Ecommerce Website Designs: 27 Best Online Shops and Why They Work

Shopify Tutorial

Ecommerce Website Designs: 27 Best Online Shops and Why They Work

May 4, 2021 , by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.
Original link:https://www.shopify.com/blog/best-ecommerce-sites

People don’t really judge a book by its cover, do they? Of course they do!

Whether it’s the presentation of food at a fancy restaurant or the latest Apple product, humans seem to just love things that are beautifully designed. The same principle applies to websites, especially in the ecommerce field. If you’re not presenting your visitors with the best website design and packaging your products nicely, you’re definitely leaving money on the table.

Attractive, cool website designs have always played a key role in a successful online sales and marketing strategy. That’s because beautiful design and an excellent color palette can increase the perceived value of your products.

Whether you’re about to create a brand new ecommerce site or you’ve been thinking about redesigning your current site, the following list of the 27 best website designs (and more!) should give you ample ecommerce website design inspiration.

What makes a good ecommerce website? 

People judge the design of your ecommerce website the minute they land on it.

In fact, studies have shown that it takes 50 milliseconds for browsers to decide if they’ll stay on a site or not. You get .05 seconds to impress users, which is why website design is so important for your ecommerce business. 

What makes a good ecommerce website can be defined by four elements:

1. Trust

Imagine walking into a retail store and seeing a huge disaster. Clothes are everywhere, it’s dirty, no one greets you or makes you feel welcome. What are you going to do next? Probably get out of there as soon as possible. 

When someone visits your store for the first time, they may not know anything about your brand, the quality of your products, or your commitment to making customers happy. Deals might earn their consideration, but they’ll need to trust you before they actually go through with a purchase.

Customers need to know that when they buy from you, they’ll receive the product as advertised. 

There are three essential trust indicators every business should include on their website:

Contact information

Nothing throws potential customers off more than a website without contact information. Include an email and, if possible, a phone number and a mailing address. This type of information, along with an About page, helps potential customers feel they’re buying from a real person.

A return policy

A return policy not only makes it easier for people to bring back products that don’t satisfy them, it actually increases sales by lowering shopping cart abandonment and instilling the customer with a sense of confidence and trust that they can send back an item if they need to, without any transaction fees. 

Technical certifications

By adding Shopify Payments, you’ll have access to advanced features and payment services featuring the latest security technology for protecting your customers’ information. Don’t hesitate to use graphics or badges to show your security compliance and all the payment methods you accept.

Customer trust is hardest to earn when you don’t have any customers, so you’ll want to incorporate these trust indicators as you design your store.

2. Good visual appeal

Visual appeal is essential to help customers envision your products online and click Buy.

Perception is everything when selling your products online. People form their first impression of your site in mere milliseconds. With your Shopify store, making that impression count rests largely on the quality of your images.

Think of it this way: your product photography is like an ambassador, sharing the promise of your product online. Your customer can’t try, taste, feel, or wear your product before they buy, so they’ll rely heavily on your visuals to decide if that product is right for them.

Generally, you want to include product photos with a white background, as well as lifestyle photos of your products in use. Outdoor Voices’ homepage features lifestyle images to communicate its brand side-by-side with more product-centric images to entice visitors to learn more. 

Products photographed on a white background are the gold standard of ecommerce photography. That’s because the white background makes it easier to see the item in detail and strips away the branding so your product can appeal to different demographics.

Whether you’re selling through your own Shopify store, Amazon, or eBay, lifestyle photos are important because they allow customers to envision using a product in their day-to-day life by picturing themselves as the model being shown. 

Your product photos are a key factor in your store engagement, conversion, and retention.

Beyond product photos, you also need to consider your site’s colors and fonts. You may have the most incredible product, but if the aesthetics of your website—specifically its colors and fonts—don’t work, your customers will be put off and may not make a purchase. The look of your store plays into the overall experience of buying the product.

Color is one of the most powerful tools you can use to spark interest and emotion. It can also be used to draw attention to specific sections of your website and lead your customer down the buyer’s journey.

Limit your site to two main colors—a primary color and a secondary color. To choose your colors, you can use two great resources. Go to Dribbble to search for a color palette. For example, if you type in “red,” you can see examples of websites that use red in their color palette and decide which options are most visually appealing. 

Here’s an example where the business used simple black on white text with shades of green as its accent colors.

Another key consideration is your website’s accessibility. You want the colors you select to contrast enough that people of all ages and abilities can read and see your text.

Lastly, you’ll want to give some thought to typography. Customers expect to see dynamic and interesting typography on websites, not stale fonts like Times New Roman. While the words you write share information, it’s the typography that communicates the emotion behind that information.

The good news is, with a store builder like Shopify, you can access templates with recommended fonts and designs. You can use these fonts on your website or choose fonts from another source to make the necessary customizations you need.

As with colors, it’s a good idea to stick to two fonts and create a hierarchy between them. Managing multiple fonts can be tricky for non-designers, and your website can become very messy looking. Using just two fonts simplifies things. Choose one font as your header or title font and another to be your body font. 

Supergoop does a great job of selecting a title font that reflects its brand while its body font is simple, clear, and easy to read. 

A unique header font can add some flourish to your brand, while the body font will be your workhorse, used for all the other copy on your website, from product descriptions to checkout instructions. 

While display fonts can have a little more flourish because of their size, it’s important to pick a body font that’s readable. Not every customizable font is designed for screen reading and picking the wrong one (a thin sans serif, for example) could drive customers away if they can’t read your site.

3. Responsive format for mobile and web

According to comScore, nearly 70% of digital media time is spent on mobile devices. Unfortunately, many ecommerce solutions don’t optimize for mobile and are built only with desktop browsing in mind. This can result in a fair number of lost new sales.

If you’re building your business with Shopify, your store is “responsive.” This means the site is user friendly on different devices and screen sizes, whether customers view it on a desktop, smartphone, or tablet.

When choosing a theme based on mobile optimization, it’s best to personally test the ease of use to see if you’re happy with the transactional flow. If you’re not, there’s a good chance your customers won’t be either. Elements like cart drawers and easy-to-follow mobile navigation are crucial when finalizing your choice.

4. Easy navigation

Your website navigation should help customers find your products quickly and easily. Good navigation also helps improve SEO on your site so you get found in search results. 

Good navigation improves the online shopping experience and helps merchants increase their sales and profits. Navigation can also influence the theme you choose. For example, if you have a large catalogue of products, a theme with a bigger menu might be best for you.

Here are some guidelines to follow when designing your store: first, try to stick to only a few menu headers in your navigation. Be clear and direct when labeling these headers—this is no time to be clever. Here are headers you can use for top-level navigation:

  • Shop [Product Category]
  • About Us
  • Bestsellers
  • Contact Us

Here are three great examples of menus that make navigation simple. The visitor knows exactly what they’re getting each time. As a beginner, I still think you should start with the four listed above, but over time, you’ll learn what your audience gravitates to. 

Additional navigation links can go in your footer—the section at the bottom of your website. Here are the labels I recommend for your footer:

  • Shop [Product Category]
  • Return Policy
  • Terms of Service
  • Contact Us

You can always change your headers if you notice they’re not being clicked on or add on a sub-navigation menu to include links to other important pages or product collections.

27 best ecommerce website examples in 2020 (and why they work)

For a little inspiration when building your online store, explore the best ecommerce websites listed under the categories below: 

  • Artists
  • Small business
  • Fashion
  • Dropshipping
  • Health and beauty
  • Food and grocery
  • Sports and fitness

Artists

1. KETNIPZ

KETNIPZ is an Instagram comic turned brand empire created by Harry Hambley. You can find Bean, the main character, on murals around the world, throughout social media, and even tattooed on the bodies of fans. KETNIPZ’s website design reflects Bean’s quirky personality, with bright colors, unique fonts, and seasonal updates to align product launches with upcoming holidays. 

2. Fred Jourdain

It’s hard to find the best way for creators to sell their art online, but Fred Jourdain’s ecommerce website does it right. His homepage banner rotates through his latest and greatest pieces. You can also find interviews on the website and read more about the inner workings of how he creates his art. Between scrolling through interviews, art books, and different projects and publications, you can’t help but stay intrigued by the artist just from landing on his online store. 

Small business

3. Pura vida bracelets

To foster trust, jewelry retailer Pura Vida Bracelets showcases five-star product reviews from thousands of customers on its landing page, on top of reviews from target-audience-appropriate media outlets like BuzzFeed and HuffPost.

Its products are the star of the site, photographed in a way that makes them vibrant and detailed so customers love what they see.

Again, Pura Vida Bracelets sticks with the powerful and simple CTA Shop Now to get customers clicking. It highlights free shipping at the top of the page (79% of US consumers say free shipping makes them more likely to shop online). It also has a cool chat bubble in the bottom-right corner for shoppers to click and get help whenever they need it.

4. MVMT

MVMT’s core brand value, “Style shouldn’t break the bank,” is reflected in its website design. It presents sleek, sophisticated colors and styling that showcases watches, eyewear, and jewelry at affordable prices. Plus, it highlights collaborations with designers and provides a Trending Now section on the homepage so people can quickly check the latest designs. 

5. The Paper Cub Co.

The Paper Cub Co. keeps it simple on its ecommerce site with a design that’s clear, simple, and shows its products in the best light. Eye-popping colors and playful photography showcase The Paper Cub’s brand and keeps you interested in browsing its bestseller thank you cards, checklists, postcards, and more. 

6. Verve Roasters

Like Pura Vida Bracelets, Verve Roasters uses five-star reviews to build trust throughout its ecommerce website. 

The online coffee retailer also uses evocative language paired with stylish photography to keep customers on the page. For example, it promises to be “classic and delicious” and delivers on this expectation through evocative word choice, such as “the sweetness of golden marmalade.” A free shipping offer paired with the ability to add products to your cart from the get-go gives customers all the more reason to buy.

Fashion

7. Allbirds

Sustainable apparel store Allbirds reinforces itself as a brand eco-conscious shoppers can trust through the targeted language in its copy, such as “Made with natural materials.” Trust is also achieved through its Certified B Corporation certificate.

Its products are the first thing you see on the page, worn by models that fit with Allbirds’ target market, making customers think, These are my kind of clothes. Allbirds also highlights its favorite picks, using vivid words to encourage click-throughs. 

There’s nothing fancy about Allbirds’ call to actions (CTA). That’s the point. Shop Men and Shop Women makes it super clear what to do next. 

8. Hardgraft

The minute you visit Hardgraft’s ecommerce store, you know if it’s for you or not. Its messaging builds trust with buyers who want luxury goods and appreciate rugged, earthy aesthetics. The homepage design is simple and offers visitors an endless scroll through its beautifully photographed products. 

Hardgraft’s product pages are on point, with crisp, bold images that share important product features and value propositions encouraging shoppers to buy. And it offers safe, worldwide shipping so it doesn’t deter international visitors from exploring its store. 

9. Topo designs

Outerwear shop Topo Designs uses images that resonate with its target market—young and stylish outdoor enthusiasts—while using unique backgrounds to stand out from other outerwear brands. Its website has great top navigation so you can quickly find what you’re looking for. 

Another key website design best practice is how the brand incentives sales. It highlights free shipping on US orders of more than $50, as well as on returns and exchanges. The brand also offers a newsletter signup CTA incentive of a 15% discount, compelling customers to take action. 

10. Alice + Whittles

Sustainable shoe store Alice and Whittles masters trust-building by promising customers a super-easy shopping experience. It highlights its shipping and returns policy, plus an option to pay in installments if shoppers don’t have the cash upfront. 

It also includes a chatbot on the landing page for shoppers to get quick answers to their questions, solidifying trust and encouraging them to buy.

The addition of a Last Chance menu widget adds urgency to the buying process, making shoppers think, I need to purchase these items before they are gone forever. 

11. Chubbies

Chubbies has built a following of men who love short-shorts. The website design is key in that it evokes Chubbies’ brand values with captivating product photography and witty copy. The sidebar navigation, although different from most ecommerce website designs, presents a neat menu where shoppers can find their products faster and easier. 

12. KITH

KITH’s homepage design grabs your attention the minute you land on it. Shoppers are met with a brand video and a harmonic, sleek color palette of white and black. The site feels clean, yet sparks interest so you want to explore different menu options like (of course) clothing, but also treats and content such as lookbooks, films, journals, and more. KITH’s catalog is big, but categories are still presented in a way that lets you quickly explore and find what you’re looking for.

Dropshipping

13. Subtle Asian Treats

Subtle Asian Treats is a top Shopify dropshipping store that sells handpicked plushies and other kawaii merchandise, like AirPod and iPhone cases. The site is easy to navigate, letting customers quickly access shipping FAQs, pricing discounts, and customer reviews. 

Besides the overly cute products, Subtle Asian Treats builds trust with visitors by showing a personal note from founder Laura Chang and user-generated content from its Instagram feed. Also, rather than sign up for an email marketing list, it gives you the option to sign up for a text VIP club to receive exclusive deals and discounts. 

14. Modern Urban Jungle

Modern Urban Jungle is a go-to store for plant lovers. The site has a fresh and engaging overall design with a welcoming color scheme and beautiful photography. From the layout to the product images, this ecommerce store’s design rounds off its brand promise of bringing the outside in with decor, homewares, and gifts.

15. Boba Love

Boba Love created a homepage that guides visitors right into the shopping experience. It uses lifestyle images and product photography to communicate its brand values. Boba Love gets the product grid right—it’s clean and clear in directing what it wants visitors to do: buy Boba tea-inspired products. 

Health and beauty

16. Satya Organic Skincare

You can tell branding was a priority in Satya Organic Skincare’s ecommerce website design. Once you land on the homepage, you’re met with earthy tones and signals that if you’re looking for plant-based goods, you’re in the right place. A cool addition is an opening video from the founder of Satya Organic Skincare talking about how the brand combats ocean plastics. It’s a great way to humanize your brand and welcome new visitors.

17. Beardbrand

Beardbrand takes a sophisticated, mature, and Old World approach to presenting its grooming products throughout its website design. Using a quiz and blog posts that are worth reading, the site encourages you to stick around, engage with the brand, and buy. 

18. Woodlot

Woodlot’s ecommerce site is minimal yet intriguing, which makes it easy to connect with the essence of the brand. The website design, from homepage to product pages to checkout, has a calming and beautiful visual appearance, which 93% of consumers say is a key factor in making a purchase decision. The number of products, alongside good product descriptions and affordable prices, makes you want to keep exploring and learning more about what Woodlot offers.

19. Kylie Cosmetics

As soon as you land on the Kylie Cosmetics homepage, you see a picture of Kylie Jenner, a beauty icon for young people. Her endorsement immediately gives the site a huge trust and credibility boost. Each product is also well displayed on a white background, plus, when you hover over an image, you can see a woman using it in action. 

20. Pilgrim 

Pilgrim does a great job of designing its ecommerce site with its target audience in mind. It uses clear copy that explains exactly what its product is, while highlighting social proof on the homepage via reviews and media mentions. It’s a clean and modern web design that exhibits the feel of the product and package that keeps you interested in buying. 

Food and grocery

21. Old World Kitchen

Old World Kitchen checks all the boxes for creating an excellent shopping experience:

  • Vintage styling and design that represents an established brand
  • Content and education that helps you appreciate the brand
  • Excellent product photography and presentation 

The website was clearly designed with its target audience in mind and is key to making it stand out in a sea of kitchen and dining goods competition. 

22. Partake Foods

If you love healthy and eco-conscious cookies, you’ll love the website design for cookie shop Partake. Right away, you see reassuring copy, including “gluten-free,” “vegan,” and “allergy friendly.” 

No one can escape the enticement of Super Delicious Cookies (Partakes’ headline), and this is enhanced through copious images of tasty-looking treats on its homepage. The deal is then sealed through a simple Shop Now CTA. 

The website footer also builds trust with customers through allergy-specific certificates. 

23. Tessemae’s

Condiment and dressing store Tessemae’s offers discounts to customers, giving them a compelling reason to shop from the get-go. In the process, Tessemae’s gets customer emails for its newsletter, enabling the company to nurture them further. Its site’s design is colorful and feels like a modern brand for the younger generation. 

Tessemae’s also uses fan photos (user-generated content to help build trust). It tells visitors that Tessemae’s products are well loved among existing customers. Plus, they provide inspiration as to the many ways the dressings and condiments can be used to create delicious meals, adding an extra incentive to buy. 

24. Death Wish Coffee

Death Wish Coffee has a really bold brand and its not afraid to express it in its storefront. It is known for selling the world’s strongest coffee, and everything from the website copy to the use of red throughout its website design makes you feel like you just drank a cup of it. Death Wish Coffee knows why most people land on its site: to buy its beans. Once you scroll down the homepage, the first thing you see is the option to buy ground, whole bean, or coffee cups. 

Sports and fitness website designs

25. Almond Surfboards

Almond Surfboards uses soft yet elegant tones throughout its online store to give you a stylish but beachy feel. The imagery is creative and unique, which makes it sell like a high-quality brand from the minute you land on the page. Even if you don’t need a surfboard, you can explore different t-shirts, accessories, wall art, and more. 

26. Pure Cycles

Pure Cycles uses a simple layout that makes it clear why you should care about the brand and showcases its bestselling bikes. Its product pages also work to give you the in-person shopping experience online. You can see close-up pictures of specific parts, learn specs, and read other information you need to make an informed buying decision.

27. Leatherhead

Leatherhead has a really cool product (and brand) of custom-made vintage leather balls. Its homepage is a good example of a carousel, showing a series of photos of someone making a football in the workshop. The layout is simple and matches the brand feel of refinement and luxury. Even if you’re not into sports, you’ll definitely want to browse and find a product for a friend or loved who is. 

Ecommerce website design tips

Whether you’re a startup or building your fifth ecommerce store, keep these website design tips in mind:

  • When in doubt, keep it simple. Simple is always key to making more sales in your ecommerce business. The more distractions you put on your website (think banner ads, pop-ups, too many colors), the more it takes away from making the sale. 
  • Express your brand. It doesn’t matter if you’re a photographer, beautician, or dropshippier. People want to buy from established brands they trust and identify with. Take the time to define your brand and figure out what makes you different from competitors. 
  • Use the best ecommerce platform for your online store. When using a platform like Shopify, you can set up a beautiful store with powerful ecommerce features and sell online quickly. You can choose from a range of templates or use Shopify’s online store builder, which offers the functionality to create your own. If you don’t want to use any drag-and-drop builders, you can always hire an ecommerce website designer who specializes in Shopify sites. If you have a WordPress site, you can add the Shopify Buy button to turn your website into an online shop in minutes.
  • Put yourself in a shopper’s shoes. How easy is it to navigate your website? How does it make someone feel when shopping? How easy is the checkout process? Think about what your customer needs to make a purchase in your store and design it accordingly.
  • Use high-quality images. Images can improve a website’s conversion rate by 40%. But they have to be high-quality. Invest in good product photos and use images from free stock photo websites to help increase the visual appeal throughout the shopping experience. 
  • Make it look professional. Want to build trust with shoppers and make sales? You’ll want to have a professional-looking website. Customers won’t give you their hard-earned money or sensitive information like credit card info if it’s anything less.If you’re looking to start an online store and money is tight, there are a wide variety of Shopify themes available to fit any industry and any budget. 
  • Use social proof. When designing your ecommerce site, look for places to show social proof like positive reviews and user-generated content. The more shoppers see the good experiences other people have had with your products, the more likely they’ll be to buy.
  • Make checkout easy. Even if you have a beautiful, innovative ecommerce website design, if checkout is a pain, customers may not buy from you. Make checkout simple, straightforward, and fast. Use payment gateways like Shop Pay, Amazon Pay, PayPal, Stripe, and other accelerated payment options to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to buy.
  • Make it easy for shoppers to reach customer support. When putting together your online shop, use a website chat plugin to connect with shoppers in real time. If someone has a question about shipping rates, deliveries, or general product information, they can reach out to you and get an answer in minutes. 

What’s the best ecommerce website builder for you? 

Whether you’re a musician selling mixtapes or a budding fashion designer, Shopify is an all-in-one ecommerce website builder to help you get online and sell your products. You can start by choosing over 100 ecommerce website templates in the Shopify Theme Store. Each is fully customizable, and you can use our site builder to shape your template by choosing a domain name, adding your logo, brand colors, fonts, and more. 

You can also support your online store with over 3,000 apps in the Shopify App Store to help with marketing, sales, customer service, and more.

With secure web hosting, a streamlined admin dashboard, and unlimited bandwidth, you can set up your ecommerce business quickly and easily. Plus, you have full control over your site’s appearance with the ability to edit your themes HTML and CSS. 

Build your ecommerce website today

When it comes to creating a successful ecommerce site, design is one of the most important things business owners and marketers need to consider. After all, your visitors can form an opinion about your site after just 50 milliseconds. First impressions, much like book covers, matter.

Illustration by Rachel Tunstall

Shopify Tutorial

How to Take High-Quality Product Photos With Your Smartphone

May 4, 2021 , by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.
Original link:https://www.shopify.com/blog/15163633-how-to-capture-high-quality-product-photos-with-your-smartphone

So you’ve decided to start an online store and you’ve got at least one product you’re excited to start selling. Your product might look great sitting in your bedroom or home office, but how can you make sure it really stands out in the era of Instagram filters? 

Don’t sweat it. You don’t have to become a professional photographer to take attention-grabbing photos of your products. In this article, you’ll learn, step-by-step, how to take beautiful product photography using only your phone, some natural light, and a good product photo app. 

Table of Contents

  • How to take professional photos with your smartphone
  • How to use natural lighting for product photography
  • How to shoot photography on a mobile phone
  • Best camera angles for product photography
  • How to edit your product photos
  • 5 best apps for product photography
  • Getting the most from your product photography
  • Product photography FAQ

How to take professional photos at home with your smartphone

Most ecommerce store owners know the basics of taking product photos with a smartphone: find a white background and some natural light, choose the highest quality setting and resolution possible on your phone—and click! You have a product photo. This is a great start. 

But there are a few extra tools and accessories that can greatly enhance your photos and demonstrate the value of your product to let shoppers envision it in their lives. 

If you want to become a professional photographer with your smartphone and take amazing product shots, here’s how to build your set up. 

1. Use a room with good lighting

First, find a room in your home with a well-lit window. The bigger the window, the more natural light you’ll have for bringing your product to life.

Image source: Pixc

Taking product photos closer to the window creates a softer light with darker shadows. Being farther away from the light source will give you lighter, shaper shadows. 

2. Choose your smartphone

Most smartphone cameras these days make great DSLR alternatives for product photography. The higher the megapixel count, the better your product photos will come out.

You can use any smartphone with a good camera, but aim to get your hands on a newer model with a 12 megapixel camera or more, such as:

  • Apple iPhone 8 or newer
  • Samsung Galaxy S8 or newer
  • Huawei P20 Pro or newer
  • Google Pixel 2 or newer

3. Get a mini tripod 

Mini tripods can range from inexpensive to pricey, but the good news is, no matter your budget, they’re a good investment with high payoff. A mini tripod will reduce camera shake and help standardize photo angles and style for your product line.

If you want a simple mini tripod, consider the Manfrotto PIXI mini tripod kit.

The Manfrotto PIXI is great for beginners. You can manage smartphones up to 3.3 inches wide, securely held in place by the tripod’s gripping clamp. And it can be placed right on your sweep to easily grab nice, high-quality photos of your products. The Manfrotto PIXI mini tripod kit is available on Amazon for a little over $20.

4. Set up your backdrop 

Place your white backdrop behind your product to give your photographs a clean and consistent look and to eliminate distractions. You could use a white paper sweep, or buy poster board from your local drug store or art shop for cheap. You’ll also need a table to place your backdrop on. 

You can use Scotch tape to hold your backdrop down or stick your product to the backdrop. Sticky tack is also a great workaround if you don’t have Scotch tape.

Always keep your backdrop white. A white backdrop reflects natural light onto the product and gives you an evenly lit photo. It also makes the editing process easier if you need to remove the background. A cream or off-white color will make editing and lighting difficult. Also, try to position your backdrop not only behind your product but underneath it as well. 

5. Use white bounce boards

Controlling the lighting is key when learning how to take product photos with an iPhone or Android. Bounce boards help minimize strong shadows and create a more balanced lighting environment to bring out the finest details of your product. You can buy a white bounce board made of foam on Amazon.

6. Set up a diffuser sheet if the sun is too bright

When the lighting is too harsh, these sheets will soften the light. You can find diffuser sheets on Amazon or DIY one at home with parchment paper, a frosted shower curtain, or printer paper.

Now that you’ve got your setup ready, let’s talk about how to use natural light when taking product photos with an iPhone or other smartphone. 

How to use natural lighting for product photography

Photography lighting can be your best friend or worst enemy when learning how to take product photos with an iPhone or Android. Get it right and you’ll have some amazing product images on your hands. Get it wrong and no image retouching will help save your photo.

There are three key tips that are crucial for getting the best images from your photoshoot. 

1. Shoot in a well-lit room. Natural light through a window is a great option versus a photo studio or artificial light. First, you probably have access to a window (and it’s free). Second, it comes from a single direction, which generates natural shows and adds texture to your products.

Consider the weather—is it sunny or cloudy? To get the look you’re going for, you may prefer a little overcast versus full sunlight. As you’ll see in the example below, it can make a big difference on the shadows and highlights on your photo.

2. Place your setup close to the window. Aim for 90 degrees to the right or left of your setup. Aim to start your photoshoot at the brightest time of day. If it turns out that the sun is too bright, you can always use a diffuser sheet to soften the light. 

Whatever you do, avoid hard light at all costs, as it can make colors look saturated and will highlight the tiniest flaws in your product—things people normally can’t see with the naked eye.

3. Control natural light with foam boards and reflectors. Sometimes the sun will suddenly disappear behind the clouds mid-shoot. If that happens, don’t worry, use your foam boards to bounce and intensify the light to fill shadows. 

If you’re using a reflector, you can manipulate the light reflecting onto your product by moving the reflector closer or further away. This will help reflect natural light from the sun back onto the product. 

Remember to test different angles with the reflector to find the right balance between shadows and lighting. 

Best camera angles for product photography

When it comes to taking product photos for your ecommerce website, there are some angles that work better than others. Offering different perspectives of your product to a shopper can also help answer any questions they have that your product descriptions don’t explain. 

Considering 93% of shoppers use visual appearance as a key deciding factor when buying something online, you want to give as many different viewpoints as possible to highlight key features of your product. An all-around view is more engaging and can help shoppers envision themselves wearing or using your product, which can lead to more sales in your store. 

It’s also important to include close-up shots of your products as well. Close-ups let you capture features that showcase the quality of your product, including print detail, fabric, texture, or product usage, and highlight specific elements of your product that shoppers would want to inspect in a retail store. 

Whether you’re shooting clothing photography or footwear, there are the five camera angles you should test in your photo shoot:

  • Eye level. This view shows the product as you’d see it looking straight on. 
  • High angle.This view shows the product as if you’re looking down at it from an angle.
  • Low angle. This view shows the product as if you’re looking up at it from the floor.
  • Bird’s eye. This view shows the product as if you’re standing over it.
  • Slanted. This view shows the product from one side.

If you’re new to product photography, it’s recommended you keep your smartphone and tripod in the same spot during the shoot and rotate your product to change the angle you want for your image. When you rotate the product versus the camera, your final shots will all be framed the same, plus, you’ll ensure consistency and reduce image editing after the shoot. 

How to shoot photography with a mobile phone

Now that you have all your gear set up and understand the different camera angles and lighting, it’s time to shoot some photos. 

Before you start, use the following checklist to make sure your Android or iPhone camera is ready to shoot. 

  • Prepare your phone. Make sure your phone is charged and you have backup storage for your images.
  • Set up your white balance. To set the white balance according to the light temperature in your setup, touch the WB button, then touch the white background.
  • Check your exposure. Tap the circular Exposure button, then touch your product so that the camera knows to expose it.
  • Keep everything in focus. Touch the circular Focus button, then touch your product so that the camera knows to properly focus on the product.
  • Make sure you lock your camera settings. After you’re done adjusting these settings, tap each one again to lock the settings in place. This will stop the camera from automatically adjusting the settings while you are taking shots.

Once you lock your settings, you’re ready to start shooting!

After your first shot, take a look at your image and see if you think it needs to be brightened or darkened in order to achieve a proper exposure. If you think the exposure needs tweaking, touch the +/- button below the circular Focus button and pull the slider up or down to change the exposure. 

Remember to avoid the following three things in order to get the best product shots:

  • Zoom feature, as this will reduce image quality
  • Selfie camera, which isn’t as good as the back camera
  • Flash, as this will overexpose the photo and mess up the colors 

After you have your shots, it’s time to get to photo editing on your phone!

How to edit product photos on a white background on a smartphone

The idea of editing photos may sound intimidating, but it’s actually really easy with your smartphone.

  • Choose a product photography app. Go to the App Store on your phone and download an editing app for product photos. Some smartphone photographers prefer mobile apps like Lightroom or Snapseed, others prefer photo editing software for their desktops. 
  • Open up your editing app. Choose the image you want to prepare for your online store. Most images need a little tweaking to truly make them shine. 
  • Use the app to make a few basic edits. These include brightness, contrast, sharpness, highlights/shadows, and white balance. Don’t be tempted by filters, borders, tints, and oversaturation. Your goal is to make your product look amazing and make it stand out. Try to make it look as close to what the product looks like in real life. 
  • Save presets. After you edit your first photo, save the settings as a preset so you can apply the same adjustments to other photos from your shoot. While presets help you save time, make sure to check each image after applying the present to see if there are any additional tweaks for you to make. 
  • Apply a white layer background. Remove any blemishes or creases from your background by replacing your background with a white layer. Since you took photos on a white background, it’ll be easy to isolate the product and add a layer. 

Once your product image is looking clean, crisp, and beautiful, add it to your Shopify store and put your hard work to use!

5 best apps for product photography

Choosing the right editing apps is an important part of mastering product photography with a smartphone. Many come with an in-app editor, but there are plenty of third-party apps that give you everything you need to make your product stand out. 

Some of the top-rated product photo app options are: 

1. Lightroom

Available for: iOS and Android

Price: Free

Some would say Adobe Lightroom is the best app for product photography on the market. It features easy-to-use tools like sliders and presets to create photos that look exactly how you want them. Lightroom is also a good option if you plan to edit photos on your computer. You can start on mobile, web, or desktop, and when you make edits, they will be automatically applied across devices.

If you want to get the most out of Lightroom, you can sign up for the Adobe Creative Cloud Photography plan, which includes the photo editing app for desktop, mobile, and web, plus the latest version of Photoshop for $9.99 per month. 

2. Adobe Photoshop Express

Available for: iOS, Android, and Windows 

Price: Free

You’ve probably heard of Adobe Photoshop and what it can do. With Photoshop Express, you get all of its great photo editing features right on your smartphone. You can take product photos from your phone or take them inside the app. Then easily adjust the hue, brightness, exposure, and contrast to create amazing photos for your store. 

3. Snapseed

Available for: iOS and Android

Price: Free

Snapseed is a free photography editing software owned by Google. The app brings the power of a professional computer editor to your phone, with many features to edit images in ways you’ll usually only find in expensive software. Beginner photographers also have more utility with Snapseed using Stacks, which lets you revert your edits to an earlier version and makes it easy to save settings and apply them. 

4. VSCO

Available for: iOS and Android

Price: Free

VSCO has all the basic editing tools such as exposure, contract, color balance, and more, letting you create incredible photos on the go. It’s a great product photo app to enhance images rather than overdo them and doubles as an effective Instagram tool with its huge library of filters and endless options to customize your photos. 

If you want to share your product photos on social media, you can use VSCO Grid. VSCO Grid is a publishing platform integrated into the app that lets you share your images on social media and email.

5. Camera+

Available for: iOS

Price: $2.99

Camera+ is a great option for both experienced and beginner smartphone photographers. You can use Camera+ not only as an editor but also as a camera for your product shoots. The product photography app lets you set exposure and focus and includes a stabilizer, timer, and more so it feels like you’re shooting with a high-quality DSLR camera lens. 

If you’re someone who prefers to edit photos on your computer, you can use Camera+ to capture product photos in RAW. This makes sure no information or data gets compressed and you can produce higher quality product images. 

Getting the most from your product photography

Learning how to take photos on an iPhone or Android seems hard at first, but after a few times behind the camera, you’ll become a pro for sure. With all of the above info, you’re well on your way to mastering product photography and selling more photos in your store.

Product photography FAQ

How can I take professional pictures at home with my iPhone?

  • Choose an iPhone 8 or newer.
  • Test third-party camera apps.
  • Use a white background for your setup.
  • Place your setup near a window with natural light. 
  • Hold down the viewfinder to lock focus.
  • Avoid zooming in on photos. 
  • Try different camera angles.
  • Use a photo editing app.

How do I take quality product photos?

  • Use a smartphone camera with 12 megapixels or more.
  • Shoot from a tripod to reduce camera shake.
  • Use natural light from a window.
  • Bounce light using a foam board to soften shadows.
  • Use a sweep or close-up shots to highlight product features. 
  • Shoot a variety of angles and images. 
Shopify Tutorial

10 Must Know Image Optimization Tips

May 4, 2021 , by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.
Original link:https://www.shopify.com/blog/7412852-10-must-know-image-optimization-tips

If you run an online store, image optimization is an art that you want to master. From attracting shoppers perusing Google images to reducing site load time, image optimization is an important part of building a successful ecommerce website, since your product photography is a cornerstone of your online store.

What is image optimization?


Image optimization is about reducing the file size of your images as much as possible without sacrificing quality so that your page load times remain low. It’s also about image SEO. That is, getting your product images and decorative images to rank on Google and other image search engines.

Have the following questions ever left you scratching your head?

  • Why is it that when I do a Google image search, my product photos never show up?
  • Do I need to add alt attributes to my images?
  • What’s the difference between JPEG, GIF and PNG? When should I use one over another?

Today you’ll finally have answers because we’re diving deep into these questions and more.

Here’s how to optimize images for the web:

  • Name your images descriptively and in plain language.
  • Optimize your alt attributes carefully.
  • Choose your image dimensions and product angles wisely.
  • Reduce the file size of your images.
  • Choose the right file type.
  • Optimize your thumbnails.
  • Use image sitemaps.
  • Beware of decorative images.
  • Use caution when using content delivery networks (CDNs).
  • Test your images.

1. Name your images descriptively and in plain language

It’s really easy to blow through hundreds of product shots and keep the default file names your camera assigns.

When it comes to image SEO, it’s important to use relevant keywords to help your webpage rank on search engines. Creating descriptive, keyword-rich file names is crucial for image optimization. Search engines not only crawl the text on your webpage, they also crawl your image file names.

Take this image, for example.

You could use the generic name your camera assigned to the image (e.g. DCMIMAGE10.jpg). However, it would be much better to name the file 2012-Ford-Mustang-LX-Red.jpg.

Think about how your customers search for products on your website. What naming patterns do they use when they search? In the example above, car shoppers may search terms like:

  • 2012 Red Ford Mustang LX
  • Ford Mustang LX Red 2012
  • Red Ford Mustang LX 2012

Look at your website analytics to see what keyword patterns your customers follow. Determine the most common naming patterns they use and apply that formula to your image file naming process.

If you’re not going to get that data-driven, just be sure to use relevant, helpful keywords when naming your images (i.e. try to be descriptive).

2. Optimize your alt attributes carefully

Alt attributes are the text alternative to images when a browser can’t properly render them. They’re also used for web accessibility. Even when the image is rendered, if you hover over it, you will see the alt attribute text (depending on your browser settings).

The alt attribute also adds SEO value to your website. Adding appropriate alt attributes that include relevant keywords to the images on your website can help you rank better in the search engines. As a matter of fact, using alt attributes is probably the best way for your ecommerce products to show up in Google image and web search.

Let’s take a look at the source code of an alt attribute.

The number one priority when it comes to image optimization is to fill out each alt attribute for each product image on your site.

Here are some simple rules for alt attributes:

  • Describe your images in plain language, just like you did for your image file names.
  • If you sell products that have model numbers or serial numbers, use them in your alt attributes.
  • Don’t stuff your alt attributes full of keywords (e.g. alt=”ford mustang muscle car buy now cheap best price on sale”).
  • Don’t use alt attributes for decorative images. Search engines may penalize you for over optimization.

Finally, always do a sanity check from time to time. View the source of your webpages and check to see if your alt attributes are filled out properly. You’ll be surprised by what you miss when you’re moving at the speed of entrepreneurship.

3. Choose your image dimensions and product angles wisely

It’s common practice to show multiple angles of your product. Going back to the Ford Mustang example, you wouldn’t want to show just one shot of the car, especially if you’re trying to sell it. It would be in your best interest to show shots of:

  • The interior.
  • The rear, especially that air spoiler.
  • The rims.
  • The engine… it is a Mustang after all.

The best way to capitalize on these extra photos is to fill out your alt attributes. And the way you would do that is by creating unique alt attributes for each product shot.

  • 2012-Ford-Mustang-LX-Red-Leather-Interior-Trim.jpg -> using the alt attribute of: alt=”2012 Ford Mustang LX Red Leather Interior Trim”
  • 2012-Ford-Mustang-LX-Red-Rear-View-Air-Spoiler.jpg -> using the alt attribute of: alt=”2012 Ford Mustang LX Red Rear View Air Spoiler”

The key here is to add descriptions to your base alt attribute so that potential searchers land on your website. If you do the extra work, Google will reward you with searchers.

A word of caution on providing larger images

Now you might want to provide larger views for your visitors, which can make for a great user experience, but be careful.

Whatever you do, don’t place the largest image on your webpage and simply shrink the dimensions via the source code. This will increase your page load time because of the larger file size associated with the image.

Instead, make it a smaller image and provide the option to view a larger image in a pop-up or on a separate webpage. Tip: Learn how to make product images zoomable in your theme using jQuery image zoom.

4. Reduce the file size of your images

Consider this:

  • Nearly 50% of consumers won’t even wait 3 seconds for an ecommerce site to load.
  • …and, globally, the average page load time is actually increasing.
  • Amazon found that if their pages were to slow down by just one second, they would lose $1.6 billion a year.
  • Google uses page load time as a ranking factor in their algorithm.

So, if you have images that slowly “drool” down the screen and take over 15 seconds to load? Well, you can kiss that prospective customer goodbye!

So, what can you do?

When a customer arrives on your site, it can take a while to load everything, depending on how large your files are. The larger the file sizes, the longer it takes a webpage to load. (Note: If you’re a Shopify merchant, we automatically compress images, so this shouldn’t be an issue for you.)

If you can decrease the size of the image files on your webpage and increase page load speed, less people who visit your site will click away.

One way you can reduce image file size is by using the “Save for Web” command in Adobe Photoshop. When using this command, you want to adjust the image to the lowest file size possible while keeping an eye out for image quality.

  • Quality: Find this in the top, right-hand corner (i.e. 70).
  • File format: Find this in the top, right-hand corner (i.e. JPEG).
  • Optimization: Find this checkbox in the top, right-hand corner (i.e. Optimized).
  • Color: Find this checkbox in the top, right-hand corner (i.e. Convert to sRBG).
  • Downsizing and sharpening: Find this in the bottom, right-hand corner (i.e. W: and H:).
  • Expected file size: Find this in the bottom, left-hand corner (i.e. 136.7K).

You can also opt to use “Export As”.

How to optimize images without Photoshop

If you don’t have Adobe Photoshop, there are numerous online tools you can use for image editing. Adobe even has a free image editing application for smartphones and tablets, Photoshop Express. This tool doesn’t have all of the capabilities of the desktop version of Adobe Photoshop, but it covers all the basics of image editing and doesn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Other impressive online image editing tools are:

  • PicMonkey has been described by experts as a “staggeringly great photo editing tool”.
  • PIXLR is super user-friendly and comes with a 100% free app for your smartphone, so you can edit on the go.
  • Canva is another fairly advanced online image editor.

Finally, there is always GIMP. GIMP is an open-source, free image editing software application that can be run on Windows, Mac or Linux. It can do everything Photoshop can do, but tends to be a bit clunkier. But for a free image editing application, you can’t beat it.

How large should image files be?

For ecommerce images, a good rule of thumb is to try to keep your image file size below 70 kb. That can be difficult at times, especially for larger images.

5. Choose the right file type

There are three common file types that are used to post images to the web: JPEG, GIF, and PNG.

Let’s look at the three file types and how they affect the same image:

JPEG (or .jpg) images are somewhat of an old file type. JPEG has become the de facto standard image of the Internet. JPEG images can be compressed considerably, which results in quality images with small file sizes. In the image above, the JPEG format allows decent quality at a low file size.

GIF (.gif) images are lower quality than JPEG images and are used for more simplistic images, such as icons and decorative images. GIFs also support animation, as I’m sure you know.

Regarding image optimization, GIFs are great for those plain, simple images on a webpage (which include just a few colors). But for complex images and photos, GIFs are not always as attractive. This is especially true for large images.

We can get away with using GIF in the MacBook image above because the photo is small enough that a GIF works well.

PNG images are becoming more popular as an alternative to GIFs. PNGs support many more colors than GIFs and they don’t degrade over time with re-saves, like JPEGs do. Even though the PNG file type is starting to be used more often, the file sizes can still be much larger than JPEG images.

Notice how the PNG-24 image is over three times larger in file size than the PNG-8. This is why you need to be very careful with PNGs.

Here’s an extreme example, where the image file size has been held constant at 24 kb for all three file types:

As you can see, JPEG is the clear winner here. GIFs and PNGs must degrade in quality in order to remain at the same low file size.

Here are some tips to remember when choosing file types:

  • In most cases in ecommerce, JPEGs will be your best bet. They provide the best quality for the smallest file size.
  • Never use GIFs for large product images. The file size will be very large and there is no good way to reduce it. Use GIFs for thumbnails and decorative images only.
  • PNGs can be a good alternative to both JPEGs and GIFS. If you are only able to get product photos in PNG format, try using PNG-8 over PNG-24. PNGs excel as simple decorative images because of their extremely small file size.

Most image editing software can save images to any of the file formats discussed above.

6. Optimize your thumbnails

Many ecommerce sites will use thumbnail images, especially on category pages. They quickly showcase products without taking up too much real estate.

Thumbnails are great, but be careful; they can be a silent killer. The victim? Your page load speeds. Thumbnails are usually presented at critical points during the shopping process. If they are preventing your category pages from loading quickly, you could lose a potential customer. (Note: Shopify merchants don’t have to worry about thumbnail optimization as we take care of that for you.)

So, what can you do?

  • Make your thumbnail file sizes as small as possible. It may be worth letting quality slide in favor of a lower file size here. Remember, the cumulative impact of your thumbnails will have a huge impact on your page load time.
  • Vary your alt attribute text as to not duplicate text that you would use for the bigger versions of the same image. As a matter of fact, make your alt text wildly different. The last thing you want is the thumbnail being indexed instead of the larger image. A case could be made to leave out the alt text entirely.

7. Use image sitemaps

If your site uses Javascript galleries, image pop-ups or other “flashy” ways to improve the overall shopping experience, image sitemaps will help get your images noticed by Google.

Web crawlers can’t crawl images that are not called out specifically in the webpage source code. So, in order to let crawlers know about unidentified images, you must list their location in an image sitemap.

You can insert the following line in your robots.txt file, showing the path to your sitemap:

Sitemap: http://example.com/sitemap_location.xml

Or you can submit the sitemap to Google using the Search Console.

Google has many guidelines for image publishing, which may help your website rank higher on SERPs. In addition, you can use Google sitemaps to give Google more information about the images on your website, which can help Google find more of your images than it would on its own.

Using sitemaps doesn’t guarantee that your images will get indexed by Google, but it’s certainly a positive step towards image SEO. Google Webmaster Tools has many suggestions for correctly formatting your sitemap.

It is important for you to add specific tags for all of your images. You can also create a separate sitemap to list images exclusively. What’s important is to add all the necessary information, while using specific tags, to any sitemaps you have or will create. Follow these guidelines that Google suggests when creating a sitemap with image information.

8. Beware of decorative images

Websites often have an assortment of decorative images, such as background images, buttons and borders. Anything non-product related can likely be considered a decorative image.

Although decorative images can add a lot of aesthetic appeal to a webpage, they can result in a large combined file size and slow load times. Therefore, you might want to consider taking a closer look at your decorative images so they won’t impair your website’s ability to convert visitors into customers.

You want to check the file sizes of all the decorative images on your site and use a template that minimizes file sizes.

Here are some tips for reducing the file sizes of your decorative images:

  • For images that make up borders or simple patterns, make them PNG-8 or GIFs. You can create good looking images that are only a few hundred bytes in size.
  • If possible, use CSS to create colored areas instead of using images. Use CSS styling as much as possible to replace any decorative images.
  • Take a close look at that large wallpaper-style background image. Those can be huge files. Shrink them down as much as possible without ruining the image quality.

One trick you can use to eat away at your background image size is to cut out the middle of the background image, and make it a flat color or even transparent. This can decrease the file size substantially.

9. Use caution when using content delivery networks (CDNs)

Shopify merchants don’t really have to worry about this since we’re a hosted solution, but others should pay close attention. Content delivery networks (CDNs) are a go-to place to host images and other media files. They can increase your page load speeds and help solve bandwidth issues.

The one drawback is when it comes to backlinks. As you may know, backlinks are critical for SEO and the more backlinks you have, the better your site does in the search engines.

By placing your images on a CDN, you are most likely removing the image from your domain and placing it on the domain of the CDN. So when someone links to your image, they are actually linking to the CDN domain.

Therefore, the best practices are:

  • Just because something is “trendy” doesn’t mean you should follow it like a sheep. Determine if it is really the best move for your business first.
  • If your website is doing tons of business every month, then a CDN is most likely a good idea since it can help solve bandwidth issues.
  • If your site only gets thousands of visitors a day right now, chances are your current hosting situation can handle the load.

There are ways around the image SEO issues associated with CDNs, but be sure to have a professional help you strategize your move first.

10. Test your images

The entire point of optimizing your images is to help increase your bottom-line. We’ve talked about reducing file sizes and getting the search engines to index your images, but what about testing images to see what converts to more customers?

  • Test the number of product images per page: Since load times are an issue for some non-hosted ecommerce sites, you may find that reducing the number of images on a page will increase click through rates and sales. It’s also possible that providing a lot of images per page will improve the user experience and lead to more sales. The only way to find this out is to test it.
  • Test what angles your customers prefer: You may see an increase in customer loyalty by providing the views your customers want to see. A great way to figure this out is to survey your customers about what they liked the most when viewing your product shots. Surveying and talking to your customers is a great habit to get into, in general. Still, verify by testing.
  • Test how many product listings you should have on category pages: 10, 20, 100 products? Test the number of products you list on category pages to see what works best for your customers.

Keeping beautiful photos functional

Now questions about your ecommerce images won’t leave you tossing and turning for hours.

You know some image SEO strategies to get your product photos into Google image search results. You know how to fully leverage alt attributes. You know the difference between file types and when to choose each option.

Still, image optimization is complex and we’ve just scratched the surface, so feel free to leave any questions you might have in the comments below.

Shopify Tutorial

The Top 16 Paid and Free Photo Editors Online in 2021

May 4, 2021 , by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.
Original link:https://www.shopify.com/blog/14263381-18-free-and-paid-online-photo-editor-tools-for-gorgeous-diy-product-photography

The best ecommerce sites all have one thing in common: amazing product photography. It’s one of the main factors that drive conversions. Customers can’t touch or experience your products physically, so it’s up to you to make them come to life online.

While getting the right shot is important, it’s what you do with it afterward that really takes it home. No matter how well you shoot your photos, there are always ways to improve them with photo editing.

That’s why we’ve put together this list of the best paid and free photo editors online as well as other resources for creating beautiful DIY product photos that shine online.

11 best free photo editors online

  • Taler
  • GIMP
  • Fotor
  • Inkscape
  • Pixlr
  • Photoshop Express
  • Photo POS Pro
  • BeFunky
  • Canva
  • Instasize
  • Scratch Photos

Note: Paid options usually offer the best photo editing software and tools available, since paid products often respond to feature requests and ship updates more consistently. However, if you’re on a budget or you just need a quick solution for simple editing, a free alternative should work for you.

1. Taler

Best free online photo editor with free graphic design templates

Taler is a scrappy new social design and photo editing tool that’s free forever and perfect for launching a new business, brand, or store. With Taler you can customize templates for Instagram Stories, t-shirt mock ups, and social banners for Facebook and YouTube. 

New templates are being added every week, with more design sizes for all social platforms coming soon. Think of Taler as a sandbox for creating your digital branding with some great starter styles to help entrepreneurs grow their Shopify stores faster.

Features include: 

  • Hundreds of customizable design templates tailored to size requirements for Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and more.
  • Drag-and-drop editor for easily customizing visual content to match your Shopify theme.
  • Powerful suite of filters, overlays, and photo editing tools for carefully refining and adjusting your header template design.
  • Text tools to move, resize, and color text to amplify your message.
  • Over 17,000 high-resolution, royalty-free images to use in your design.
  • Free stickers, shapes, emojis, and graphics.

Available for: iOS and Android

Price: Free

2. GIMP

Best open source online photo editor for pixel art and animation

GIMP is a free photo editor online that’s considered the best free Adobe Photoshop alternative. It comes packed with professional tools for image retouching and editing, free-form drawing, and converting different image formats.

Whether you’re a hobby photographer or learning how to take photos with a smartphone, GIMP gives you sophisticated tools for making your images standout. GIMP also has a full customizable interface and, since it’s open source, you can add your own filters and features. 

Features include:

  • Fully customizable interface for making changes to the photo editor that meet your needs. 
  • Powerful photo enhancement tools for fixing distort and imperfections. 
  • Digital retouching for getting rid of minor details quickly and easily. 
  • Hardware support for various devices to create custom tools and speed up workflow.
  • File format support for JPEG (JFIF), GIF, PNG, TIFF and other special use formats, including the multi-resolution and multi-color-depth Windows icon files.

Available for: GNU/Linux, OS X, Windows

Price: Free

3. Fotor

Best free photo editor online for beginners

Free photo editor Fotor is a browser-based option with an interface that makes it easy for creatives, photographers, and marketers to edit photos. Unlike other web-based programs, Fotor is fast and won’t slow up your computer while using it. 

Fotor makes advanced photo editing techniques achievable for less-technical people. You can easily apply filters, add effect, and edit images on the go. It’s intuitive and simple application helps you do more with your photos even without a background in photo editing and graphic design. Fotor is one of the best free photo editors out there, though for a small monthly fee you can upgrade to Pro for added features. 

Features include:

  • One click batch processing for Scenes, Effects, and Borders.
  • State-of-the-art photo processing engine for adjusting exposure, brightness, contrast, white balance, and saturation, removing red eye, and more. 
  • Flexible text editing tool for adding text to any photo.
  • Collage tool with over 80 templates and up to nine photos per collage.
  • Batch resizing, renaming, and file format conversion.
  • 100+ exclusive photo effects, 30+ photo frames, and 300+ custom stickers. 

Available for: Web, iOS, Windows

Price: Free, ($4.99 per month for Pro) 

4. Inkscape

Best free photo editor online for creating vector graphics

One of Inkscape’s strengths as a stand-out free photo editor is its ability to create and manipulate objects. It’s considered an excellent free alternative to Adobe Illustrator, with an ease-to-use and clear interface. 

The software uses the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) file format, so you can create graphics and use them in other marketing assets, like banners or social media posts, without distorting them. Like GIMP, above, Inkscape is open source, which means you can customize the photo editing software to fit the needs of your business. 

Features include: 

  • User-friendly tool for creating vector graphics.
  • Suite of pencil, pen, calligraphy, and shaping and cloning tools for creating your own images. 
  • Compliant SVG format file generation and editing.
  • Easy-to-use object manipulation tools for moving, skewing, cropping, and rotating images.
  • Simple node editing for efficiently modifying images. 

Available for: Linux, Windows and macOS

Price: Free 

5. Pixlr

Best free photo editor online for Mac

If you want a lightweight editor you can use on your phone or laptop, Pixlr is a great free photo editor for you. With its robust suite of photo editing tools, you can make quick changes to your photos without any hassle—whether you’re at home or on the go.

Pixlr is built using Flash, so it requires a plug-in to use. Many experts in photo editing say the Pixlr editor has many of the same features as Adobe Photoshop, but the browser-based software is a lot simpler than Adobe. 

Features include:

  • Free-to-use web-based editing tools available for commercial use. 
  • Lightweight application that runs on any browser or operating system across a family of apps.
  • Tons of one-click features and robust toolset for quick and convenient fixes to colors and saturation, sharpening and blurring images, and combining multiple images.
  • Tutorials to guide you through more complex features.
  • Available as native app on Mac and Android.
  • Free vector graphics editor and selection of free stock photos for your creatives. 

Available for: Web, iOS, and Android

Price: Free

6. Photoshop Express

Best Adobe photo editor for mobile

Adobe, a company well known for elite image and video editing tools, also offers a free photo editor called Photoshop Express for your smartphone. Photoshop Express is easy to use, boasts impressive on-the-go editing features to crop, fix red eye, and even share your finished work on social media, and more. You can also sync the tool with other Adobe products if you are already using them. 

Features include:

  • Quick-fix tools that heal blemishes, adjust perspective, and more.
  • Hundreds of themes, effects, text styles, and stickers you can apply in one click to express your brand’s creativity. 
  • Edit, retouch, and create collages or combine photos in a tap.
  • In-app tutorials and playbacks that show you how to create and apply edits to your photos.
  • Ability to post favorite photos to social media sites or share them in email or messaging apps. 

Available for: iOS, Android, and Windows

Price: Free

7. Photo Pos Pro

Best free photo editing software for Windows

The beauty of Photo Pos Pro is that you can choose your interface right off the bat, including a simple, beginner-friendly one with core tools and editing features. There’s also a more professional interface equipped with advanced functions like layers and layer masks and tools for adjusting curves and levels manually. 

Photo Pos is a great option for store owners and marketers who want a simple photo editor to remove background and unwanted objects, apply color correction, and create borders and overlays. Because of its user-friendly interface, you can perform various image enhancement tasks from basic edits to more advanced photo effects, creating new works from scratch, and more.

Features include:

  • Support for all file formats, including RAW, GIF and PSD.
  • Customizable interface for editors for different levels of experience.
  • Pixel image-editing tools, including drawing, selecting the necessary area, adjusting the size, filling, eraser, and more. 
  • One-click browser tools to adjust size, resolution, reflection, rotation, and more.
  • Semi-automatic color correction and various filtering and effects options.

Available for: Windows

Price: Free (Pro Upgrade starting at $29.99)

8. BeFunky

Best free online photo editor with special effects for bloggers and influencers

BeFunky is a free photo editor that’s ideal for making basic photo enhancements and color correction quickly. If you have a specific area that needs retouching, the tool has a variety of options for taking your image to the next level. It’s simple, easy to use, and performs well in your web browser.

BeFunky also has another cool feature, called Graphic Designer, which allows you to create brochures, posters, social media posts, and even your own templates, right in the app. While it may lack certain professional features, such as editing layers, you won’t find a more efficient option for getting high-quality, creative images in little time.

Features include:

  • Resize tool to quickly resize images for printable and digital assets.
  • Background remover for easily creating solid and transparent backgrounds.
  • Cartoonizer for going from photo to cartoon in one click.
  • Suite of enhancer tools that use smart technology to sharpen photos, make colors vibrant, and more. 
  • Batch processing tool for editing hundreds of photos at once, saving you time in your photo editing process.

Available for: iOS, Windows, Linux, NativeApp

Price: Free ($1.99 for app)

9. Canva

Best online photo editor for collages and professional level editing

Canvais a free photo editor that runs in your browser and is perfect for turning your images into other business assets like social media posts, brochures, presentations, and more. This online design tool offers a ton of powerful editing features, including a drag-and-drop design tool and millions of stock photos, vectors, and illustrations. 

With Canva, you can easily edit photos using preset filters or get advanced tools like tints, vignette effects, sharpening, brightness adjusting, saturation and contrast, and more. If you want to build a consistent presence around your entire business—from product photos to marketing assets—Canva’s got you covered. 

Features include:

  • Image library with a wide variety of textured backgrounds for enhancing photo filters and transparency in your image.
  • Image cropper for trimming and transforming shots on web or mobile devices.
  • Ability to drag-and-drop speech bubbles and text into your designs to amplify your message.
  • Tons of trendy filters for giving photos your favorite signature looks. 
  • Photo-grid design collage maker to create everything from complex arrangements to mood boards. 

Available for: Web, iOS, Android

Price: Free (Pro starts at $9.95 per month)

10. Instasize

Best online photo editor for Instagram influencers and mobile editing

Instasize is one of the most popular Instagram tools and mobile photo editors for creatives. Its clean and easy-to-navigate interface helps you make photos look better instantly, with photo filters and editing tools including contrast, exposure, saturation, and clarity. You can also resize photos to fit any social media channel, like TikTok or Snapchat, with the photo crop tool. 

Even if you’re not much of a photo editor, Instasize makes it easy for any skills level to add a creative touch to their photos. With over 130 professional filters to choose from, including beauty tools, captivating borders, a collage creator and text editor, you’ll be well on your way to creating a unique look that’s just right for your brand.

Features include:

  • Full editing toolkit for social creatives to make visually engaging photos and videos. 
  • Free video editor with crop and export option for Instagram Stories, TikTok, and Snapchat. 
  • 100+ unique photo borders, from original white to trending designs patterns.
  • 20+ unique for adding a message on your photos and videos.
  • Free photo collage maker with hundreds of layouts and backgrounds. 

Available for: iPhone and Android 

Price: Free (Premium starts at $4.99 per month) 

11. Scratch Photos

Best free photo editor online to remove background

Scratch Photos gives social sellers a tool to remove the background of product photos quickly and easily. It’s powered by advanced AI technology that scans and removes backgrounds from even the toughest photos. After removing the existing background, you can use Scratch Photo to insert a different color or texture or source a background from Burst. 

Scratch Photos is also a great tool if you run Amazon and Google Shopping ads. At the moment, product images need white backgrounds, which Scratch Photos can make in seconds.

Features include:

  • AI-powered background remover that automatically takes out any background.
  • Auto-adjust feature for improving darkly lit images and photo quality.
  • Ability to cut and erase background and replace with plain pastel or custom background.
  • Undo and redo edits for best results. 
  • Direct sharing to social media.
  • Download images as PNG files.

Available for: iOS and Android

Price: Free

5 best online photo editors to buy 

If you’re feeling confident in your photo editing skills and want to take your photos to the next level, explore these five photo editor apps.

  • Photoshop Elements
  • Photoshop Lightroom
  • ON1 Photo RAW 2020
  • KeyShot
  • PicMonkey

1. Photoshop Elements

Best photo editor online for hobbyists

Photoshop Elements, at its core, is the Adobe Photoshop suite for non-professional photographers. Compared to Photoshop’s subscription pricing, you can buy Photoshop Elements outright for $99.99 or buy it with Adobe’s video editing software, Premiere Elements, for $149.99. The 2020 update for Elements includes auto-colorization, one-click subject selection, automatic skin smoothing, and object removal. 

What’s also cool about Photoshop Elements is the step-by-step instructions to help you make beautiful images for your brand. It has a tutorial for anything you can think of— creating memes, multi-photo text, sketches, watercolors, shape overlays, background replacements, double exposures, and more. 

Features include:

  • Intuitive home screen for learning new things to try, feature highlights, inspiration, and help.
  • AI technology powers automated options that make it easy to get started and add your personal touch.
  • Step-by-step guides for making stunning effects and creations with 55 guided edits.
  • Create collages for social media or order photo prints and gifts right from the software.
  • Organizer application lets you import, group, tag, and output your photos, as well as offers powerful search, auto curation, and sharing tools.

Available for: MacOS, Windows

Price: $99.99 one time fee

2. Photoshop Lightroom

Best photo editor online for professional photographers

While Elements leads the way for editing photos one by one, Adobe Lightroom focuses on pristine batch editing. It’s the complete package for professional editing workflows with top-tier organization tools, advanced adjustments, and all the printing and output options you could dream of. 

As of February 2020, Lightroom added new options for raw import profiles, support for big PSB files from Photoshop, and a faster graphic processing unit (GPU). It’s perfect for everyone from ecommerce store owners who want to develop their editing skills to photographers who want to sell photos online. 

Features include:

  • Advanced photo management and organization tools.
  • Lens-based and camera corrections.
  • Brush and gradient adjustments with color and luminance masking.
  • Face detection and tagging functionality.
  • Connects with mobile app and family of Adobe products.

Available for: Windows and macOS

Price: Starts at $9.99/m

3. ON1 Photo RAW 2020

Best photo editing software and Lightroom alternative

ON1 Photo RAW is a photo editor that brings photo organization, editing, and effects together in one program. It’s commonly referred to as the Lightroom alternative because it has the same robust feature set, only you can buy the software outright rather than pay Lightroom’s subscription fee. 

ON1 Photo RAW includes the company’s popular independent products HDR, Effects, and Resize, along with Layers, Pano, Focus Stacking and other editing features. You also get access to hundreds of presets, filters, textures, borders, and more to add some creativity to your photos—all in a few clicks.

Features include:

  • Fast photo browsing and catalogs for finding portfolios, favorite photos, or libraries.
  • Easy importing from your smartphone, camera, or other device.
  • AI Auto Tone to get equal tone and color on all types of photos.
  • Filter effects including color balance, weather, channel mixer, and sun flare filters.
  • Portrait tools to auto-detect faces and retouch to smoothen skin, sharpen eyes, whiten teeth, and more.
  • Mask layers with a wide range of masking tools, including the edge-detecting Perfect Brush.

Available for: MacOS and Windows

Price: $49.99

4. KeyShot

Best 3D photo editor app 

KeyShot is a 3D rendering and animation software that helps with features such as still images, real-time ray tracing, color libraries, material templates, and toon shading. Its powerful interface with advanced capabilities allows you to apply materials and real-world lighting to images quickly and see changes happen in real time.

KeyShot uses a render engine to replicate materials from the real world, resulting in extremely photo-realistic images. You can render using your CPU or GPU and can switch between modes with one click. 

It’s the most expensive photo editing software on this list, but you can play around with KeyShot using a fully functional license for free. 

Features include:

  • Simple, workflow-based interface with all the advanced capabilities for your visualization needs.
  • Realistic, 3D-rendered photos you can create with scientifically accurate presets or your own 3D materials. 
  • Advanced lighting capabilities to replicate studio shots or more complex interior lighting.
  • Highest quality visuals possible for still images and interactive web and mobile content.

Available for: iOS, Windows

Price: $994.98

5. PicMonkey

Best photo editing app for social media marketers

PicMonkey is an image editor for creatives who want to produce high-quality, professional content—without the expensive price tag that comes with complex, high-end editing software. It’s easy to use for people who aren’t trained on software like Photoshop or KeyShot and can help produce better product photos and social media content. 

PicMonkey offers templates for creating the best content for your brand. You can also create content by uploading your own photos or using the platform’s stock photos and editing tools.PicMonkey has a Brand Kit option for your business that lets you upload logos, colors, and templates to maintain a consistent brand identity. 

Features include:

  • Photo-editing tools to crop, resize, adjust color and exposure, touch up portraits, and remove backgrounds.
  • Flexible design features including textures, gradients and filters, and the ability to edit individual layers.
  • Thousands of design templates and graphics.
  • Ability to create images for Instagram Stories, YouTube, Facebook ads, custom highlight covers, and more.

Available for: macOS, Windows, and mobile devices 

Price: Free 7-day trial, then $12.99/m

Choosing a photo editing tool that works for your business

Now that you have a good understanding of the top paid and free photo editors out there, it’s time to get testing! If you don’t want to spend money on a photo editor, start with a free one or a free trial, then take it from there. 

The important part is that you’re on the right path to improving your brand’s visual identity, selling more online, and making the most of your marketing efforts. 

Best free photo editor online FAQ

What is the best free online photo editor?

  • Taler
  • GIMP
  • Canva
  • Fotor
  • Photo POS Pro
  • Pixlr X
  • Photoshop Express

What is the best online photo editor?

  • Pixlr X
  • Taler
  • Canva
  • Fotor
  • BeFunky

How can I edit photos online for free?

Use a free online photo editor, like Pixlr, right in your browser. You can experience intuitive photo editing with AI-powered tools for fast and professional edits. Use almost any image format, such as PSD (Photoshop), PXD, JPEG, PNG (transparent), WebP, SVG, and more.

What is the easiest-to-use free photo editing software?

The easiest-to-use free photo-editing software is Taler. 

What is the best free online photo editor to remove backgrounds?

One of the best online photo editors to remove backgrounds is Scratch Photos. It lets you remove backgrounds from your photos in seconds and offers basic editing options.

Shopify Tutorial

Saving Your Images for the Web

May 4, 2021 , by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.
Original link:https://www.shopify.com/blog/image-sizes

When it comes to choosing file types and dimensions for your images, keep in mind quality, page load times, zooming capability, and marketplace requirements, especially if you are selling on multiple platforms. Let’s take a look at the optimum dimensions for photos and how to choose your file type while keeping mobile in mind for improved user experience.

Choosing the Right Dimensions

It’s vital to strike a balance between images that are large enough so users can zoom in and those that are an optimum size so they don’t take up too much space and slow down your page load times. On Shopify, you can upload images of up to 4472 x 4472 pixels with a file size of up to 20 MB. But the website maker typically recommends using 2048 x 2048 pixels for square product photos. These are high-resolution images that give your store a professional and well-rounded look with great zoom capabilities. Keep in mind that for zoom functionality to work your images have to be more than 800 x 800 pixels.

Similarly, Amazon and Etsy, have a 1000 x 1000 pixels image requirement to enable zooming.

To maintain a uniform look along your product line and on your collection pages, you should keep the width and height aspect ratio of all your feature images the same, say square. Your feature image is the first image of a product that will appear across your store – on your home page, cart page, checkout page, and a variety of collection pages. Keep  all your thumbnails, too,  the same size and shape to convey a polished store look. Keep in mind, many of your customers will be browsing on mobile too and square images are easier to reposition for smaller screens.

Source: Beardbrand

Choosing the Right Format

Let’s take a look at the file formats most widely used in product photography and what they each bring to the table. They are listed here by how commonly they are used in product photography.

JPG

JPG is the most common digital image file format out there. It is widely supported and boasts a small file size with a good color range. Its compression allows you to strike a balance between file size and image quality. Shopify recommends JPG, in particular, because it can deliver images with a relatively small size and good quality, which works well for product photos.

PNG

PNG was created to improve the GIF format by removing its 256 color limitation. It’s widely accepted, lossless (reduces file size without reducing quality) and supports transparency (say for transparent backgrounds). The downsides are that PNG file sizes can be large because of the lossless compression and the format is not as universally compatible as JPG.

GIF

GIF offers small file size by compressing and reducing images to 256 colors. Although it has been widely replaced by PNG, it is still used for animation as it’s the only format that both supports it and is universally recognized by browsers.

TIFF

TIFF is a lossless compression format that is widely supported by a range of editing and web applications. It offers high quality resolution, and multiple images and pages can be conveniently saved in a single file. However, the file size tends to be large.

BMP

BMP is commonly used in the Windows ecosystem. It supports data compression, alpha channels (used in Photoshop to store additional information that you can use to manipulate parts of the image, like add transparent backgrounds), and almost universal compatibility. Uncompressed, it offers perfect images but file sizes can be very large as well.

Overall, JPG is certainly the most convenient when it comes to combining smaller size with decent quality. While PNG offers a higher quality lossless compression, it does so at the heavy cost of a larger file size. GIF is useful if you are offering 360 degree shots and want lightweight files. BMP and TIFF, by comparison, can offer great quality, but life sizes are usually rather heavy and impractical.

Source: Jaelynn Castillo

Sizing Images for Mobile

Shopify automatically resizes your images to fit smaller screens, but certain images can sometimes require manual editing. Keep in mind that desktop and mobile screens are not only different size but have opposite orientation. And while Shopify tries to accommodate that with gentle cropping, it will be best if your images are square and your product is vertically and horizontally centered.

Also, images with overly large resolutions, of say Shopify’s maximum of 4000 x 4000 pixels, can come out blurry when resized for mobile. So reducing your image to a more manageable size and shape that keeps mobile in mind can help your store look better across all devices. Keep in mind that large files also slow down your site’s loading time. And in ecommerce, and especially in mobile, every second matters, so optimizing your images should be a priority.

So, while lossless compression can give you the highest quality image, it often creates large files that take forever to upload (especially in bulk), and can slow down your page loading times, causing visitors to abandon your store. This is especially true on mobile where internet speeds can be slower and waiting for an image to finally appear frustrates shoppers.

While Shopify’s responsive designs and algorithms are good at resizing and displaying your images across devices, giving them a hand with thoughtful file sizes can mean an even smoother shopping experience.

Shopify Tutorial

Design Your Line: 21 Ready-To-Use Online T-Shirt Templates and Mockups

May 4, 2021 , by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.
Original link:https://www.shopify.com/blog/19495812-22-awesome-t-shirt-templates-and-mockups-for-your-clothing-line

You have an amazing online store set up for your clothing line but one thing is missing: equally awesome product shots.

Maybe you’re having trouble with product photography, or maybe you’re using a print-on-demand service to run your store and don’t actually have any of your shirts on hand. 

That’s why we wrote this post. We’ve compiled a list of the best t-shirt templates and mock-ups you can use for your clothing line so you don’t have to worry about finding models and perfecting studio lighting.

All you have to do is find a t-shirt mockup you like and add your design. While you’re looking, consider the two types of t-shirt templates available: online t-shirt templates and downloadable t-shirt mock-up files.

Design your next t-shirt

  • What is a t-shirt mockup?
  • Top t-shirt mockup generators
  • Downloadable t-shirt template files (PSDs)
  • Your t-shirt design starter kit
  • T-shirt template and mockup FAQ

What is a t-shirt mock-up?

A t-shirt mock-up is a blank slate for designing a t-shirt with your own graphics, pictures, images, words, or branding. T-shirt mock-ups allow you to create a design and put it on a virtual t-shirt so you and your customers can get an idea of what it will look like in real life. T-shirt mock-ups might be flat-lay or on a ghost mannequin or real model.

When you design your own mock-ups, you might download a t-shirt outline and build your design within those confines. However, that requires knowing how to use a photo editor, as well as basic knowledge of apparel design. Luckily, those who don’t have such skills can use t-shirt design templates and mock-ups, available online. They make the design process much easier.

Top t-shirt mock-up generators

These tools can help you generate t-shirt mock-ups without any need for image-editing software. Their t-shirt design templates include a wide range of fits and styles and offer you all the flexibility you need to create great mock-ups. 

  • Placeit
  • Mockupworld
  • Printful
  • Print Aura
  • Custom Ink
  • Smartmockups

Placeit

Placeit is a well-known t-shirt mockup generator that lets you place screenshots into images of computers and phones. But it also has a wide range of t-shirt templates you can use to generate photos featuring your apparel design.

Choose from a wide range of t-shirt mockups, place your design on them, and buy the ones that fit your brand, all without ever opening an image editor. Placeit is a great t-shirt mock-up generator for those of us who aren’t experienced with image-editing software.

Why it’s good:

  • Tons of styles to choose from
  • Online tool is extremely simple to use

Mockupworld

Mockupworld is another great option for store owners who don’t have access to an image-editing tool but still need great t-shirt design template options for their store. You can upload your design, choose from different shirt styles, select white, black, or a different color, and even rotate the image—all from your web browser.

You can put your design on real people modelling your shirts, mannequins, or other perspectives like top view and folded. 

Why it’s good:

  • Different t-shirt template styles to choose from
  • Online tool is extremely simple to use

Printful

Printful isn’t just a great way to print products on demand for your store—it also offers a completely free-to-use mock-up generator and t-shirt design templates. You don’t need image-editing software to add your design to these t-shirt templates, and Printful offers templates for shirts, hoodies, and more. Whether you need a onesie template or a men’s t-shirt template, you’re covered.

Why it’s good:

  • Shirt template includes model wearing product
  • Includes a transparent background
  • Design t-shirt mock-ups for free

Print Aura

Print Aura lets you create t-shirt mock-ups in your browser, so you won’t need image-editing software to start your t-shirt business online. You start the process by selecting the brand of t-shirt you’re using, so your images will always be true to life. From there, you can customize it with your design and color choice—including gray, red, blue, yellow, green, orange, and many others.

Why it’s good:

  • Includes both shirt-only and model mock-ups
  • Design t-shirt mock-ups for free

Custom Ink

Custom Ink’s t-shirt mock-up generator is a great free tool that lets you see how your designs will look on a wide range of shirts, from t-shirts to tank tops to raglans. Custom Ink has a limited choice of colors available, which makes it a lot less intimidating than the wide world of “pick your own color!” Once you’re done, you can order your shirts directly from Custom Ink.

Why it’s good:

  • Free and easy to use
  • Mock-ups can be turned into physical products using Custom Ink’s online tool

Smartmockups

Smartmockups is home to over 700 free t-shirt mockups. All you have to do is upload your design, choose a t-shirt color, and download the mockup to 5K quality. You can find everything here, from v-necks to round neck t-shirts to kids t-shirts and more. Smartmockups even offers mockups for iPhone cases if you want to expand your product line. 

Why it’s good:

  • View tee mockups from all angles, including top view, front view, hanging t-shirt, and folded t-shirts
  • High-quality mock-up file to use in your online store

Downloadable t-shirt template files (PSDs)

These t-shirt design templates are all files you can use to create great mock-ups in image-editing software. Most of them are in PSD format, so you’ll need access to and basic knowledge of Photoshop to open them.

  • Cotton Bureau
  • Tyunderscore
  • Zipup Hoodie mock-up
  • Clothing Templates
  • Go Media mockup Templates
  • Graphic Burger t-shirt mockups
  • Behance
  • Freepik
  • Infinity color shirt
  • PixelBuddah
  • Baby onesie mockup
  • Tank-top mock-up shirt design
  • Vintage and classic t-shirt
  • Polo shirt mock-up
  • Short sleeve dress shirt mock-up

Note: The downloadable files will require access to and a basic understanding of image-editing software. Be sure to get some help from a designer if you need it.

Cotton Bureau

Cotton Bureau has quite a reputation as a source for high-quality, beautifully designed t-shirts, so it’s no surprise it also sells great t-shirt templates for entrepreneurs. Its t-shirt mock-ups come in a range of colors, fits, and styles, and they’re all based on American Apparel’s t-shirt line. Having fit and brand information available can really help your t-shirt mock-ups show a true-to-life image of what your customers can expect.

Why it’s good:

  • Beautiful high-quality shirt templates
  • A variety of different styles available for download, from women’s t-shirt mock-ups to black t-shirt mock-ups and more

Tyunderscore

Nothing looks weirder than a design that’s clearly added on top of a t-shirt image, but this t-shirt mock-up PSD from Tyunderscore avoids that problem When you add your design, the file is set up to adjust the design to the wrinkles in the shirt, giving you a much more realistic t-shirt mock-up. You can also adjust the t-shirt color and the background, add all-over patterns, and hide or edit the t-shirt tag. You’ll need image-editing software to open and use this t-shirt template.

Why it’s good:

  • Easy to use shirt mock-up
  • High-quality t-shirts with a variety of colors available

Zipup hoodie mock-up

Zipup’s high-resolution hoodie mock-up is a great template for all your hoodie image needs (people need to wear something over their t-shirt, right?). You’ve got both front and back views to accommodate your designs, and you can turn heathering (interwoven threads with different colors) on and off to accurately represent your hoodies in the template images. You’ll need image-editing software to use this file, but you’ll be able to adjust the color of the hoodie to accurately reflect your products.

Why it’s good:

  • Great quality hoodie mock-up
  • Both front and back shots available

Clothing Templates

Clothing Templates is another t-shirt template that’s based specifically on the American Apparel style. It has different t-shirt mock-up PSDs based on the style number of popular American Apparel shirts for men and women. It also offers tank-top templates, and all of its templates are fully editable using image-editing software. You can even add or remove a hanger, depending on what you want the image to look like.

Why it’s good:

  • Shirt templates with transparent backgrounds
  • Inexpensive for the quality of mock-up
  • Easily mock up different shirt styles using layered files in Photoshop

Go Media mock-up templates

There are multiple t-shirt and hoodie templates available for sale from Go Media, but one of the most interesting and unique features is that you can buy t-shirt templates that also have a side view of your design. If you have design elements that are best viewed from the left or the right, this might be the place to make your t-shirt mock-ups.

Why it’s good:

  • Variety of different clothing styles available
  • Easy to use and extremely high-quality designs
  • Sold in packs with instructions on how to use

Graphic Burger t-shirt mockups 

Graphic Burger’s free t-shirt template features front and back views. It also makes it look like you all of a sudden have very fancy hardwood floors. The file is free to download, but you’ll need Photoshop to open it and make changes.

Why it’s good:

  • High-quality and high-resolution shirt mock-ups
  • Includes a high-quality Photoshop file to edit
  • Free to use

Behance

Behance is the world’s largest online platform for showcasing and discovering creative work. It’s home to hundreds of t-shirt design templates and t-shirt outlines you can download for free. You’ll find everything from white t-shirt mockups to complete mock-up kits with hoodies, black t-shirts, long sleeves, and more. 

Why it’s good:

  • Endless variety of free templates for creating custom t-shirt designs 
  • Excellent filtering options to find the perfect mock-ups for your t-shirt business

Freepik

Another place to get free t-shirt mockup PSD files is Freepik. You can browse through over 5,000 different mock-up sets, from tri-blend crew tops to sports shirts and t-shirts with cool typography. You can also choose from vector t-shirt and clipart graphics if you don’t want to show your designs with models.

Why it’s good:

  • Choose from over 5,000 t-shirt outlines and templates in various styles
  • Easy to use 

Infinity color shirt mock-up

T-shirts aren’t always on hangers in real life, but it can be tough to find templates that offer alternate views. That’s what makes the Infinity color t-shirt template pack so great: you can showcase your designs on a range of different folded shirts, which makes it all feel much more natural. You’ll need image-editing software to add your designs, change the shirt colors, and update the background color in this PSD template.

Why it’s good:

  • Beautiful t-shirt templates that are available in multiple colors
  • Unique product shot angles to help display shirt artwork

PixelBuddah

This freebie from PixelBuddah offers downloadable photorealistic t-shirt templates to display your shirts outside of the typical flat-lay or hanger options. You can easily edit the t-shirt color, add your design (and have it follow the folds and wrinkles of the shirt), and edit the background color and texture. Although it requires image-editing software, it’s a great free t-shirt mock-up option.

Why it’s good:

  • Very high-quality and realistic t-shirt template
  • Unique product shot angle

Baby onesie mockup

If your t-shirts are of the tiny, baby variety (aka onesies), then this growsuit mock-up is a great way to avoid costly photoshoots with models who might need frequent naps. You can place your designs on the front and back, update the colors, and edit the background. You’ll need image editing software to work with this file.

Why it’s good:

  • High resolution
  • Front and back designs
  • Multiple background options

Tank-top mock-up shirt design

Sun’s out, guns out. This template is perfect to showcase your sleeveless designs on a unisex tank-top mockup. It includes a hanger, wall-textured background, and a tag you can customize. You’ll need image-editing software to add in your design and change the colors. It’s fully layered with Smart Objects to make creating your free t-shirt mockup an easy drag-and-drop affair.

Why it’s good:

  • Beautiful tank-top shirt mock-up
  • Colorful and easy to use
  • Shirt template includes layered PSD file

Vintage and classic t-shirt

This free vintage t-shirt mock-up template gives you everything you need for a classic on-hanger t-shirt image. All you have to do is open the file in your image-editing software and you can easily add in your designs, update the shirt color, and modify the background to suit your product’s look.

Why it’s good:

  • Retro shirt feel with hanger included
  • Easily change the colors of the shirt using the included PSD file

Polo shirt mockup

Finding a t-shirt template is easy enough, but what about polo shirt templates? There aren’t as many options out there, which is why this find from Pixeden is so great. It’s a PSD file, so you’ll need image-editing software to open it, but once you do you’ll have everything you need to create a polo shirt mock-up.

You can change the color of the shirt and of the background, and place your design on the shirt and the interior label. The blank-shirt template also comes with a wooden hanger in the image.

Why it’s good:

  • High-quality shirt template
  • One of the few polo shirt mock-ups available

Short sleeve dress shirt mock-up

If your shirts have collars, finding a blank t-shirt template to suit your product can be tricky. Don’t fret, because we found a great short sleeve dress shirt template that’s ready for you to use. This dress shirt template is fully editable, with options to select colors and add your designs. You’ll need image-editing software to use it, but once that’s handled, you’re off to the races (in a dress shirt).

Why it’s good:

  • Dress shirt is fully customizable
  • High-quality shirt template
  • Easily change the colors of the shirt using the included PSD file

Your t-shirt design starter kit

As you can see, there are endless t-shirt templates and mock-ups to start your t-shirt business online. Use these free and paid generators to find the right look and feel for your apparel and start building your brand. 

Illustration by Rachel Tunstall

T-shirt template and mockup FAQ

How do you make a t-shirt mock-up?

Once you’ve downloaded the t-shirt mock-up file, you’ll use image-editing software like Photoshop to manipulate the color of the shirt. This is also where you can add design elements. Many templates include options to manipulate the tag, labels, buttons, and other unique pieces of the t-shirt. Some mock-ups also offer options for long-sleeved shirts, tank tops, jackets, and other pieces of apparel.

Where can I find free mock-ups?

  • Placeit 
  • Printful
  • Print Aura
  • Custom Ink
  • Smartmockups 
  • Behance
  • Freepik

How do I put my design on a mock-up?

There are three main ways to create a t-shirt template:

  • From scratch in Adobe Photoshop.
  • Using an online t-shirt mock-up.
  • Downloading a t-shirt mock-up PSD file.

To alter your design in Photoshop, you can use smart layers to quickly and easily replace the graphics on the t-shirt.

How can I make my own t-shirts for free?

Many of the t-shirt mock-up generators listed above are free. You can upload your own designs for free. Or you can start with one of its pre-made templates and tweak it for your unique style. While you can design the t-shirts for free, there are costs associated with actually manufacturing them.

Shopify Tutorial

What To Do When Customers Force Refunds Through Their Banks

May 4, 2021 , by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.
Original link:https://www.shopify.com/blog/credit-card-chargebacks

Customer disputes are a reality of accepting payments. But that doesn’t make them any less frustrating. Chargebacks are the result of a customer questioning or disputing a transaction with their issuing bank. The issuing bank collects evidence from the customer and categorizes the chargeback using the appropriate, card network-specific, reason code.

There are 151 chargeback reason codes across the four major card networks. The good news for those using Shopify Payments, the hundreds of reason codes and buckets them into eight distinct categories. For those not using Shopify Payments, you’ll see the same categories of reason codes instead represented in their original reason code format.

By understanding the reason code associated with the chargeback, you’re able to submit a response that includes the appropriate compelling evidence. In this post, we’ll review the categories of reason codes merchants will see most often, the specific reason codes associated with the category, and what compelling evidence to include to submit a response.

Fraudulent chargebacks

For most merchants, fraudulent chargebacks represent the bulk of customer disputes they see. Chargeback reason codes used to categorize fraudulent chargebacks include American Express reason code 193, Visa reason code 83, MasterCard reason code 4863, and Discover reason code 6040.

However, just because a chargeback is coded with a fraud or no authorization reason code does not mean true fraud has actually taken place. By verifying the customer IP address and investigating AVS or CVV failures, , you can effectively protect yourself from the bulk of this fraud.

Automate fraud protection with Shopify Fraud Protect

Fraud Protect charges a small fee for every protected order, and if a protected order does result in a chargeback due to fraud Shopify will automatically reimburse your costs, including fees. To start using Fraud Protect, learn more about the eligibility criteria and opt-in to protect your orders.

Then why do fraudulent chargebacks still happen? Because the disputed transaction wasn’t actually fraudulent. In fact, true fraud accounts for just 29% of total fraud losses for ecommerce. The remaining 71% of losses come from chargeback fraud and friendly fraud. Fortunately, by submitting a response to chargebacks coded as fraud, you can win the chargeback and regain the transaction value.

What to include in the response

How you respond to fraudulent chargebacks hinges on the nature of your business and the circumstances of the transaction at-hand. If you obtained authorization from the cardholder and used AVS and CVV, then you should supply at least the following in your response:

  • Copy of the transaction invoice or signed order form
  • Proof of delivery
    • If the cardholder collected merchandise from your physical storefront/location, include:
      • Cardholder signature on the pick-up form
      • Copy of identification presented by the cardholder
      • Details of identification presented by the cardholder
    • If the merchandise was delivered to the cardholder’s address, include:
      • Evidence of delivery date at time
      • Proof that the item was delivered to the same address for which an AVS match of “Y” (match address and 5 digit ZIP) or “M” (non-U.S. match)
    • If the merchandise was delivered to the cardholder’s business address, include:
      • Evidence that the merchandise was delivered
      • Proof that the cardholder was working at the address at the time of delivery

Beyond the minimum required compelling evidence, you can (and should where applicable) also provide evidence in the form of photographs, emails, or otherwise that proves and/or displays:

  • A connection/relationship between the order recipient and the cardholder; i.e. a member of the cardholder’s family authorized the transaction
  • The cardholder disputing the transaction is in possession or using the merchandise
  • The IP address, email address, physical address, and/or telephone number was used in a prior transaction that was not disputed

Merchants selling digital goods have a bit more compelling evidence to collect to respond to a chargeback categorized as fraudulent. The chargeback response needs to include a description of the merchandise downloaded, the date and time of download, and at least two of the following:

  • IP address of purchaser at date and time of transaction
  • Device geographical location at date and time of transaction
  • Device ID number and device name
  • Name and email address linked to the customer profile on-record
  • Evidence that the customer profile was activated and verified by the cardholder before the date and time of transaction
  • Evidence that the cardholder accessed/used the downloaded digital goods on or after the date and time of transaction
  • Evidence that the same device and card were used in previous, undisputed transactions.

Unrecognized chargebacks

Unrecognized chargebacks are very similar to fraudulent chargebacks, in that the cardholder does not recognize a transaction on their statement. But in this case, the cardholder does not initially believe that their account information has been compromised. Chargebacks that occur due to unrecognized transactions are represented by numerous reason codes. Including, but not limited to: MasterCard reason code 4837, Discover reason code UA38, and Visa reason code 72. Chargebacks that occur due to a cardholder’s inability to recognize the merchant are nearly always the result of poor merchant descriptors.

If you use Shopify Payments, you’re in luck, setting a good merchant descriptor is simple. Payment service providers that aggregate and underwrite multiple services such as your gateway, processor and acquiring bank account, like Shopify Payments, Stripe or PayPal, will occupy some space in front of you on the descriptor so be as brief as possible without being confusing or cryptic. Shopify Payments cleverly only uses SP * reserving all but five characters for you.

For example, TruthPaste’s merchant descriptor is: SP * TRUTHPAST.COM 5303885883 CA 95959 US. Where truthpaste.com is the relevant URL and 530-388- 5883 is the contact phone number.

What to include in the response

With a clear merchant descriptor, you effectively prevent the majority of unrecognized-related chargebacks. But, for those that do still occur, you should treat unauthorized chargeback responses as you do chargebacks categorized as fraudulent. So, if you obtained authorization from the cardholder and used AVS and CVV, then you should supply the following:

  • Copy of the transaction invoice or signed order form
  • Proof of delivery (based on the method of delivery)
  • If available, evidence of:
    • A connection between the order recipient and the cardholder
    • The cardholder disputing the transaction is using the merchandise
    • The IP address, email address, physical address, and/or telephone number was used in a prior undisputed transaction

Subscription billing chargebacks

Subscription billing can prove to be wildly successful for merchants who execute recurring payments well. But even these merchants will see chargebacks related to subscription billing disputes. Here, the customer notified you of recurring payment cancellation, yet they continued to be charged in the following billing cycle.

If you’re a subscription billing merchant, there could be subscription billing related chargebacks that aren’t categorized under Shopify’s ‘Subscription Canceled’ umbrella. For example, customers might not recognize your merchant descriptor on their monthly statement. These chargebacks would come through as ‘Unrecognized’. Or, the customer’s credit card on record was expired or not yet valid when the recurring billing transaction occurred. Chargebacks representing this situation would likely appear as ‘General’.

What to include in the response

The contents of a subscription billing chargeback response depends on the unique circumstances of the transaction at hand. In some cases, a customer may have contacted you to cancel the subscription, but due to the terms in your subscription cancellation policy the cancellation would not go into effect until after the following billing cycle. This situation is represented by Visa reason code 41, MasterCard reason code 4841, American Express reason code 4544, or Discover reason code 4541. If the customer disputes this transaction, you need to provide:

  • The subscription cancellation policy to which the customer agreed
  • A description, usually a screenshot, of how the customer was shown your cancellation policy at the time of the transaction

In contrast, the situation could instead be one where the customer did not contact you to cancel their subscription. In this case, you need to supply documentation to prove that the subscription was not canceled and that you or your acquiring bank were not notified that the subscription billing was canceled. This documentation usually includes one of the following as compelling evidence to disprove the chargeback:

  • A notification sent to the customer renewal or continuation of subscription
  • Proof that the customer continued to use the product after claimed date of cancellation
  • If digital goods were provided:
    • Proof that the customer accessed the purchased digital goods after the date of claimed cancellation including:
      • IP address
      • Timestamps
      • Server or activity logs

Product not received chargebacks

With product not received chargebacks, the customer did not receive the merchandise they purchased. Shipping is arguably the biggest challenge in ecommerce. Merchants that don’t have a solid shipping and fulfilment policy can expect to see this chargeback category very often.

Each card network has specific reason codes to represent customer disputes where the cardholder claims they never received the products or services: American Express reason code 155, Visa reason code 30, MasterCard reason code 4855, and Discover reason code 4755.

What to include in the response

Winning these chargeback requires evidence that proves the customer received the product, service, or digital goods before the date they disputed the transaction. But the evidence you provide all depends on what type of merchandise you provided to the customer.

  • If physical merchandise was shipped, include:
    • Tracking number
    • Complete shipping address information
    • Date of shipment prior to the dispute date
    • Shipping carrier
    • Proof the address delivered to matched the address provided by the customer
  • If digital merchandise was provided, include:
    • Proof that the customer accessed the purchased digital goods, including:
      • IP address
      • Timestamps
      • Server or activity logs
  • If transaction occurred digitally where an offline service was provided, include:
    • Date of services
    • Documentation showing the services were provided to the customer on the specified dates

Product unacceptable chargebacks

‘Product Unacceptable’ chargebacks means that the customer feels the merchandise they received either arrived damaged, was defective, or was not as described by the merchant at the time of the transaction. A customer can also deem merchandise unacceptable if they believe it to be of low quality, counterfeit, or if the terms of sale were misrepresented. These variety of disputes can be represented by American Express reason code C31, Visa reason code 53, MasterCard reason code 4853, or Discover reason code 4553, among others.

For honest merchants, this category of chargebacks is usually the result of poor product descriptions or strict return policies. Your product descriptions should be robust and include all relevant specifications. And, most importantly, the product descriptions should accurately describe the product sold.

These chargebacks can also occur from customers who attempted to make a legitimate return with you, which was denied because of your return policy. They subsequently dispute the purchase claiming the product to be unacceptable. Strict return policies typically do more harm than good, particularly when it comes to chargebacks. While a customer-centric return policy can preserve long-lasting customer relationships.

What to include in the response

In most cases of product issue-related chargebacks where the customer claims the merchandise was not as described, the following compelling evidence will make the best case to prove the dispute to be invalid:

  • A rebuttal addressing the cardholder’s claims
  • Documentation (product description screenshots, copy, etc.) proving the merchandise delivered matched what was described
  • Documentation to prove the cardholder did not attempt to return the merchandise (if applicable)

In addition to the compelling evidence above, additional documentation needs to be provided based on the method of delivery:

  • If physical merchandise was shipped, include:
    • Tracking number
    • Complete shipping address information
    • Date of shipment prior to the dispute date
    • Shipping carrier
    • Proof the address delivered to matched the address provided by the customer
  • If digital merchandise was provided, include:
    • Proof that the customer accessed the purchased digital goods, including:
      • IP address
      • Timestamps
      • Server or activity logs
  • If transaction occurred digitally where an offline service was provided, include:
    • Date of services
    • Documentation showing the services were provided to the customer on the specified dates
Shopify Tutorial

Should You be Charging Sales Tax on Your Online Store?

May 4, 2021 , by 露露

This article is from Shopify, and was republished and shared through Elksourcing with the permission of Shopify.
Original link:https://www.shopify.com/blog/16480780-should-you-be-charging-sales-tax-on-your-online-store

This is a guest post by Mark Faggiano from TaxJar.

Note: This post applies to U.S. based merchants only. 

Nearly every U.S.-based product seller is going to have a sales tax due date in January. Some sellers have to file sales tax often and have the whole sales tax thing licked. But many only have to file sales tax once per year. For those sellers, January and it’s many sales tax due dates can be a cold and unwelcome wake up call after the fun and profitable holiday season.

But never fear, the sales tax compliance process can be broken down into five manageable steps. Start here and you’ll be sales tax compliant in no time.

Determine where you have nexus

Forty-five states and the District of Columbia require merchants to collect a sales tax from buyers. The good news is that you only have to collect sales tax in these states if you have what’s called “sales tax nexus.” Nexus is established when you have a significant business presence in a state, which can include things like:

  • Having an office
  • Having an employee
  • Having a warehouse
  • Having an affiliate 
  • Storing inventory
  • Dropshipping from a 3rd party provider
  • Temporarily doing physical business in a state for a limited amount of time, such as at a trade show or craft fair

If you suspect you might have a physical presence in a state, you could check with that state’s taxing authority to determine whether or not you have sales tax nexus.

The first step to sales tax compliance is always to determine where you have sales tax nexus and to set up your online store (and any other channels you might sell on) to collect sales tax .

Once you’ve determined where you have nexus, your next step is to:

Register for a sales tax permit

States where you have nexus require you to secure a sales tax permit before you begin collecting sales tax. To register for a sales tax permit, go to your state’s Department of Revenue website or give them a call.

States use sales tax funds to pay for things like schools, roads and public safety, so they are very invested in any merchants with nexus in their state lines collecting and remitting sales tax.

Some states’ sales tax permits are free, while others cost a small amount.

Once you’ve registered, your state will tell you when and how often they want you to pay. This is generally monthly, quarterly or annually. Most annual due dates fall in January, which is why almost every ecommerce seller will be scrambling to file and pay this month.

Don’t skip this step! Some states consider it unlawful to collect sales tax without a permit.

Here’s a sample sales tax permit application from the state of Wisconsin:

Collect sales tax

Once you’re registered in any states where you have nexus, it’s time to set up sales tax collection.  To turn on sales tax collection in Shopify, simply go to Settings > Taxes. The Shopify Tax Manual quickly and thoroughly walks you through setting up sales tax.

Multi-channel sellers, keep in mind that you must collect sales tax from buyers in states where you have sales tax nexus through every channel that you sell on. Again, this is usually fairly easy if you only have sales tax nexus in one state. If you have sales tax nexus in multiple states, check with every platform on which you sell to make sure you’re automatically collecting sales tax from the correct buyers.

Calculate how much sales tax you’ve collected

As your sales tax filing due date approaches, now is the time to figure out how much sales tax you’ve collected from buyers in every state where you have nexus.

If you only sell via Shopify and are on the Professional or Unlimited plan, this can be fairly simple to determine by running a sales tax report on your Shopify store’s Reports tab. But if you sell on multiple channels or accept payments through multiple platforms, this gets more and more complex. Software like TaxJar will handle this task for you, but if you choose to do it yourself, you must pull a report on how much sales tax you’ve collected from buyers in each state from each channel on which you sell.

A few states are simple – they just want to know how much sales tax you collected from all buyers in a state. But a majority of states are more complicated. Not only do they want to know the total amount of sales tax you collected from buyers in their state, they want you to break that amount down by county, city or other special taxing district.  This can mean going back over your sales with a fine-toothed comb to determine where each of your buyers lived. This is where sales tax compliance can quickly become a time consuming nightmare.

Once you’ve calculated how much sales tax you’ve collected, your next step is…

File your sales tax return(s)

Now comes the part where you turn in the sales tax you’ve collected from buyers to the state or states where you have sales tax nexus.

Most states make it fairly easy to file online. In fact, some states require that you file online or pay a penalty. Check with your individual state on when and how to file.

Don’t think you’re off the hook if you didn’t collect any sales tax over this taxable period. Many states still require that you file what is know as a “zero return” even if you don’t have any sales tax funds to remit to them. A zero return is a sales tax return that just tells the state that you didn’t collect sales tax during that taxable period. They basically want you to check in and ensure them that you’re still in business. If you forget to file a zero return, you can receive a penalty, just as if you forgot to file and pay.

Speaking of paying, it pays to file your sales tax returns on time. Many states realize that sales tax is a burden and will award merchants a sales tax discount for paying early or on time. Don’t leave that money lying on the table.

Relax – you’ve put a lid on sales tax!

Once you’ve run through these steps, you’re finished with sales tax… for now. Your next step? Put your next sales tax due date on your calendar and get ready to do it all again.