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In e-commerce, your website and product photos are your online storefronts, and graphic design is the key to capturing customers’ attention. It is critical to helping your shop remain competitive in an oversaturated market.
Partnering with an outsourcing provider or call center for e-commerce can elevate your graphic design processes. It allows you to streamline tasks, cut costs, and access opportunities for technological advancements, growth, and global collaboration.
This article explores how graphic design outsourcing can boost your e-commerce shop, how to maximize its benefits, and what lies in store for its future. Keep reading!
Understanding the Importance of Graphic Design in E-commerce
Online shopping existed even before the pandemic. However, strict lockdown protocols urged consumers to find ways to shop outside the physical store, igniting a spike in e-commerce practices.
According to the International Trade Commission, global e-commerce revenue surged 19% after the pandemic. Now, the industry might reach $3.65 billion in 2024.
Online retailers can stay ahead in this competitive industry through eye-catching and creative visuals. Graphic design plays a critical role in engaging customers. It applies to various aspects of an e-commerce shop, including:
- Landing page
- Website
- Social media posts
- Marketing materials
- Advertisements
- Packaging
Visuals help buyers remember your shop by associating a specific image or product with it, ultimately driving popularity and sales. The next section explores why graphic design is essential to your e-commerce business’s success.
1. Building Positive First Impressions and Trust
Online shoppers form opinions about a website or brand seconds after encountering them. A well-designed website is more likely to grab attention and keep visitors engaged, making a lasting impression. Some factors that can make your site visually appealing include:
- High-quality graphics
- Clean product photos
- Compelling videos
- Pleasing colors
- Easy-to-read text
Additionally, consistent branding and visuals on a website exude professionalism. Such graphics encourage customers and visitors to feel confident exploring your site and making purchases.
2. Boosting Brand Identity and Recognition
Graphic design elements work together to create a unique and recognizable aesthetic for your business, differentiating it from competitors. The components of a brand kit include, but are not limited to:
- Logo
- Typography
- Color palette
- Imagery
- Overall visual style
Graphic design outsourcing can help your e-commerce business create a unified, signature identity. A consistent style gives customers a mental picture of your shop, increasing brand recognition.
Using this signature identity across all platforms enhances this benefit. It provides an unforgettable visual experience and a fun journey for shoppers. For example, great packaging can make buyers feel valued and excited, compelling them to purchase more of your products.
3. Enhancing User Experience (UX) and Navigation
Graphic design is not just about making your platforms visually pleasing but also usable and enjoyable. It is crucial for guiding users through your web pages and helping them find the next step without hassle. Some elements of a UX-friendly design include
- Visual hierarchy. Using color, size, and spacing to prioritize what’s important or what you want buyers to see first significantly affects their journey. Graphic design helps you organize your site’s information to guide users’ eyes, making your content easy to scan and understand.
- Intuitive navigation. Creating clear and consistent navigation elements, such as arrows and buttons, gives users a sense of control. These visual cues help them feel at ease with your interfaces. Thus, graphic design, outsourced or not, can make or break sales for your e-commerce shop.
- Emotional connection. Colors, images, and animations are critical to stimulating certain emotions. For example, red evokes a sense of excitement and urgency, while blue can make your site feel calm and trustworthy. Strategic placements and combinations of design elements are essential.
- Visual storytelling. Graphic design provides users with a break from information overload. For example, infographics engage readers to read complicated processes, charts and graphs visualize data, and compelling images evoke emotions. This strategy makes your materials easy to digest, memorable, and impactful.
- Better accessibility. Good UX caters to everyone, regardless of abilities. Graphic design is crucial in making interfaces accessible through high-contrast colors, clear typography, and alternative image text descriptions. Applying these elements ensures anyone can easily use your site, creating a more inclusive and positive experience.
4. Improving Product Presentation and Storytelling
Effective graphic design transcends mere aesthetics; it propels product perception. High-quality product photos and videos make products more appealing. Surveys show that 86.7% of respondents consider product images vital to their shopping experience.
You can use these elements to strategically accentuate the features and benefits of your products. They can also help highlight the pain points your products address.
Additionally, visuals can tell your brand story, allowing customers to connect with it more emotionally. This creates a sense of community around your business, making it more engaging to buyers.
These aspects of graphic design make it an expensive profession, which is why outsourcing is widespread among e-commerce shops. We will explore this topic more in one of the following sections.
5. Increasing Sales and Conversions
To better understand how graphic design can contribute to quality e-commerce customer service, let us first answer the question: What is e-commerce customer service? It is the support your business provides throughout the customer’s journey, from learning about a product to purchasing to offering additional assistance.
So, how exactly does graphic design help with e-commerce customer service?
Clear calls to action (CTAs) and persuasive visuals on your platforms guide and engage customers to take the next steps. Well-designed frequently asked questions (FAQs) pages serve as self-service support portals for customers, reducing the need to reach out.
These actions directly impact your online shop’s website traffic, sales, conversions, and click-through rates (CTRs). Whether purchasing products, signing up for a newsletter, or downloading resources, customers engaged through graphic design benefit your business.
Why Consider Graphic Design Outsourcing for Your E-commerce Shop
Business process outsourcing (BPO) offers many benefits that allow companies to streamline tasks and increase profitability. Grand View Research stated the global BPO market value reached almost $281 billion in 2023.
But what is BPO, and why is it popular? Outsourcing is subcontracting secondary business functions, such as graphic design, at a lower cost. By offloading such tasks, you can access specialized experts and technologies, increase scalability, and focus on core competencies.
Let us discuss each of its benefits in detail.
1. Increased Profitability Through Cost Reduction
Outsourcing is prominently known for its cost-saving potential. The practice mainly involves working with remote professionals, and service providers cover most expenses related to their staff. Thus, you can save on:
- Hiring and recruitment costs
- Training and onboarding expenses
- Benefits packages
- Office space
- Equipment
- Utilities
In addition, partnering with an outsourcing firm operating in areas with lower living expenses and wage ranges helps you reduce costs. For example, businesses that outsource to the Philippines report cutting labor expenses by 70%–90%.
You can reallocate your savings through outsourcing to other aspects of your business. Optimizing your finances is critical to ensuring you do not spend more than you earn, increasing your business’s profitability.
2. Boosted Operational Efficiency Through Specialized Talent
E-commerce often features many products, each needing compelling visuals. Creating high-quality product photos, infographics, and marketing materials for numerous items can strain resources and lead to creative fatigue.
Graphic design outsourcing lets your e-commerce shop tap into a global talent pool of experts. Meanwhile, affordable call center services provide you with agents who are also well-versed in graphic design best practices.
Service providers screen and train team members to ensure they can perform tasks to a high standard. They typically possess the following technical, creative, soft, and hard skills:
- Mastery of industry-standard design software
- Knowledge of web design and UX principles
- Proficiency in various media formats
- Knowledge of content management systems (CMS) and relevant tools
- Strong visual communication skills
- Creative problem-solving
- Time management and organization skills
- Understanding of digital marketing trends and best practices
Third-party professionals may also have expertise in specific niches and markets and experience with project management tools.
Access to qualified and experienced graphic designers is valuable, considering the tight labor markets caused by the pandemic. It reduces the risk of errors and delays, allowing your e-commerce shop to deliver stunning visuals efficiently across all platforms.
E-commerce trends evolve rapidly, requiring designers to continuously adapt their styles and techniques. Outsourcing lets you stay ahead of the curve in UX design, product photography, and marketing visuals.
3. Improved Agility Through Leveraged Technologies
Some e-commerce products have short lifespans, requiring swift design turnaround times. Balancing speed with quality can be challenging, especially with limited resources.
Fortunately, graphic design outsourcing providers carry the latest tools and software to help your e-commerce shop streamline processes, including:
- Adobe Creative Suite
- Figma
- Sketch
- Procreate
- Affinity Designer
- Video editing software
- 3D modeling and animation tools
- Project management tools
- Cloud storage platforms
- Design asset management (DAM) systems
- Accessibility testing tools
Leveraging these technologies allows you to avoid costly investments, purchases, subscriptions, and loans. It helps you speed up processes without compromising the quality of your shop’s visuals.
4. Enhanced Scalability Through Additional Resources
As an e-commerce shop owner, you must take advantage of special events to boost sales. The following situations can lead to sudden surges in graphic design workload:
- Flash sales and limited-time offers
- Seasonal promotions and holidays
- Influencer marketing and brand collaborations
- Unexpected events and disruptions
- Shifts in popular trends
Outsourcing lets you adjust operations as needed with readily available graphic designers and sophisticated tools. It also empowers you to operate around the clock. This scalability reduces the need for staff to work longer hours, preventing burnout and turnover.
BPO teams are often multilingual and are well-versed in various cultural nuances, sensitivities, and trends. This fluency is valuable when working with diverse clients and expanding into markets beyond domestic borders.
Additionally, e-commerce thrives across multiple platforms, from websites and mobile apps to social media and emails. For example, Statista reports that 77% of respondents learn about brands through social media.
Graphic design outsourcing providers leverage omnichannel solutions to ensure the consistency of your e-commerce shop’s brand image and visuals across all platforms.
5. Better Competitive Advantage Through Core Competency Focus
With qualified staff to handle graphic design tasks and technologies to streamline processes, you can attend to more critical shop matters. You can invest your time, energy, and resources into activities directly impacting your store’s success.
Your internal staff can focus on their line of expertise, whether product development, market expansion, or market research. Attending to such matters is critical to ensuring sustainable growth in the competitive and ever-growing e-commerce landscape.
Tips and Best Practices for Maximizing the Benefits of Outsourcing
Although outsourcing graphic design tasks offers many benefits, adequate steps are necessary to ensure a successful integration. Unpreparedness and a lack of communication in partnerships could cost you more.
Here are the critical factors for an effective graphic design outsourcing initiative:
- Specify your graphic design goals and needs. Before partnering with a BPO provider, you must know what you want to achieve by outsourcing graphic design. Do you want to focus on creating a solid brand identity or drive sales? At the same time, assess which graphic design processes are best outsourced to an e-commerce BPO team.
- Choose the right BPO provider. Thoroughly research service vendors to find the best call center for e-commerce or outsourcing firms specializing in graphic design. Compare their experience, portfolio, services, rates, and client reviews. This step helps you partner with a provider that meets your goals and needs.
- Create a comprehensive service-level agreement (SLA). Once you have chosen a provider, work with them to write a contract that protects your needs. Make sure to include service scope, key performance indicators (KPIs), and termination terms. Your SLA should also have communication, security, and compliance requirements.
- Conduct regular BPO training. To help BPO teams master your online shop’s products, engage them in training. Knowledgeable graphic designers can better understand client needs and translate them into clear briefs. Training also fosters a shared language and understanding, enabling smooth communications.
- Consistently monitor outsourced processes. Track your graphic design outsourcing team’s progress to ensure your e-commerce shop is getting its money’s worth. This step lets you identify errors or inconsistencies early on, preventing costly damages and highlighting areas for improvement.
Graphic Design Outsourcing Trends To Look Out for
Various factors drive the future of graphic design outsourcing. Below are some key trends to watch out for.
1. Tech-driven Innovation
One of the leading BPO trends and predictions is the digitalization of outsourcing. Some of the emerging technologies in the industry include:
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
- Augmented reality (AR)
- Virtual reality (VR)
- Data-driven design
These tools streamline graphic design processes and improve output quality, which is why many outsourcing firms invest in them for e-commerce clients. For example, a study submitted to the National Bureau of Economic Research states that generative AI increased productivity by an average of 14%.
Your business can benefit from these technologies by choosing a provider that carries them.
2. Shifting Client Needs
In a growing digital world, online businesses expect faster turnaround times and seamless collaboration. Thus, BPO providers adopt streamlined workflows and flexible communication channels to meet this demand.
E-commerce shops’ preference for specialized design expertise will rise, and environmental considerations will influence design choices. These shifts will propel outsourcing providers into offering well-trained teams, sustainable design practices, and eco-friendly resources.
3. Global Collaboration
As outsourcing becomes more widespread, providers’ global talent pools will also grow. Having skilled graphic designers from diverse backgrounds and regions will be vital in assessing a BPO firm’s reliability.
This diversity will bring attention to cultural sensitivity. Understanding and catering to different nuances, trends, and languages will be crucial for outsourcing providers operating in a global market.
With more worldwide interactions, ensuring secure and transparent transactions with a BPO firm becomes more critical. Thus, providers increasingly turn to blockchain technology to facilitate international transactions while protecting intellectual property rights.
The Bottom Line
Graphic design assets are the first thing a buyer sees from your shop, which is why they are essential to e-commerce. Captivating imagery can drive sales and increase conversion rates.
Outsourcing this task helps you overcome in-house limitations by providing specialized and scalable talent and technologies. Thus, you can focus on what brings your online business closer to success.
Let’s connect if you want to learn more about graphic design outsourcing for your e-commerce shop.
