Visual commerce 101: essential knowledge for eCommerce brands

Written by

Miranda Gabbott

Apr 4, 2025

Visual commerce 101: essential knowledge for eCommerce brands

2 seconds. That’s how much time your product detail page has to hook the attention of a would-be customer. Clearly, that’s not enough time for casual users to read your lovingly-crafted product descriptions.

In other words, your product imagery is make-or-break.

That’s why more and more eCommerce brands are thinking in terms of visual commerce, an image-first strategy for selling products online.

In the competition for shoppers’ ever-shrinking attention spans, your product images are doing all the heavy lifting — so it makes sense to put them front-and-center of your marketing practices.

This article discusses what visual commerce is, the key benefits it offers eCommerce retailers, and how you can implement it in your business to create the perfect first impression and boost your conversion rate.

Create studio-quality product visuals for 10x less budget with Omi

Omi is a 3D product visualization tool. Use it to carry out a bold and ambitious visual commerce strategy — in budget and on time

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What is product visual commerce?

Product visual commerce, or visual commerce, is an approach to eCommerce marketing which emphasises the importance of imagery. It involves creating a cohesive narrative around your product using images — who you serve, how you do it, and what you stand for.

Done right, it shows users the role your product might play in their lives, and creates an emotional experience that resonates on a more intuitive level than well-written product descriptions.

Endro Cosmétiques and Black Honey use Omi’s Virtual Studio to create their imagery.

Research shows that prioritizing imagery pays off: in a recent survey, 83% of US online shoppers said visual content was ‘extremely influential’ in shaping their buying decisions.

The difference between this approach and traditional eCommerce is one of emphasis. If the marketing team decides to go after a new customer segment, a company pursuing a visual commerce strategy would allocate a significant portion of their attention, imagination, and budget to creating compelling imagery for that campaign.

Ultimately, however, this approach shoots for the same goal as classic eCommerce marketing: to create a compelling user experience that drives conversions.

6 Types of visual commerce assets

Your visual commerce strategy could encompass any image format you could possibly use to sell a product. Here’s 6 types of content to consider when formulating a strategy for your business.

1. High-quality product images

High quality, high-resolution images are the foundation of visual commerce. In fact, according to surveys conducted by Etsy, 90% of buyers said the quality of photos in a product listing was “extremely important” or “very important” to them when making an eCommerce purchase decision.

️ 🪄 You can actually create outstanding product images for less. Traditionally speaking, getting high-quality product images was an expensive and time-consuming process. The average product photoshoot costs around €2,000 for around 10 pieces of content.

The 3D product visualization tool Omi.so (that’s us 👋) offers a far more cost-effective solution. Our Virtual Photo Studio lets you generate an unlimited amount of on-brand product images, using AI-powered 3D rendering technology.

First, you ship us your product and we’ll create a 3D version of it — your ‘Digital Twin’. Then, we add the ‘Digital Twin’ to your account, for you to generate eCommerce visuals with.

There’s a huge bank of photorealistic backgrounds and props to choose from to bring the world of your product to life — you can even change the lighting, and the shadows and reflections will adapt. In short, you can express your brand story without any time and budget constraints — as creatively as your imagination will let you.

“Since we use Omi to create eCommerce packshots we have seen a significant improvement in our conversion rate. High-quality product visuals make our pages more attractive.”
—Léonie Le Moigne, Brand Designer @ 900.Care

2. Engaging product videos

It seems like every social media and networking platform right now is prioritizing short-form video content over still images, due to its greater ability to hold users’ attention. The eCommerce industry is no different — video is hot right now. In fact, a recent buyer survey found 82% of respondents were moved to make a purchase after watching a video.

Whilst traditionally more expensive and time-consuming to create than still images, video is a format with far greater opportunities for storytelling. Use it to weave a narrative where your product is the hero, or simply offer a product demo.

💡 Pro tip: with Omi, you can create captivating animations of your product in as little as 5 minutes.

3. Interactive 3D product viewers

In brick-and-mortar retail, customers show that they’re interested in a product by picking it up and touching it. One of the drawbacks of eCommerce is that users can’t have this same interactive experience, where they get to see your product from all sides and angles. However, 3D viewers have gone some way to bridging this experience gap.

With Omi, you can easily turn your product into an interactive 3D render that customers can zoom in on and turn around—and eCommerce retailers who do so see an average of 19% higher conversions.

Create studio-quality product visuals in minutes with Omi

Omi is a 3D product visualization tool. Use it to execute your visual commerce strategy quickly, whilst maintaining outstanding high quality.

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“Even with a professional photographer and a great camera, you can't match the quality of the 3D that you can generate through the Omi app.”
—Gwendal Tissier, Founder & CEO @ Black Honey

4. Visual product configurators

You might never have heard of a visual product configurator — but you’ve probably used one. This is a tool that lets you toggle between different versions of a product. The most common use case is changing the color of an item. If you’ve ever bought a t-shirt online, you might have changed the settings to see whether you prefer the blue or the white version, for example. Now you know — that tool for changing the settings was called a visual product configurator!

These tools typically lead to higher engagement, since they allow your eCommerce customers to customize the item they’re buying in real time.

5. AR and VR experiences

Some forward-thinking eCommerce retailers are experimenting with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) shopping experiences, and for good reason — according to the Square Future of Commerce report, 58% of online shoppers said they’re interested in trying newer shopping experiences. 22% specifically said they were looking forward to the advent of VR shopping.

If your products represent a significant one-off purchase for customers — think: furniture or automobiles—and you’d like to drum up press with an unusual visual marketing channel, why not create an AR or VR experience?

6. User-generated visual content

User generated content (UGC) is gold. 93% of marketers who use UGC claim that it performs markedly better than traditional branded content. If users love your product enough to take and share their own images or videos of it, that’s a powerful sign to new would-be customers that your product is desirable and trustworthy.

If you have customer photos and reviews, you should be placing them front and centre of your visual commerce strategy. These lend your brand an air of authenticity and offer convincing social proof.

Key benefits of visual commerce for online brands

A visual commerce approach can transform eCommerce businesses. Here’s just a handful of the benefits to expect if you try this strategy:

Enhanced customer experience: high-quality visuals like videos, AR, and 3D product viewers are simply more interesting to interact with than eCommerce sites that feature walls of text. They improve the experience of browsing your site.

Higher conversion rates: visuals give users a clear idea of what they’d be getting if they bought your product. This improved confidence and understanding significantly increases the likelihood a user will make a purchase.

Lower return rates: did you know 22% of eCommerce returns happen because the product looked different in person than it did on the website? Prioritize your product’s visual representation and you’ll set clear expectations for buyers from the off.

Stronger, more recognizable brand: research shows that people experience more powerful emotional responses to images than words, so it’s no surprise that brands who use visual commerce tend to create a deeper and more lasting impression on their users

How to implement visual commerce to better engage customers and bring in more sales

Visual commerce is better thought of as an approach to eCommerce marketing than a set of repeatable instructions you can apply to any product and market. Nonetheless, here are the high level steps towards engaging eCommerce customers with visual commerce.

1. Outline your visual commerce strategy

Stand back from your existing marketing, and consider how images and imagery might play a greater role. Start by thinking about your target audience, where they shop for your product, what factors influence their buying decision, and which channels they prefer to consume content in. You could also examine your competitors for inspiration.

Different industries benefit from different visual commerce elements, for example, eCommerce companies who sell…

Cosmetic and skincare products might benefit from creative, high-quality product photography that matches seasonal campaigns and evokes a compelling brand story

Furniture and large household items might benefits from creating an AR experience, so that customers can see how their goods might look in their houses or offices
Complex items, like toys and games or fitness equipment might benefit from product videos, to demonstrate how their items are intended to be used
Clothing and footwear might benefit from generating and promoting UGC, which offers social proof

2. Invest in essential resources

To bring your visual commerce strategy to life, you’ll need to get your hands on the necessary design tools and resources.

Naturally, the best ones for the job will depend on your budget, and the kinds of assets you’ve decided to create. Consider:

A product visualization tool like Omi for creating 3D product visualizations, product animations, and photorealistic product images in any number of creative settings (and all at 10-20x less than the price of a traditional product photoshoot!)

Augmented reality tools, including specialist software like ARKit (Apple) or ARCore (Google) along with a web- or mobile based AR viewer
Tools to create a demo video, including a video camera and voiceover and editing software

Once you’ve got everything you need, get to work creating your imagery — the world of eCommerce moves quickly, and done is better than perfect.

3. Integrate your visual assets with your existing platforms

Decide which of your digital spaces will bear the fruits of your visual commerce strategy — whether that’s your social channels, your app, or your eCommerce site itself. Depending on how ambitious your plans were, this might mean:

Embedding a 3D viewer plugin on your eCommerce site, so that users can interact with your interactive 3D product render
Exporting visuals for social media in the correct size, aspect ratio and file format
Ensuring all videos, images, and interactive experiences are optimized for mobile, since around 72% of global eCommerce sales are conducted on this device type

Create the imagery you need to succeed at visual commerce with Omi

eCommerce shoppers can’t pick up your product, feel it, shake it, or smell it. But, in order to convert them into loyal customers, you’ll need to communicate what’s great about it in a way which engages their senses. Visual commerce — leading your eCommerce marketing with imagery — is a market-tested way to do that.

With a tool like Omi, it’s more economical than you’d think to execute on a studio-quality visual commerce strategy. You don’t need to invest in expensive on-location photoshoots or 3D modelling artists. Simply ship us your product, and our team will produce a 3D rendering that captures its dimensions, colours, and even textures. Then, you can:

Generate endless unlimited visuals in our Virtual Studio, and make use of hundreds of templates, creative props, and environments. You can even save your favorite lighting settings for next time.

Make polished 3D product animations which, our clients report, boost a product pages’ engagement rate by an average of 32%

Esthederm's "ecosystem of content" for their launch had 30+ assets including video, packshots, product reveals, website banners, and more.

Create interactive 3D viewers that integrate embed easily into your eCommerce site

Best of all, the tool is so easy to use that any visually-savvy teammate will pick it up in minutes.

Maybe we’re biased, but it really is the ultimate solution for scaling product imagery efficiently. With Omi, the only limit to your brand’s visual storytelling is your imagination.