Tag: CGI

The Power of Visuals: How Computer-Generated Images Drive Product Sales

Written by Lucy on February 18, 2025. Posted in CGI.

In today’s fast-paced digital world, where visuals capture attention faster than words, leveraging the power of images has become more crucial than ever.

Whether you’re running an e-commerce store, a marketing campaign, or showcasing your latest product launch, visuals are the first thing potential customers notice. But what if the images you’re using aren’t just photos? What if they’re computer-generated?

Computer-generated images (CGIs) are reshaping how products are presented to consumers, offering limitless possibilities for creativity, precision, and engagement.

In this blog post, we’ll dive into how CGI can help sell your product and why more and more brands are adopting this technology.

1. CGI Offers Unmatched Creativity and Flexibility

One of the standout benefits of using computer-generated images is the sheer creative flexibility they offer. Unlike traditional photography, where lighting, locations, models, and other physical constraints can limit your creative vision, CGIs let you produce a perfect product image in any environment, setting, or style you desire.

For example, if you’re selling a piece of furniture, you can create CGI that places the product in various settings: a minimalist open-plan apartment or a cosy living room, for example. It not only showcases the versatility of the product but also allows you to appeal to different customer preferences without the need for expensive photoshoots in multiple locations. The customer can imagine the furniture in a home like theirs (augmented reality is also a handy tool for this!)

2. Cost-Effective and Time-Saving

Traditional product photography can be expensive and time-consuming. Between location fees, photographer services, travel expenses, props, and model hire, the costs can quickly add up, and for a small business can be unreachable. Furthermore, if your product requires multiple images for different angles or variations, those costs can multiply quickly.

CGI, on the other hand, can significantly reduce production costs. Once the initial 3D model of the product is created, it can be rendered from any angle, in any lighting, and with any background – without incurring extra fees. This flexibility not only saves money but also shortens production timelines, allowing you to get your product to market faster, and start selling.

3. Superior Precision and Detail

When you use CGI for product visualisation, you can achieve an exceptional level of detail. Unlike traditional photography, where certain elements might be blurry, overexposed, or hard to highlight due to environmental factors, CGI can precisely render every aspect of the product down to the finest detail.

This means that customers can see your product in its best light (literally and figuratively).

For instance, if you’re selling a watch, CGI can focus on the intricate texture of the watch face, the reflection of light on the metal, and the subtle gradients of the materials – giving your customers an up-close, high-definition view that may be difficult to capture with a camera.

4. Enhancing Customer Experience with Interactive Models

One of the most engaging ways CGI can sell your product is through interactive 3D models. Imagine being able to let customers rotate, zoom in, and explore every angle of a product on your website. This kind of immersive experience builds trust and gives customers the confidence they need to make a purchase.

For example, in the fashion or automotive industries, companies have started offering interactive 3D visuals, allowing customers to explore products in real time. This interactivity is particularly valuable for online shoppers, as they often can’t physically touch or inspect the products they are buying.

5. Perfect for Customisation and Product Variants

If your product offers customisation options (such as different colours, sizes, or configurations), CGIs are an ideal way to showcase these variations. With traditional photography, every possible variant would require a separate photoshoot, which is not only expensive but also inefficient.

With CGIs, you can create a base model of your product and then simply adjust the colours, textures, and configurations in the digital file. This enables you to quickly and affordably present all your product variants, giving customers a better idea of how different choices look before they make a decision.

6. CGI Helps Establish Brand Identity

Your brand’s visual identity plays a huge role in how customers perceive your product. Using computer-generated images allows you to maintain consistency across all your marketing materials. Whether it’s a sleek, high-end look for a luxury product or a fun, playful vibe for a children’s toy, CGIs can be styled to match your brand’s aesthetic.

By keeping a consistent visual theme, CGIs help reinforce your brand’s messaging and create a cohesive look across websites, social media, advertising, and packaging. This visual unity strengthens brand recognition and customer loyalty, ultimately making your product more memorable.

7. Increased Accessibility for Customers with Limited Resources

Not every business has the budget for a full-fledged photoshoot, especially startups or small businesses. With CGI, you can level the playing field. Even companies with limited resources can create high-quality, professional-looking images that rival those of larger, more established competitors.

CGIs standardise the creation of high-quality visuals, allowing businesses of all sizes to compete in the marketplace by providing stunning images that capture the attention of their target audience.

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8. Easier to Update and Adapt

Trends, promotions, and seasonal changes happen quickly and for a business that needs to refresh its content CGI offers a huge advantage. Instead of arranging a whole new photoshoot, you can update digital assets, adjust product features, and implement changes to your CGIs with a few clicks.

This makes it easy to stay current and relevant in your marketing efforts. Whether you’re introducing a new colour for your product or preparing a promotion, CGI allows you to make swift and effective updates without the hassle and expense of reshooting.

A note about AI-generated CGI

AI-generated CGI is also making its way into industries like e-commerce, product visualisation, and advertising. AI tools can quickly generate high-quality product images or animations from 3D models, helping companies showcase their products in various settings. This helps brands and retailers create stunning visuals without the need for expensive photoshoots or complex production setups.

While there is no doubt that AI-driven CGI offers tremendous potential and efficiency in many areas, there are also limitations and challenges that need to be considered, such as a lack of true creativity and difficulty with complex designs, along with ethical concerns.

We believe that AI can be used as a tool, but it needs to be supported by an expert who understands the image being created; someone who can spot anomalies and rectify where needed.

Conclusion

Computer-generated images offer an exciting opportunity to elevate your product marketing strategy. From saving time and money to offering limitless creativity, precision, and interactivity, CGIs are transforming how businesses showcase their products. By leveraging this technology, you can create visuals that not only attract attention but also inspire trust and confidence in your customers, ultimately driving sales and growth for your business.

If you haven’t yet embraced the potential of CGI, now is the perfect time to explore how they can take your product selling to the next level.

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How to showcase a product before launch

Written by Lucy on November 24, 2022. Posted in CGI.

Marketplaces are typically flooded with products from your competitors.

Consumers today are bombarded with marketing messages from every angle, so it’s never been more important to stand out from the crowd and make sure your product’s value benefits are seen and understood as much as possible.

But, if your product is still in production, how do you whet the appetite of potential customers, and get those all-important pre-sales locked in?

Well, the good news is, you have many options for promoting your product so let’s dive into some here:

Product prototypes

As a product-based business, building prototypes will add to your resource of marketing tools. You can use prototypes for photography, websites, social channels, brochures (digital and paper), direct mail, and even for presenting to investors, if needed.

If you have a physical location, such as a shop, putting a prototype on display for customers to feel and test will help to encourage sales. Something to note, however, if the prototype has flaws or isn’t 100% perfect it could negatively affect the perception of your brand and products.

There are different types of prototypes that can be produced, such as fully functioning or purely visual, and our team of prototyping specialists can help you determine what type of prototype your business needs.

Computer Generated Images

Using computer generated images before your product is created is an excellent way for customers to visualise it before photos are available.

Computer generated images can be used on digital channels such as websites, social media, PDFs and e-brochures really effectively. But CGI can also be used on traditional marketing channels such as direct mail, leaflets and paper brochures.

What’s more, CGI can be animated into videos to add another dimension to your presell campaign. When customers see a product animated and being used it instils more confidence to buy; it’s why video is such a powerful tool.

Use all available channels for promotion

Whether you’re able to photograph/video a prototype, or use CGI, you should use all available channels to push the promotion. This includes your social channels and email database to alert customers and subscribers about upcoming launches and pre-sales. The traditional channels, such as direct mail and brochures, still have their place for many businesses, so you may want to explore those too, along with launch events, trade shows and exhibitions.

If you’re interested in exploring CGI or prototyping for your business, get in touch and we’ll set up a call.

Guide to using CGI for Ecommerce websites

Written by 33A5f3aF on January 25, 2022. Posted in CGI.

Discover our best-practice advice when it comes to selecting images for an ecommerce website from our CGI experts.

This post will cover all aspects of ecommerce CGI images from: what is CGI, to why CGI can be a good option for ecommerce sites, to how to be efficient when using CGI, as well as pros and cons vs using traditional photography for ecommerce product websites.

What is CGI?

CGI stands for Computer Generated Images, which essentially means what it says on the tin: they’re images generated using a computer. We use professional CGI software called KeyShot to create our images – it’s one of the most powerful and accurate CGI software programmes available.

You’ll probably have heard of CGI being used in video gaming, movies and advertising.

But many product images are now CGI because companies have recognised that there are many benefits to choosing CGI over photography. It is also common for retailers to use a hybrid of CGI and photography.

What defines an ecommerce website?

Ecommerce (electronic commerce) websites are exactly that: websites that allow customers to buy (and sell) goods and services via the internet, rather than at a physical location. A business can use an ecommerce website to process orders, accept payments via different methods, manage shipping and provide customer service. Some social media platforms have now become ecommerce platforms too, adding ecommerce functionality for their users to buy and sell. Today, it is expected that most retailers should have an online store presence of some description, whether it is their own ecommerce website or via a social network.

Buying and selling is not new, of course, but ecommerce has made it easier and a preferred way to shop for many customers. In fact, the total ecommerce revenue generated in the UK in 2019 was £693 billion, a massive 40% increase since 2015, and ecommerce now accounts for 16.5% of total business turnover.

Websites are no longer a “nice to have” for businesses. In 2019, 81.4% of businesses with 10-49 employees had a website, while 96.9% of businesses with 1000 of more employees had a website (seriously, what are the remaining 3.1% doing?)

So, it’s clear that customers love to shop online, buying everything from clothes to garden equipment, their weekly food shop, sofas, cars and even holidays. The home buying market has even started to move fully online (yes, really), with virtual tours boosted by the pandemic.

Consumer confidence in buying online has increased massively in recent years, again drive recently by the pandemic, as well as the increase in smart devices including mobile phones and home devices such as Amazon Alexa.

And yes, while we love to buy online, retailers need to make sure the products they are selling best address their target audience’s needs and challenges; something that only be achieved through comprehensive market research.

And once they’ve made sure they have the perfect products to sell, it’s important for website developers to continue to come up with solutions to improve their customers’ shopping experiences.

There are certain best practices when it comes to selling products online.

One of the essential elements to a good ecommerce website is images. You simply cannot sell a product without good quality images. Images bring a product to life.

Images help a user decide whether a product is suitable or not, for example – do they like the look of it? Does it suit their style? How do they feel when they look at it? Does it complement other products they own?

Product images need to be high quality (without slowing the website down) and show the product from different angles.

There are different types of images that can be used to showcase a product online:

Cut out images – showing the product on a plain background to emphasis the product and its features
Lifestyle images – showing the product against a background setting, such as a home interior shot or outdoors landscape
Action images – showing the product being used in some way
360 spin images – a more recent edition to online images, which allow the customer to rotate the product 360 degrees to see the entire product.
Videos – not technically an image, but the use of video, showing a product working or being used, is becoming a prerequisite for online shopping.
Customisation options – if the product is available in different colours or materials, for example, the user can select from swatch buttons to change the customisation options of the product displayed.
Augmented Reality (AR) – the next evolution in ecommerce imagery. An innovative way to show the product in a real-life setting, such as your home (e.g. imagine being able to see a fridge in your actual kitchen before buying it, or check whether a pushchair will fit in the boot of your car).
User Generated Content – many e-retailers now encourage customers to upload images of a product they’ve purchased being used. Not only does this increase engagement and loyalty with current customers, but also instils trust for new customers who are more likely to buy after seeing others with the same product.

How can CGI be used to enhance ecommerce websites?

So, how can CGI be used by retailers wanting to sell online, and is it a good option?

Some of the image types described above, such as 360 spin and AR, can only be created using CGI, but for cut out, lifestyle and action shots, retailers can choose between CGI and photography. So we need to compare CGI and photography to address the pros and cons of each.

While CGI will never completely replace photography, the capabilities of CGI software have advanced enormously over recent years, meaning that images are now incredibly photorealistic and a very credible source of product imagery.

CGI also tends to be quicker and more cost efficient that photography. It can be time consuming and expensive to set up photoshoots.

Where CGI really comes into its own is with customisation. If a product is available in 20 colours, for example, photographing 20 different versions may take a long time. Multiple this by a few different products and the costs will quickly escalate. Whereas with CGI, once the first scene has been set up it is very quick to replicate for different colours.

It is also easier to create unusual angles with CGI, whereas a photographer will need jigs to hold the product in place and will then require more time in post-editing.

So, CGI can be much more efficient, producing more images in a shorter space of time.

This is very important for ecommerce websites which may have thousands of different products, each available in various options.

Remember what we said earlier: to give customers the best possible shopping experience, a website should show all different options. Only showing some of the available colours or materials for example, will cause frustration for some customers, negatively impact their experience.

We also mentioned hybrid CGI earlier – this is a blend of photography and CGI. So for example, using CGI of a product placed within a real photograph. This gives the effect of a “real” photograph but circumnavigates any logistics or cost issues presented by taking the photography on location.

Pre-order: the beauty of CGI: One area that CGI excels at is using it for products that are not yet manufactured. Being able to create an image of a product that doesn’t currently exist means that pre-orders can be generated before manufacture, generating revenue before the product has even been launched.

Are there any downsides to CGI?

One area that can be problematic is colour matching, however, this can be an issue whether the image is a photograph or CGI – it can depend on a customer’s device as well as the settings.

For large amount purchases, such as a sofa, many retailers allow customers to order physical swatches to be mailed out – so this gets around any colour discrepancies.

One of the biggest drawbacks of online shopping is not being able to touch, feel and try a product, and while this is an issue for both photography and CGI, there are ways that sellers can try to circumnavigate this issue:

It’s important to increase customer confidence in the product before buying – 51% of shoppers believe the biggest drawback of online shopping is not being able to touch a product before buying. Customer reviews, tutorials and demonstrations, faith in the brand, excellent customer services and reassurance when it comes to returns and refunds will all help provide trust.
But good images, and specifically 360 spin images, AR images, user generated content all help to foster trust with customers. Although these images don’t allow customers to touch and feel the product, they enable them to view the entire product, interact with it online and see it in their home before purchasing.
AR technology is still evolving, but it is becoming more commonplace with ecommerce retailers and it’s estimated there will be 1.7 billion AR users by 2024. One way that make up brands are using AR is by enabling customers to “try on” their make up using virtual try-on technology.

Key takeaways

The evolution of the partnership between CGI and ecommerce websites is exciting, and the possibilities for product imagery are endless.

Consumer confidence in buying online is growing, but good quality images can help to win trust.
No longer are standard cut out images enough on their own – customers expect 3D spin images, user generated content as well as video and even augmented reality.
Nothing can replace a real photograph, but CGI is a suitable option for companies that want photorealistic images at a fraction of the cost.
CGI is an effective tool for pre-orders campaigns, generating revenue before a product has even been manufactured.
Customisation is an area where retailers can save costs by using CGI.
The most important thing is to enhance the shopping experience for the customer. Anything that doesn’t improve their experience shouldn’t be implemented.

If you’re excited about exploring the idea of CGI on an ecommerce website please get in touch with our CGI experts.