How to Meet eBay and Amazon Product Image Requirements

eBay and Amazon product image requirements, like other e-commerce platforms, have been the subject of discussion among online jewelers and other retailers. This post outlines the complete product photo guidelines for both e-commerce platforms to ensure that your uploaded images will not be removed from the site.

If you’re planning to sell jewelry on eBay and Amazon, the first step is to familiarize yourself with eBay and Amazon’s strict selling guidelines. One of these guidelines involves the product image requirements.

Product images are critical in e-commerce because it is your primary tool for selling online. The quality of the images you list creates an impression on buyers and influences their buying decisions. E-commerce platforms set rules to serve both sellers and buyers. It ensures that the product listed is legitimate and follows the highest standard for selling, in addition to building trust and confidence among buyers. When buyers are confident, it benefits the sellers.

As a product seller on eBay and Amazon, you must adhere to their respective product image requirements for listing products, especially to the technical and standard specifications. Buyers are attracted by high-quality product photos online so, you’ll have a high probability of getting sales by posting photos that sell.

Read on to find out what you need to consider when uploading your product photos.

How to Optimize Your Photos to Meet eBay and Amazon Product Image Requirements

Step 1. Shoot high-quality product photos.

First, you need to shoot high-quality photos of your product from different angles! Any idea why?

You see, buyers want to view the product from almost all angles and since they have no way of inspecting your product physically, they rely on photos to determine its quality and features and to help them visualize how it would look on them when worn.

While it’s understandable that doing your own product photo shoot, especially if you’re not a professional photographer, can be overwhelming, you must always try to provide what your buyers need. In online selling – without the usual tactile shopping experience – photos that really capture the details of the item you’re selling are one of your buyers’ critical needs. Hence, if you find that you need help with jewelry photo retouching, make sure to seek experts’ assistance.

The more photos you provide, the better! Buyers will have more confidence in shopping and this will boost your chance of turning your listings into sales. eBay offers a listing of up to 12 photos for FREE while Amazon allows you to upload up to six photos as part of each listing.

Step 2. Use 360 jewelry videos if the platform allows it.

While not all e-commerce platforms can support 360 technology, others do and you probably just don’t know it because there is no clear communication from them. For instance, do you know that you can upload 360 videos on Amazon? While the process is not as straightforward as upload-and-go, you can do it by following the process on how to create 360 jewelry videos on Amazon.

Using 360 videos on your e-commerce store is another way to elevate your buyers’ shopping experience. It engages them while mimicking the quality of the in-store shopping experience because of its interactive and immersive format. In fact, as early as 2010, buyers have already clamored for a 360-product view and those who abided have experienced an increase in conversion rate.  

Step 3. Follow eBay and Amazon product image requirements.

Next, you have to follow the photo guidelines or the exact eBay and Amazon product image requirements as specified by these two e-commerce platforms. In conforming to the guidelines, you will use photos that represent your products the best, attract interested buyers, and help lessen cases of disputes that need to be resolved.

eBay Product Image Requirements

• Minimum of 1 image per product. Product listing without photos is no longer allowed. Use copyright-free images if you cannot photograph your product.
• At least 500 pixels on each side and a maximum of 1600 pixels on the longest side. To ensure that your photo is large enough, set your camera default to Medium or High photo quality.
• Images with text, border, or any added artwork are not allowed and items should be photographed against a neutral-colored backdrop.
• Watermarks are allowed but should not be used for marketing purposes but for attribution or to indicate ownership only. The watermark should not exceed 5 percent of the total image area; have an opacity of 50 percent or below, and never obscure the product. You can use the eBay watermark creation service to ensure that your watermarks are compliant.
• Stock photos are only allowed for unused, brand-new items but not on the used item listing.
• The free zoom/enlarge feature on the View item is automatically disabled if your photo is HIGH RESOLUTION and is in the range of 800 – 1600 pixels on the longest side.

Amazon Product Image Requirements

To be fully compliant, sellers must abide by the requirements set by Amazon. These requirements are divided into two specifications such as the technical product image requirements and the Amazon site standard. Ensure that you follow each point to avoid missing images in your product listings.

The technical specifications are as follows:

• Photos should at least have a pixel dimension of 1000 or larger in either width or height.
• File names should include the product identifier (Amazon ASIN, 13-digit ISBN, EAN, JAN, or UPC) followed by a full stop and the appropriate file extension. For example, B000129456.jpg or 1237425973485.tif. Dashes, spaces, or additional characters in the filename will prevent your image from going online. Additional views of products can be submitted by adding 4-character variant codes to filenames, for example, B001173456.PT01.jpg.
• The color mode should be represented in either sRGB or CMYK.
• The file format should be in TIFF (.tiff/tiff), PNG (.png), JPEG (.jpeg/.jpg), or GIF (.gif).

In addition to the technical specifications above, you must also comply with the platform’s standard rule below.

• Only photos of the product being sold or its cover art are allowed not illustrations or drawings.
• The photo should be free of additional objects that might confuse the buyer.
• The photo must be PROFESSIONALLY LIT, IN FOCUS, WITH REALISTIC COLOUR, and SMOOTH EDGES.
• Scans of the front cover art of Books, Music, and Video/DVD that fills 100% of the image frame should be used for these items while other products should occupy 85 percent or more of the image frame.
• Backgrounds must be PURE WHITE (RGB 255,255,255).
• Additional text, graphics, or inset images are not allowed for the photos.
• Offensive and pornographic materials are prohibited.

Complying with eBay and Amazon product image requirements assures you that your buyers will have an improved visual experience when shopping online; however, the numerous requirements will not always be easy for everyone, especially for jewelers who are non-professional photographers or lack the technical know-how.

This is where outsourcing your post-production work may help.

Our company, Picup Media has helped many eBay and Amazon online store owners by retouching their images to make them compliant with the photo guidelines.

Specializing in jewelry photo retouching and other professional photo editing services, Picup Media has turned thousands of raw and dull images into beautiful, eye-catching ones! Photos with high-resolution, realistic color, smooth edges, and ones that truly keep products in focus – Picup Media has successfully produced them all!

If you need help conforming to eBay and Amazon product image requirements, contact us and we would be thrilled to work with you!