How 360 Degree Product Photography is Changing the B2B Landscape

February 8, 2022

How 360 Degree Product Photography is Changing the B2B Landscape

For years it was the industry norm to rely on suppliers to provide distributors with product imagery. Not all suppliers have embraced the transition from the catalog days to the digital era. Siemens broke the mold in B2B eCommerce photography for electronic components by driving a 360° product photography initiative. Shortly after seeing the exciting technology and results, distributor Allied Electronics & Automation jumped on board too.

Stacey Ostermann and Howie Hsu’s Perspective on B2B Product Photography

Howie Hsu, Head of eCommerce & Digital Strategy at Siemens and Stacey Ostermann, Director of Digital Product Content at Allied Electronics & Automation – led a discussion on how they’ve become the first in their industry to use 360° product photography. Here are our 3 key takeaways:

1. Running a photography studio is quite different than running a business team; the main focus is on processes and efficiency. For a pilot project, 1WorldSync photographed 10,000 products over the course of 9 weeks for Allied Electronics & Automation. After seeing the benefits of a quick and efficient process, the team purchased the equipment and now photographs 1,000 high-res images per month.

“Once you put the product on one of the spin tables and let the automation take over you can capture all the images needed for a spin in minutes. So why take just 1 shot when you can get a spin?!“ – Stacey Ostermann

2. B2B eCommerce is exploding and requires more product content. 360° product photography is a cost-effective, versatile solution to transform your physical products into digital assets. Howie Hsu stated that 60% of consumers prefer to not interact with a sales rep and 68% of consumers prefer to research online before making a purchase. In B2B, it is becoming the norm to research and purchase items online, which means providing high-quality digital assets is becoming a huge priority.

3. People – and Google – want images! Enhanced content drives higher conversion rates and sales. Poor or missing images also prevent companies from participating in marketing campaigns like Google Shopping, which can be highly critical for some businesses. Google will disapprove items from the campaign if the images are too small, poor quality, or if they don’t have white backgrounds. Moral of the story: B2B eCommerce photography is changing with 360° product photography, which improves searchability and findability in your marketing efforts.