Case Study: eCommerce Product Photography Software for Eyewear
Weblens.mx was launched in 2013 when Roman Lopez decided to take his family’s optical business online and deliver product direct to consumer. Traditionally, WebLens Mexico was a laboratory that manufactured and sold lenses to brick and mortar optical retailers, however Roman had a different vision in mind – one that could significantly grow his small business by delivering high end eyewear to the end consumer through online retail. Fast forward to 2015, Roman has successfully turned WebLens.mx into one of the largest online retailers of eyewear in Mexico.
Problem: How to Efficiently and Affordably Create High Quality Product Images?
Historically Roman had been using a combination of stock images provided be vendors and images that were shot internally – there were two main concerns with this approach:
- First, product images provided by vendors were shot at inconsistent angles and were of mixed quality. Roman understood that high quality and consistent product images were the key to online sales efforts.
- Second, shooting product images internally was not yielding the desired image quality and was a strain on internal resources as countless man hours and effort were being dedicated to the image editing and the ‘clean up’ processes, while pulling employees away from other important internal tasks.
Roman had decided hiring a professional to shoot images was going to be the solution to his website product photography requirements. However after getting quoted $6 image, he soon decided this would not be feasible with the amount of SKU’s required to be shot and the ongoing requirement as new styles were introduced each season. There had to be a better way.
Solution: Shutter Stream eCommerce Product Photography Software
Roman approached Iconasys in July 2014 looking for an easier and more efficient way to shoot high quality product images in house. Through the implementation of Shutter Stream Product Photography Software with his current lighting (which he is proud to say, “a beautifully handcrafted cardboard lightbox with desk lamps”) and Canon camera, Roman has been able to increase his internal product photography workflow efficiencies by 1,000% while creating professional quality images.
In their previous workflow, an employee would manually capture product images to the SD card, shoot 30 or 40 pairs of glasses (typically 4-6 images per product), upload the set of images to the computer, sort and discard poor images, send the good images into Photoshop and manually edit images on a one by one basis to achieve a pure white background. This was a process Roman calculated to take about 10-15 minutes per product (2 angles per product).
Since implementing Shutter Stream into their workflow, WebLens.mx is now able to compose their image while viewing in Live View on their monitor, pre-crop their subject and then snap an image that is directly uploaded to the program in seconds after capture. Roman states, “the ability to see how an image is going to look before even capturing the image makes the program easy for anyone to use, has increased our imaging consistencies (product placement/shooting angles) and most importantly, our image quality is better than ever.”
In addition to the image composition and capture tools built into the software, Roman has completely eliminated the need for image touch up, editing and resizing in Photoshop. “I used to use Photoshop – the image editing tools were more advanced however I don’t need advanced – I need fast and easy – and that is what Shutter Stream is all about” says Roman.
Up to this point, Shutter Stream has been a huge success for WebLens.mx. With their new found efficiencies, they are now shooting about 150 images per day with the average time spent to create a web ready product image being about 1 – 1.5 minutes. Roman also claims to save about $400 per day – a cost savings more than the outright cost of the software versus the previously considered option of outsourcing. As for the total value of the software, Roman claims this to be in the tens of thousands of dollars as he has also been able to increase online sales through the use of better quality product images and consistent shooting angles.
When asked if Shutter Stream met his expectations, Roman simply stated, “It crushed my expectations, now I need new ones!”
A special thanks to Roman at WebLens.mx for taking the time to help us with this article. Your support is greatly appreciated!
For anyone looking for new shades or glasses in Mexico, be sure to check the best source for eyewear online – www.WebLens.mx
Learn more about Shutter Stream eCommerce Product Photography Software for the Eyewear Industry