Shopify is an incredible platform for e-commerce retailers. With multiple payments and shopping cart options, a variety of pricing plans for retailers of different sizes, and flexible options for sales channels, it’s a great place to launch a business. But to make the most of your Shopify store, you need to make it look irresistible to your customers. No matter what you’re selling, stunning images are a must.
From gorgeous landing page images to conversion-boosting banners, there are a variety of images you’ll want for your Shopify store. And it’s not only about the aesthetics: you’ll need to consider page load times, zooming functionality, and Shopify compatibility.
This quick easy handbook will tell you everything you need to know about Shopify image sizes, formats, and optimization so you can start selling ASAP.
What is the Best Image Size for Shopify?
First off: there’s no one-size-fits-all golden rule for Shopify images. Shopify requires photos to be at least large enough to work with its zoom-in features—but very large images can slow load times on your Shopify page, potentially reducing the number of visitors who stick around to browse your products. Below, we’ll address the use cases you should consider when building your Shopify store.
General Specs for Product Images
Shopify permits a wide range of image sizes. If you’re a business owner or marketer there, you likely already know you can upload up to 250 images for each featured product. But all the images in the world won’t entice buyers if those images aren’t optimized for the platform.
Here are the general Shopify image size recommendations:
i) Maximum Size: 4472×4472 pixels
ii) Minimum Size: 800×800 pixels
iii) Recommended Square Image Size: 2048×2048 pixels
iv) File size: Maximum 20 MB
v) Image Resolution: 72 DPI
Attempting to use images larger than 20 MB will affect the speed and scalability of your store. This could result in increased bounce rates. On the other hand, photos less than 800×800 pixels don’t work with Shopify’s zoom-in functionality. 2048×2048 is the ideal size for both desktop and mobile screens. This size ensures a store that is both attractive and has reasonable load times for most shoppers.
General Specs for Favicons
A favicon is a small icon that appears in the URL bar next to the URL. It might seem trivial, but don’t overlook it—your favicon can go a long way towards creating robust brand awareness. The best image size for favicons on Shopify is 32×32 pixels.
General Specs for Logos
The ideal logo size will depend on your Shopify theme, so be sure to follow the recommendations for your specific theme. For example, the Turbo theme suggests a 400×100-pixel logo image for the main menu and 250×200 pixels for the footer. For site optimization reasons, it’s best not to exceed 450×250 pixels. Square logos with a 1:1 ratio work well with most Shopify themes.
General Specs for Banners, Featured Images, and Full Shop Backgrounds
The ideal size for featured images and shop backgrounds, which will be very large in most cases, depends on your theme—so make sure to follow Shopify’s guidance for whatever theme you’ve selected to avoid awkwardly sized images. The best aspect ratio for banners is 16:9, regardless of your theme. Overall, you’ll want to opt for images that are at least 1800×1000 pixels.
General Specs for Shopify Login Page Backgrounds
Have you ever noticed that some Shopify stores have beautiful backgrounds on the login page? It’s a great opportunity to keep your brand in front of customers and make their shopping experience more visually interesting and memorable. These images should be 1600×1000 pixels in size. Keep in mind that the background image size may differ depending on your theme. With image optimization software, you can resize the photos to make them web and mobile compatible.
General Specs for Shopify Slideshow Images
The Shopify slideshow feature lets you display multiple photos and videos that can be swiped through, dragged, and played. When done right, a slideshow can be one of the most eye-catching and engaging features of your store and is the perfect place to use your most glamorous product images. The recommended dimensions for the Shopify slideshow are 1200 to 2000 pixels in width and 400 to 600 pixels in height.
General Specs for Gallery Images
It’s always better to categorize images into different segments to facilitate easy navigation. Shopify gallery photos must not exceed 800×800 pixels.
Which Image Formats Can Be Used on Shopify?
1. JPEG/JPG
JPG or JPEG formats are widely used in online marketplaces as they boast impressive color quality and small file sizes. It’s also easy to further compress this format if needed. Experts highly recommend JPEGs for seamless loading. However, note that JPEGs are a “lossy” format, meaning that compression will degrade the image quality somewhat. This format cannot support transparency, although it can be made to mimic a transparent image format if the background of the image is set to the same color as the page.
2. PNG
PNGs are popular among Shopify vendors as they offer more control when it comes to editing the background, colors, and other aspects. PNGs can also be made transparent, unlike JPGs and JPEGs. The only issue with this format is that the image sizes are larger, potentially affecting load times.
3. GIF
Did you know you can spice up your Spotify storefront with GIFs? It’s a great way to add liveliness, movement, and even humor to your shop. GIFs can be transparent and are a lossless format, so the quality will not deteriorate with compression.
4. BMP
BMPs are graphics that are versatile and compatible with both mobile and desktops. Usually, this format is not compressed, so the image quality is excellent. Like most of the formats on this list, BMP supports transparency. A BMP can display monochrome and full-color photos, which allows for different color variations.
5. TIF/TIFF
TIFF is a high-quality, lossless data compression format, meaning TIFF files can be edited without deteriorating the visual quality. The TIFF format also supports transparency. However, TIFF files are very large and will result in less ideal load times.
Shopify Image Best Practices
Best practices differ from platform to platform, but all Shopify retailers must follow these three rules of image optimization to set up their businesses for success.
Use the same style of thumbnail for all your primary product photos
Thumbnails are a great opportunity to establish your store’s visual style and brand your business. It’s worth investing some time in choosing a style for your thumbnails. Having visually consistent thumbnails and primary images ensures a polished, professional look for your website. This strategy also provides uniformity in search engine results.
More is better for product photos
Just because you have stunning primary images doesn’t mean you’ll have a lot of sales, especially if your shoppers don’t have enough information to feel confident in choosing your products. Confidence increases conversion. It also significantly reduces the rate of returns and exchanges when customers know exactly what they’re buying. Make sure your product photos cover all the angles and details of your product.
Test to optimize
Maybe model photos are more effective at selling your products than flat-lay photography, or maybe images with funky backgrounds get more clicks than those with plain white backdrops. The only way to know what works the best for your brand is by performing split tests. You can try the Neat A/B app to find what gets you more clicks and conversion. Selling successfully online is both an art and a science—so don’t neglect the science side of things, and make sure you’re gathering as much data as possible!
Types of Photo Content for Your Shopify Store
Before you pick up a camera or hire a photographer, make sure you know what kinds of images you need for your website. That way, you can anticipate all your photography needs and expenses upfront and make sure your photo content works together for a polished, consistently branded user experience.
● Product-only images are often shot against white or neutral backgrounds. These images mostly appear in search engines and are required by some retailers.
● Product-in-use images might feature a model twirling in your couture or people drinking the drink you are selling. These types of images convey the value of the product and are a great opportunity to add a human touch.
● Photographs with text overlay combine the best of two worlds: showing off your products and providing useful information or promotional text. You might use these as social media graphics, sale announcements, and more.
● Graphics are often used for informational images like size charts, accents or decorations to your site theme, and social media. You can hire professional designers to help with designing graphics or create your own using free tools like Canva.
Conclusion
Starting a Shopify store is easy, but optimizing your images for a perfect user experience is tough to master. But don’t be tempted to skimp on presentation—think of your website’s visuals as akin to decorating a physical store. The environment should be welcoming, enticing, and uniquely branded to draw your customers in and keep them coming back for more. The great news is that it’s not as tough as you might think to build a beautiful website. All you need is the right tools and a willingness to put in the hard work. So what are you waiting for?