Increase Conversion with Mobile Ready Hero Images

Over 47% of online shoppers purchase products via their smartphone (GSK.com, 2017). While mobile commerce is seen as the driver behind the growth of online sales, in many cases the product content is not mobile ready.

Researchers of the University of Cambridge concluded that pack shots fail to communicate critical information to shoppers, particularly on mobile devices. Mobile Ready Hero Images solve this problem by digitally representing the product and augmenting with off-pack communications.

Mobile Ready Hero Images were trialed live against conventional pack shots in A/B split tests with a range of retailers. The Mobile Ready Hero Images typically resulted in positive sales uplift as shown in the image from the University of Cambridge below.

CrazyEgg.com recently conducted a study of Hero Images for Dell and KinderCare that revealed hero images both increase conversions and decrease bounce rates. In fact, just one Hero Image decreased bounce rates by 27% and increased form completions by 36% for Dell on just one page of their site.

In October 2017, GS1 launched a Hero Images Working Group. The objective of this group is to finalize a single globally agreed specification for Hero Images shown on mobile devices.

Hero images of course also come at a down side: they become more language-specific, which implies that more local images need to be produced compared to just a gallery of global, language neutral, images. Although the localized image production process can be automated, it still implies more management costs.