How to prepare product photos for marketplaces

What each marketplace asks for

Amazon is the strictest, and also the one whose rules are hardest to verify: its image guide sits behind a Seller Central login. Independent references consistently report a main image of 1,600px or more on the longest side for the zoom view to work, on a pure white background - RGB 255, 255, 255, not merely light - with the product covering at least 85% of the frame. Zoom is not cosmetic; it is how somebody inspects a thing they cannot pick up.

Etsy does not ask for a white background the way Amazon's main image does - its listings are built on styled photography. What it does set is a size floor and a weight ceiling at once: independent references report at least 2,000px on the shortest side, below which zoom stops working, and a file under 1MB. Those two pull against each other, which is why compressing is not optional there.

eBay publishes its rules openly, and they are about what you add rather than what is behind the product: a 500 x 500 minimum, around 1,600 x 1,600 recommended, uploads up to 12MB, and no badges, logos, copyright notices or watermarks - which eBay says can affect where a listing appears in search.

Shopify documents its own limits: up to 5,000 x 5,000 or 25 megapixels, under 20MB, with 2,048 x 2,048 usually displaying best for a square product image. It sets no background rule at all, so white there is a decision about how your store looks rather than something you have been told to do.

The order to work in

Doing this in the wrong order means doing it twice. Shape first, then size, then weight.

1. 1Shoot for the strictest destination you sell on. Adding context to a clean photograph is easier than removing a background from a styled one.
2. 2Crop to the shape that destination expects - square suits most grids, including Etsy's thumbnail.
3. 3Resize to the longest-side or shortest-side figure that marketplace works in.
4. 4Check it against that marketplace and read what came back, including the things it could not check.
5. 5Compress last, so you are not spending quality on pixels you are about to discard.

What a checker can and cannot tell you

Measuring is the part software is good at: dimensions, aspect ratio, file format, file size, and the colour of the border ring - which is how the pure-white question gets answered with a number instead of by eye.

It cannot tell you whether the thing pictured is what the buyer receives, whether a watermark has been added, whether the image is a photograph or a render, or whether the styling will make anybody click. Those are listed on each marketplace page as checks for you, rather than passing silently and letting you believe they were tested.

Common mistakes

Using one image everywhere. The same photograph cannot be best for Amazon's white-background main image and for a styled Etsy listing.

A white-ish background. Photographed white is grey. Where a marketplace specifies pure white, it means the measured value.

Ignoring Etsy's weight limit. A 2,000px photograph straight from a camera is comfortably over 1MB. That is a compression job, not a resize job.

Compressing before resizing. You spend quality keeping detail, then throw away the pixels you kept it in.

Frequently asked questions

What size should product photos be?

It depends on the marketplace, which is why a single number is not worth trusting. Amazon works from 1,600px on the longest side, Etsy from 2,000px on the shortest, eBay recommends around 1,600 square, and Shopify displays 2,048 square best. Prepare for the strictest place you actually sell.

Do I need a pure white background everywhere?

No. Amazon's main image is the one that calls for it. Etsy's listings are built on styled photography, Shopify documents no background rule at all, and eBay's published picture policy is about what you add - badges, logos, watermarks - rather than what sits behind the product. Applying Amazon's rule everywhere makes listings look sterile where context would sell better.

Are my product photos uploaded to be checked?

No. The checker measures each image in your browser, so photographs of products you have not listed yet stay on your own machine.