The buyer cannot touch the product — the photo is all they have. And that same photo is the most common cause of a slow store. Here is the balance.
The right numbers
- Dimensions: 1000×1000 to 1500×1500 pixels for the main image. Smaller means blurry zoom; bigger is needless weight.
- Weight: under 200-300KB per image. Straight from a phone means 4-6MB — twenty times more than needed.
- Format: JPG for photos, PNG only for transparency, WebP if your theme supports it (lightest).
- Square and consistent — same ratio for all, or the catalogue jumps and looks amateur.
How many photos per product
3-6: a main one on white, 2-3 angles or details, 1 in use (in a hand, on a person, in a room). The in-use photo sells the most — it lets the buyer imagine themselves.
How to shrink them (free)
Use a compression plugin (Smush, ShortPixel, Imagify) — automatic on upload. Or before uploading: Squoosh, or plain save-as at 80% quality. The eye sees no difference; the speed does.
Alt text — free SEO
Every image has an Alternative text field. Describe what is shown: black mens leather jacket, side view. It serves blind users, Google Images (a great traffic source), and the moment an image fails to load.
The most common mistake
Uploading 200 photos of 5MB each, then wondering why the store crawls and hosting fills up. Second: photos taken from Google — besides being theft, the buyer sees the same image in five stores and trusts none.
Field advice
A phone plus a window with daylight plus white cardboard = 90% of studio quality. Shoot 20 products at once in the same setup — everything looks consistent.