Is using photos of people to market your ecommce a good idea? Do you think people relate more?

[JHSpecialty]

So I noticed all the leading competitors in our market are using photos of people on their home pages to market products.. While we are using a simple but eye catching design with no photos of people but only produts.

[stubby]

This blog does a nice job showing the effect of having people with different emotions, and pointing and looking towards and away from the product.  I know it isn't quite what you asked, but if you do add people, this could give you a little extra.   Eye Tracking Studies

Good Luck

[applesofgold]

I think it has a lot to do w/ your industry and product. Personally, we have shied away from images of people because our community of shoppers are diverse, and we feel that showing certain images of people, rather than the product itself, would limit the image of our brand. But again, this depends on your industry and product.

I agree that testing w/ Google analytics is a good idea to view bounce rates if you decide to try it out.

[rhutchings]

As Irving said, you will need to test and see if how your audience/demographic responds.   I will say as a general practice people in the picture does a lot better than just product pictures.  I have tested this on a few websites and always had a good uplift in both conversion and CTR from the main call to action with good pictures of people.  You just have to make sure you choose the right type of "people" for your picture.

[irvingw]

Set up Google website optimizer (it's free) and do some A/B testing on your homepage to see which images get better click thru and lower the bounce rate. You'll be surprised how much of a variation you may see in terms of conversion rate.

All sites look different so there are too many factors that come into play to be able to just say "yes images of people will convert better" so test and let the user pick the winner.