Mobile Ready Hero Images provide a clear, readable and consistent alternative to pack shots. This page presents various pieces of evidence showing that hero images perform better than pack shots.
On this page:
Sales uplift results in split A/B tests with 4 different retailers. In each case, the result applies to the brand as a whole, but a single Mobile Ready Hero Image is shown as an example.
Problems with packshots
Packshots typically do not convey the 4Ws very effectively on mobiles.
Try viewing the image below on a mobile phone. Can you tell ‘Who is the brand?’, ‘What is the product?’, ‘Which variety is it?’ and ‘HoW much of it is there?’
Visual clarity results
The example below shows how a calibrated level of Gaussian blurring can be applied to an e-commerce image, in order to check whether the 4Ws are presented clearly enough to be easily visible within a search results page on mobile. The blurred version of the image can be evaluated on a large screen device, and the blurring simulates the challenges of viewing the image at thumbnail size (16 x 16 mm).
Considering this example, the original pack shot fails to communicate ‘Which variety’ and ‘How much’ with sufficient clarity. The percentage of people who might have difficulty perceiving these messages is in the range 52-100%, and this is not good enough. The same test is now applied to the corresponding hero image, which passes on all the 4Ws.
The Clari-Fi website explains how the level of Gaussian blurring is calibrated to population data, and also contains a worked example for e-commerce images.
Sales uplift results
Mobile Ready Hero Images were trialled 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 below.
In each case, the result applies to the brand as a whole, but a single Mobile Ready Hero Image is shown as an example.
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