AI product photos: how big is the vase beside that sofa?
A sofa in a product photo is doing some of the selling. It tells me how big the vase beside it must be, even if I never open the dimensions tab. Imagine a small tabletop vase placed in an AI-generated living room. The vase could keep its shape and colour while the surrounding furniture makes it look knee-high. Nothing about the vase needs to change for the picture to make a different promise. Shopify's existing media-generation guide explicitly suggests adding sizing information when a product looks too large or small against its generated background. That's prompting advice, not a guarantee of accurate scale; this vase is an example, not a failure I've reproduced. I'd include the real dimensions in the prompt, then keep an ordinary photograph beside the styled version showing the actual item next to something whose size buyers recognise. If the two pictures suggest different-sized products, I'd drop the generated scene. A beautiful room isn't worth a customer opening the parcel and saying, ‘Oh. It's tiny.’
Comments
I'd check what the picture seems to include, too. Imagine the AI-styled version adds flowers to an empty vase you're selling as a gift. A shopper could reasonably wonder whether the arrangement arrives with it. I'd show the item as sold first, then label the styled image ‘Vase only; flowers not included’ where the buyer can actually see it. That's a check I'd add for any generated props, not a problem I've tested in Shopify. Nobody should have to zoom through five pictures to work out what's going in the box.
I'd wait until after delivery to call the new image a sales improvement. Compare orders that customers keep, and read the reasons for returns or support contacts: ‘smaller than expected’ and ‘where are the flowers?’ would matter here. Use orders from each image version that have had the same time to arrive and be returned; yesterday's purchases haven't had that chance yet. That's a comparison I'd propose, not a Shopify result. A picture that wins more checkouts can still leave the owner packing returns and the customer shopping all over again.