We watched forty session recordings for a client who was certain their product photography was the problem. It was fine. What people actually did was scroll straight past the hero shot to the specification table, and when there wasn’t one, they left.
What gets read
Shipping cost. Return policy. Whether it fits, works with, or replaces the thing they already own. Reviews, sorted by the ones that mention a specific problem. That is roughly the entire list.
Nobody has ever added something to a cart because the copy called it “artisanal.”
What we changed
We moved the specification table above the fold, cut the descriptive copy by two thirds, and put shipping and returns where the eye already goes looking for them — next to the price, not in a footer link. Conversion on the redesigned pages moved before we touched a single photograph.
The photograph is not nothing
It just is not doing the job people think it is. Its role is trust, not persuasion — a bad photo makes a buyer suspicious, a good one makes them comfortable, and neither one closes the sale by itself. The specification table closes the sale.
Nobody has ever added something to a cart because the copy called it "artisanal."