What is a 360 Product View?
A 360 product view(also referred to as 360° Product Photography, 360° spin, 360° packshot or spin photography) is a collection of images that when displayed in a viewer on your website, the user is able to spin, rotate and navigate around the object. This gives them the perception of depth and mass, or in other words, they can hold the item virtually.
360 product views or 360 product photography has been around since the late 90’s. That is a long time. We have been creating them since early in this century. In fact, we started with film photography. That is correct, our first 360 product view had to be developed before we could even see if we did it correctly. Today, the process is much easier and costs much less to produce. While the concept has not changed, the viewers have through the years.
What is a 360 product viewer?
A 360 product viewer is a little piece of code that lives on your website that makes it possible to take a collection of images (an image sequence) and play those images while the user scrubs the playback of the video with their mouse or finger. Therefore, you see this technology both called 360 product photography as well as 360 product videos. The player, usually written in JavaScript today started as a function of QuickTime, Apple’s video player way back when. Once the JavaScript is added to your site, a configuration is fed to the code that tells it the images it should display. Now this really doesn’t have to be difficult. We have many different options for our viewers today, and you never have to do any coding. Just use a plug-in. You will be able to find 5 different plug-ins for your CMS or E-commerce site in a matter of minutes.
Why use a 360 product viewer?
So, with a little bit of understanding of the technology behind those rotating, spinning product pictures you wonder why you should have them. 360 views help your customers better understand your product in completely visual manner. They can look behind the item, they can zoom into details, or they can just play with it. Each of these serve a different purpose.
The user that wants to look around the product wants to better understand the physical properties of the product. Once the do, they are more confident in purchasing the item. That is great for you, your sales went up!
The shopper that wants to zoom in, wants to know more about a specific area of the product. They have a goal in mind, and they need to know if your product will work. The now do not need to buy it and see if it will work. This reduced returns, and at the same time increased your bottom line. No return charges.
The person that just wants to play with it is much like my wife. They just must touch everything in the store. They want to have a personal connection to the time before they buy it.
Who benefits from 360 product photography?
Your customers will benefit from 360 degree product photography, and in turn you as the retailer will benefit from increased sales, reduced returns, and an increased purchase rate from your shoppers.
