What's in a picture

What is in a picture?

A recent study at a major top 50 internet retailer details the importance of pictures. Both in getting it right, and the level of information that can be communicated. Of course, this communication can have a direct affect on your websites performance. We'd all like to see that affect be positive.

This Top 50 internet retailer, had just made modifications to their site. These modifications included a picture of a teenage girl dancing in her new dress in front of a western style strip hotel. Once this image was posted, the managers of the store noticed that sales dropped off. And they wanted to know why.

Rather than just changing the picture out, they commissioned an eye chart study to see what the page was doing. (at this time, they did not know that the picture was the culprit).

On the eye chart, just as expected the 1st place people looked was towards the colorful new dress, then for 1/10th of a second they glanced right, then back to the dress, and then down to the informational categories and products below.

Almost all viewers, when asked, conveyed that there was something creepy about the picture. But when asked to specify what was creepy, the answers were random - with no discernible pattern.

Of course, the eye chart had it. That glance towards the right, for just 1/10th of a second, in the picture was a window. In that window, was a shadowy figure of an old man. Looking at the girl.

Once they figured this out - it was obvious what was happening. They had a subliminal image in the picture that conveyed a "creepy old man" on a website that was targeting young teenage girls. Which naturally left them feeling uneasy.

This translated into a trust issue - which then translated into a reduction in sales.

So, in less than 1/10th of a second, an unintentionally included image in a picture conveyed a whole set of emotional feelings to customers, which then resulted in reduced sales.

Flipping that on it's head - what kind of emotional context can e-retailers communicate to their customers that would increase sales?

Welcome to the wild an wooly world of e-commerce. Where communications are made with no voices, only words and pictures.