Matchesfashion to open East London studio as consumers want more from product images

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Aug 15, 2017

As takeover talk swirls around it, Matchesfashion gets on with business as usual and one aspect of that its its new plan for an East London studio that will mean 150 new jobs.

Following the opening of Amazon’s Shoreditch mega studio/hub and Shop Direct’s new tech-driven hub at Victoria, Matchesfashion is the latest e-tail giant to feel the need for a London centre the will combine creativity and technology.

It has inked a deal for a 24,000 sq ft space at Here East,  the former Olympic media centre. It will build a large number of photography bays and video sets on the site, as well as a new fashion media space. And that means it can more than double the website content it produces currently from 1,000 products a week to over 2,000.

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The 150 staff will be employed over the next few years in addition to the 500 currently working at its offices in another London landmark building, the Shard.

CEO Ulric Jerome said: “This move to Here East, and our investment in a new creative hub, will help us to achieve our plans to generate even more innovative and engaging content for our brands and our customer.”

Creating content, from basic product listing imagery to inspirational features and social media posts, has increasingly become a virtually 24/7 task for the world’s biggest e-tailers. Consumers are demanding ever more detailed pictures and videos of the products they’re thinking about buying.

A recent survey from US-based Splashlight showed that consumers rate high-quality product images as the most important element when deciding whether to buy. Over half of survey respondents said they want to see a minimum of three-to-five images and over a quarter want six or more, including 360 degree views.

The survey also showed that on-model shots may increase the chances of someone purchasing an item and can be the make or break element in the purchase decision.