# Thumbnail pictures



## jdr8271 (Jun 16, 2005)

What type of thumnail do you think is better to show your customers on your main page. Do you think that the cafepress style thumbnail where they show a small picture of the design that is on the shirt, or do you think the the t-shirt hell style where they show a very small picture of the actual shirt is better.

It is a dilema for several reasons...
1. Since I now sell more than one style t-shirt, I dont want customers to think that the shirt is only available in the style that they see in the thumbnail, If I were using the "small picture of actual shirt" thumbnail style.
2. That said, you also want the customer to see what the actual shirt will look like.
3. With the small version of the actual t-shirt thumbnail it is hard to read what the shirt says.
4. With just a small picture of the design on the shirt, customers may be confused about what you are selling. Are you selling posters with the design on them? Most customers probably wont take the time to read your intro text which tells them what you do. I suppose the solution to this would be to have pictures of models (or regular people) wearing your shirts integrated into the main page, so people can see what you are selling.

Let me know what your guys opinions are.

Peace,
Jon


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## Hex Angel (Jul 14, 2005)

I think unless there's a well-photographed, good-looking model wearing the t-shirt, then the customer is more interested in seeing the design at that level.

Those extremity-less t-shirt torsos generally look like hell, and should be shown only when it's time for the customer to make a choice about what type of t-shirt to buy. Even then, it would be best to get a good-looking model to showcase each shirt.

That's the sound of a couple coppers hitting the table.

p.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

I would say that in general, for a thumbnail of a product shot, you should focus on the design, since the customer general knows what a t-shirt looks like.

This also helps to show a much larger image of the design and allows the customer to see at a glance what the t-shirt is about (without having to click through to see what the design says).

On the actual "add to cart" page, you can either show the design on an actual t-shirt or an even larger image of the design and some varied product shots (either photographs of different angles, model shots, or photoshopped graphics).

I think CafePress shows the thumnails of the design on the product because they don't just sell t-shirts, so it helps for a customer to know what they are getting the design on. That being said...many cafepress shopkeepers with Premium Stores organize their shop "by design" so they can show the customer larger design thumbnails on the homepage for the customer to select a design and then once the customer has selected a design, they can choose which product they want with that design.

That's my 5 bits.


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## Twinge (Apr 26, 2005)

Personally I think it makes more sense to actually be able to see/read the small thumbnail design, but a friend of mine did make a decent point... if he can't read them, he'll click on all of them to see what they say and such.


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