Most shoppers never read your product page. They judge your photos first, especially on Amazon.
Amazon product photography does more selling than your copy, your features, and sometimes even your ads. If a customer can't quickly see what the product is, how it works, and whether it fits their life, they move on.
In this episode of Humans of Growth, I sit down with Liz Giorgi, CEO of Soona, a content creation platform that has matched e-commerce brands with over 1,500 photographers, stylists, and UGC creators. Liz spent the first decade of her career in professional production before founding Soona, and she's built the platform around something she pioneered called the virtual photo shoot, letting brands see and edit their shoot in real time without ever leaving their desk.
We get into how user-generated content changes buying behavior at every stage of the funnel, not just on social, and why brands are leaving real conversion on the table by skimping on Amazon's image guidelines. Liz breaks down the exact traits Amazon rewards in a listing image, the traffic-stopping cost of traditional production, and why one specific New York law is about to change how brands can use AI-generated people in their photos.
In this episode, we cover:
✔ Why UGC in your product gallery can lift conversion to cart by up to 75 percent
✔ What a virtual photo shoot actually looks like, and why it replaces the traditional studio day
✔ Why real human imagery in Amazon listings drives a 17 to 27 percent conversion lift
✔ Why only 19 percent of Amazon stores use video, and the 9 to 13 point lift it can add
✔ How to audit competitor reviews on Amazon to find your "green space" opportunity
✔ Why shoppers only read 10 to 15 percent of your Amazon product copy
✔ What Amazon actually wants in your image set: scale, human presence, before and after comparisons
✔ Why New York's new AI labeling law changes how brands can use AI-generated humans in product photos
✔ How UGC creates a through line of conviction across ads, social, and point of sale
✔ The real cost breakdown of traditional product photography vs a platform model
If you're an e-commerce founder, DTC brand owner, Amazon seller, or marketing lead trying to figure out why your product page isn't converting, this conversation will change how you think about your image strategy from Shopify to Amazon to social.
Because in e-commerce, the picture sells before the words ever get a chance.
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