eBay’s Image Guidelines for Store Owner
We all know the importance of photos. Images and pictures attract us. It can communicate with us. Because people say that a picture can tell thousands of words. I think it’s very true. So do not forget to upload a nice and attractive picture for your product listings on e-commerce sites like eBay or amazon.
While submitting product images to the eBay we have to comply with their guidelines regarding images. The first rule is that you must submit an image for a product listing. There may be the case where you are advertising for a service which is not possible to photograph directly. In this situation, you can upload a picture that is relevant to the service you provide. If you are a graphic design company, you can upload an image manipulation picture. You can search on the internet for free images and upload an image relating to your service.
A Picture is a Must for Listing
The first thing is that you got to supply a picture for your item listing. You can no longer list an item on eBay unless you provide at least one picture of the product. What if you are selling a product that is not something physical? A service like photo editing or travel packages? Yes, it’s simple, you have to upload a picture that is relevant to the subject. Providing a professional picture may require a professional photographer. A cheaper alternative is to search for relevant picture online. If you select a free image you are safe from the copyright issues.
Photo Size
For the longest side of the image, the length should be at least 500 pixels or higher. So use a moderately high megapixel camera; you are in safe zone. Even you can use reasonably high-end mobile phones to take the product photos. You can learn more about taking product pictures using smartphones “The Secrets of Capturing High-Quality Product Photos with Your Smartphones”.
Too high quality is also an issue. The maximum size of photo you can upload is 7 MB. Several photos of a listing can be added.
No Borders on The Photos
eBay does not allow borders on the photos. But what if your product is of square shaped or rectangular shaped item which naturally creates a border like visual on the image? No worries, it’s okay, this situation falls on their exception list. But you cannot deliberately create any border other than their exception policy for borders.
Policy for Watermark
For the ownership and attribution purpose watermarks are acceptable. It is not allowed for marketing information, any special description about your product, or information regarding customer service.
The watermark should not be bigger than 5% of the total image area.
It cannot have an opacity of more than 50%. It cannot make the product unclear. You cannot put links in watermarks. You can also use the eBay’s watermark creation service to create watermark for your photos.
Text Or Artwork Not Allowed On Photos
No marketing texts can be added to the photos of your item. Any information you need to add about the product, you should state those on the title, subtitle, or item description area. You cannot put any other texts mentioned above in the “watermark” section. The bottom line is other than watermark, there should be no other texts on the item photo. And watermark should comply with the watermark policy of eBay. Place all your marketing writing in Title and Description area.
Use of Stock Photos
If you intend to list a used item on eBay, you cannot use stock photos as the primary photo. Same for the catalog images. You cannot use them as the primary photo of your product. For Books, Movies, Music and Video Game category, there are exceptions. You got to use a real picture of the used item, for used items.
Zoom / Enlarge Feature
There is a zoom / enlarge feature on the view item page. If your picture has enough resolution this feature will be available. eBay recommends that the items photos should be between 800 – 1600 pixels on the longest side. The longest side can be either height or width. For the images that has 800 pixels on the longest side, this feature will not be available.
So we know, images are extremely important for e-commerce websites like eBay. A buyer on a web store does not have the opportunity to touch and examine the product in real. A customer chooses a product by seeing the product image and the description provided. If you follow the guidelines of eBay regarding the photos of your item while listing them, you will be able to smoothly upload your product photo. Here I have described the basics you need to know regarding the item images for eBay.
