say whether it’s thanks to the photographs, or the product itself? Secondly, when you pay for a product photoshoot, you may not know the full scope of what you’ll use the final images for. A packshot photo created for a product description page (PDP) may be repurposed down the line for an ad, brochure, or social media post. There are simply too many variables to calculate exactly how much revenue a product photograph will generate. 

Hard-to-justify expenses are the first victim of budget cuts    

When budgets are tight, it’s tempting to cut corners on anything you can’t tie to a measurable impact. If a marketing initiative doesn’t seem to affect conversions directly, it’s just another line in the spreadsheet ready to be wiped. However, before you consider drastically reducing the number of product photo shoots you undergo, here’s another way to look at it. 

Quality product photos boost key sales metrics 

Given that it’s hard to measure the ROI of product photography, it’s tempting to treat it as a checkbox exercise where the bare minimum will do. 

However, a host of statistics indicate that high quality product photos are a revenue driver, and significantly influence sales.

Whilst you will never know the exact dollar amount a product photo has brought in, this content has a virtuous circle effect on a number of your key metrics. 

First, according to a survey by eCommerce marketplace Etsy, 90% of shoppers said the quality of product photos were “extremely important” or “very important” to their purchase decisions — images were voted an even more important factor than price. Your product photography is one of the most significant factors in selling your product. 

Second, high quality product photographs also reduce return rates. 64% of eCommerce returns occur because the product looked different in person than how it was described on the website. Inconsistent or poor-quality visuals lead to confusion, disappointment, and unnecessary returns — each one eating into your margins. Return rates are one reason for the invention of the Interactive 3D Viewer, which is proven to help return rates because of its ability to accurately represent a product.

With Omi, you can create visuals that accurately represent your product, so the right customers can find it.

High quality images have also been shown to:

• Reduce cart abandonment: since 26% of shoppers abandon their carts due to inaccurate or missing product images 

• Boost your traffic: product pages with photographs receive 95% higher organic traffic than those without 

• Increase time spent on product pages: 360° product photography, for example, extends the average amount of time users spend on a page from 32% to 50% 

• Build trust and credibility: high-resolution product images can increase consumer trust by up to 93%

• Drive up engagement on social media: posts featuring images have been shown to have a 650% higher engagement rate compared to text posts 

Great product photos, therefore, uplift your important metrics almost across the board. But it’s still hard to say whether they’re earning back that 1k per product figure. 

Virtual Product Photography: the efficient, creative, affordable alternative 

If you’re looking for a way to get all the benefits of high quality product images without the price tag, virtual product photography tools like Omi change the game. Instead of relying on physical shoots, brands can now create photorealistic visuals using 3D models (also known as Digital Twins). Once the model is created, you can generate an unlimited number of on-brand images and videos — without booking photographers or shipping inventory or managing props.

Platforms like Omi give you a full Virtual Photo Studio complete with 6,000+ virtual props, adjustable lighting, and customizable scene templates. That means you can:

• Produce campaign-ready images in hours, not weeks

• Swap scenes, settings, props, or details to match seasonal trends or regional tastes

Cosmetics brand Misencil uses fresh and fruity accessories to lend their products a summer vibe. With Omi's free library of over 6,000+ 3D assets, you can evoke any mood.

• Test ad creatives and landing page variants at scale

• Maintain visual consistency across your site, ads, and social feeds

• Dramatically reduce content production costs over time

Think of it this way: traditional photography locks you into high costs, long lead times, and logistics projects. Virtual photography gives you speed, flexibility, and the ability to scale visuals across every sales channel and market.

Dialect Fragrances switched to Omi for their product imagery and their conversion rates increased by +74.4%.

Toothbrush brand, MyVariations, uses Omi to create premium visuals on a startup budget. “In five minutes you can have professional-quality, ready-to-use images." — Alexis Thiebaut, Co-Founder

Since scent brand, Black Honey, started creating product images on Omi, they save 6 weeks per campaign.

Moët Hennessy has 3x’d their product image output since using Omi — and the standard remains sky high.

The Bottom Line

High quality product photographs are good for business. No matter how good your product is, if the image that represents it is grainy, weirdly cropped, or just a bit off, you undermine its credibility. Amateurish product photos are an immediate signal that you haven’t invested in your product — and that your product isn’t successful enough to make money. 

However, if you want to be sure your product images are paying for themselves, switching to virtual photography would significantly increase your ROI.

Customer expectations are sky-high and trends change weekly, so you can’t afford to rely on slow, expensive processes. By embracing virtual product photography, you unlock the ability to move faster, test smarter, and grow more efficiently — without sacrificing quality by a single pixel. 

Gastronomy brand Fauchon, haircare brand Veuch and cosmetics brand Clarins all switched to Omi’s Virtual Studio — and they haven’t looked back.