I’m in the process of redesigning an ecommerce product page which currently has the product images on the right hand side of the page. As part of the redesign I am proposing placing the image on the left. Why?

Well, many other online retailers follow this practice so it appears to be a strong design convention. It also fits with the f-shaped reading pattern that most users employ online — which means that the most important information (in this case, the product image) should be at the top left of the page.

L.L.Bean places the product image on the left

However, to better support this recommendation when I present it to stakeholders, it would be helpful to know of any research or articles on the subject of product image placement.

Despite the many articles on ecommerce and even product page design best practices, little appears to have been written specifically on product images and nothing about their placement on the page.

The Apple store places the product image on the right

I am also interested to know how much it matters which way a product is facing. Intuitively, it feels that the product should point into the page, drawing the reader’s eye to the copy. But is this, in fact, correct? Does it even matter? Again, any research or articles specifically on this topic would be very helpful.

Further Reading

• How Top Retailers Show Product Images
• Product image best practices
• Can Product Images Improve Conversion? Showing Products in Context
• Tips on making the most of product images

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