Product photos are usually the heaviest images on an e-commerce site, and often the most numerous, with multiple angles per product multiplied across a full catalog. Getting the format and settings right here has an outsized effect on page speed.
Format: WebP, lossy mode
Product photos are photographs, so lossy WebP is the right mode — it gives the biggest file size reduction over the original JPG, typically 25-34% smaller with no visible quality loss.
Quality setting
80-85% quality is a good baseline for product photos where customers may zoom in to check detail. For thumbnail or gallery-preview versions never viewed at full size, you can drop to 70-75% without anyone noticing.
Don’t forget the transparent background use case
If your product photos use a transparent or removed background, common for marketplace listings, you’ll need lossless WebP for those specific images to preserve the transparency — mixing lossy product shots with lossless cutouts in the same catalog is normal and expected.
Bulk processing your catalog
- Convert your full catalog in batches using BizImageConvert‘s bulk conversion rather than one product at a time.
- Keep a consistent quality setting across the catalog so product images look uniform when displayed together on a category page.
- Re-check file sizes after a bulk run — it’s also the moment to catch any oversized source images that were never resized before upload.