Etsy Insights: How to Elevate Your Listing Photos
Hi everyone!
I’m Divya from the Community Team, here to share some quick tips that can help take your listing photos to the next level this year.
Tip 1: Make an impact with your first photo
First impressions are everything. This first photo represents your entire listing across search, recommendations, and curated spaces, so it should be bright, easy to understand at a glance, and centered so nothing important gets cut off. With new thumbnail previews in the listing form, you’ll be able to see exactly how your adjustments will translate across all placements before publishing—making it easier to choose a first image that truly works everywhere shoppers encounter it.
Discover even more info in The Ultimate Guide to Product Photography.
Tip 2: Strike a balance with your backgrounds
Backgrounds matter more than you might think. Less visual noise can help shoppers zero in on what they’re actually buying. But a background that feels too sterile can also detract from your overall brand appeal. Aim to find a balance with clean, distraction-free backgrounds that keep the focus on your item and make listings feel polished without losing the uniqueness of your items. Having a consistent background style for all of your listings is also a great brand-building opportunity as it can help give your shop a cohesive look.
For more insights, check out Telling a Brand Story with Styled Photography.
Tip 3: Create a photo shoot action plan
Make a list of all your photography needs before you plan your shoot. This includes things like your social media channels, shop graphics, listing photos and videos, behind-the-scenes content, or even your own headshots for future features! Think ahead to capture any seasonal moments too. For example, if your items make great Valentine’s Day gifts, include a few shots with pink backgrounds or festive wrapping. With a little advance planning, you’ll maximize your shoot day and walk away with enough content for months to come.
Tip 4: Bring your items to life with a variety of images
Lifestyle photos of people using or wearing the item can help potential buyers see it in a whole new light. Try shooting them at the same time of day for consistent natural lighting and capturing the key angles while sticking to one orientation to maintain a cohesive look. Remember to include a picture that showcases the scale of your product. With up to 20 images available for each listing, there’s plenty of room to showcase all of this and more!
Dive deeper with 7 Essential Types of Product Photos.
Bonus: We can’t talk about listing photos without mentioning listing videos! Adding a short video of your product in action, being styled on someone, or even being designed/made can add so much value to your listing. The video can help answer questions like how a certain fabric drapes or how reflective the pottery glaze is. And you can easily repurpose this content on social media too!
What are you most excited to refresh in your listing photos? Whether it's highlighting a bestseller or showcasing a new favorite, we'd love to hear what you're working on in the comments.
Admin
RadheRadheShop
·2 months agohttps://www.etsy.com/shop/RadheRadheShop?ref=seller-platform-mcnav
NewtsGames
·2 months agoTip 5: Never use the overused AI word "elevate" in your marketing.
MyCasualWhimsy
·2 months agoI am a paper crafter. I am creating a shadowbox for my nieces wedding. I want to send her a mockup for her to approve. It is somewhat large to go on the front of her gift box. I am not sure how to create a 3D mockup. I tried using shadow in Photoshop but is was to dark and just a mess. is there a program or somewhere I can get it done. If someone has a tutorial. program or trick, please let me know.
Thanks,
Sharon
My Casual Whimsy
MinimalistrugsIndia
·2 months agoThanks
WoodFishDecor
·2 months agoHello everyone,
I'm feeling quite discouraged and exhausted lately.
I have been working hard on my Etsy shop, constantly trying to improve my listings, photos, titles, tags, descriptions, and SEO. I create every piece myself, take all of my own product photos, and put a lot of time and passion into my work.
Despite all of this effort, my shop still receives only a few visits per day, usually around 3–5 views. I keep trying new ideas and making improvements, but I don't seem to be getting the results I hoped for.
I would truly appreciate it if experienced sellers could take a look at my shop and give me honest feedback. Is there something important I might be missing? Are my products, photos, pricing, or listings sending the wrong message to potential buyers?
Any constructive criticism or suggestions would mean a lot to me. I love creating and I don't want to give up, but right now this journey feels very difficult and frustrating.
Thank you for taking the time to help.
JujuArtLove
·3 months agoThis is beautiful! Thank You
CuriousApothecary
·3 months agoYou can have a balance of photography and AI. The best product photos with AI are those that have been professionally shot and then incorporated with AI. Most of the terrible product shots I see with AI is that the prodct shot is poor then combined with AI and it looks terrible. Not every product can use AI it doesnt work. It depends on your marketing. The best way to use AI is to use it, and then also work the images in photoshop, Affinity and have a grasp on those to tools to elevate your listings. I will tell you having worked for magazines in the day and other, and having high end photographers show me what they do for commerce. All shots are manipulated to correct type, color or other for the screen so to say "pure photography" cuts it is not true anymore. There are shops using AI where it is so fake for products toally created by AI it just doesnt work. You can have the best of both worlds if you know what good photgraphy and graphic design are before using it and then also working with type and like I said photoshop. Neither form should be damend - it is product dependent. Every shop is an ad agency - how do you want to advertise your products. Look at the ad campaigns in magazines
VivereCollective
·3 months agoThanks for good sharing.
ElouraFineJewelry
·4 months agoThis is a great post. I am working on it at the moment. At first, I took real product in the nature, but it seems there are too many distractions. While, AI seems not able to provide the authenticity. It takes time to find a balance between my brand vibe and clear presentation with proper highlights. Any more advice to me? I would appreciate. My shop: elourafinejewelry.etsy.com
PinkCoyoteJewelry
·4 months agoSince I sell the jewelry that I make, I like a clean, uncluttered background. I generally choose a plain white or black background, especially for sterling silver. I don't use models or fake hands, wrists, or ear lobes.
aliscoppershoprugs
·5 months agoI take real photos of real products.Authenticity is my priority.
rugforlife
·5 months agoThanks for the insights! Tip 2 really hits home—striking that balance between a clean background and a unique brand vibe is so important for handmade pieces. It definitely helps the textures pop.
My shop: https://rugforlife.etsy.com
CraftyfindsByDana
·5 months agoVery helpful!
FreshArtMJ
·5 months agoGreat information!
Most helpful.
Cohesiveness is key.
Thank you.
LittleMoonArtCraft
·5 months agoI design Frame TV art and digital wall art. For my primary listing photos, I display the artwork within a frame placed over a satin fabric background; all my products follow this consistent style. If you have a moment, I would truly appreciate it if you could take a look at my shop. I was wondering: should I keep this aesthetic, or would it be more engaging to use mockups showing the art on a TV or a wall? Your feedback is incredibly valuable to me.
MysticandWildEarth
·5 months agoThank you for the advice. I always try to update my pictures in new ways just to make them more attractive to customers. I try to set up the first picture as the most important one. Most of my pictures are taken outdoors, but even like that, I don't get many visitors. Any advice, please?
Thank you 💜
Unavailable member
·5 months agoLately, I've been in the process of updating all of my photos. I don't have many items but anyhow. I've invested in a couple of props, nothing fancy or expensive and have taken them by a window with natural daylight. I think it's made a huge difference as compared to what my photos were like previously.
Now, it's just a matter of figuring out how to attract more views to them.
ColorfulDiscoveries
·5 months agoI’ve been using a mix of photos. Indoor/outdoor/AI background/natural background varieties also some photos with multiple items displayed together. Feeling a little guilty for the AI backgrounds but they are so easy to do and come out so cool. Do you think it’s ok to use a AI background on a few photos as long as it’s paired with other types of non AI.
CasualStoreUSA
·5 months agoThanks for the tips
MamaFulvia
·5 months agoThank you!
NordicEdge1984
·5 months agoThanks
VivereCollective
·5 months agoThanks for sharing your experience.
PillowDetails
·5 months agoWhat good are thumbnail previews when there's a test with search thumbnails showing in portrait mode? They almost all look just terrible!
ADKArtsBoutique
·6 months agoHow to "elevate" your listings? Wow that screams AI. So instead of coming here I could just ask ChatGPT.
aliscoppershoprugs
·6 months agoThank you for tour advice!
SpiritualSHIMAYA
·6 months agoI’m always photo-ready. Winter can be tricky-cloudy days mean less natural light, which is when my best shots usually happen. So when it snowed recently and the sky cleared, I caught that “golden hour” to shoot a winter-inspired series of ring photos. Now I have fresh content both for updating my main images and for expanding each listing gallery up to the full 20 photos.
FallsAveVintage
·6 months ago@MadeByDivya Any chance you can find out why the thumbnail preview isn't working or if they're at least looking into it?
Do you think you should be advising sellers to use it in its current state?
cindylouwho2
·6 months agoI don't know why they start these threads if they won't come back to answer crucial questions.
FallsAveVintage
·6 months agoRight?!!!!!
ModAngie
Hi @FallsAveVintage , thanks for flagging your experience with the thumbnail preview. We’re aware of an issue affecting some sellers where previews don’t appear the same way once live. Your feedback has been escalated the the appropriate team here at Etsy for future improvements.
FallsAveVintage
·5 months ago@ModAngie It's still not working. Is anyone checking into this? It's been over a month now. Can you please look into this further? My main photos look like crap and if I change to portrait or add more space to the sides, it creates too much background and looks silly on Google images/shopping.
The last time this happened, I had to redo many images only to have Etsy screw with them again so that was a huge waste of time. My pics are all square and well over 2000px. There's just no excuse.
TesseraTrace
·6 months agoI use 1:1 square format for my listing photos with a large empty border all around it, just to make sure nothing gets cut off when Etsy displays it in portrait and landscape.
How do you manage to still cut off the sides??
I would really appreciate if you didn't mess with it further and just show it without zooming in / cropping the image...
This makes it extremely difficult to "elevate"(™ - ChatGPT) my listings photos.
FallsAveVintage
·6 months agoThe thumbnail preview doesn't work. It looks right in my listing and backend pages but live, my thumbnails are all cut off at the sides now. They weren't a couple weeks ago. My images are square and over 2000 pix. They show up perfectly on Google but Etsy keeps screwing with them so I give up.