How to prepare product images for Amazon and eBay

Amazon main image — the one shoppers see in search results and at the top of the product page — is the most regulated. The platform suppresses listings whose main image fails these rules, often without explicit notice.

The image must be 1,000 pixels or larger on the longest side for the zoom feature to activate. Listings with images smaller than 1,000 pixels rank lower in search and have measurably lower conversion rates because shoppers cannot inspect detail. Amazon recommends 1,600 pixels or larger; 2,000 pixels is the practical sweet spot for most categories.

The background of the main image must be pure white — RGB 255, 255, 255. Anything off-white, gradient, lifestyle, or with shadow is grounds for suppression. The product must fill at least 85 percent of the image frame. Text, watermarks, logos, borders, multiple products, accessories not included in the sale, and human models (in most categories) are prohibited on the main image. Secondary images allow more flexibility — lifestyle shots, infographics, scale references — but the main image must be clean.

Accepted formats are JPEG, TIFF, PNG, and GIF. JPEG is the safest choice for photographic product images. PNG is acceptable but produces larger files with no visible improvement. The color profile must be sRGB or CMYK; sRGB is the safer default because it matches how browsers display the image.

• Minimum 1,000 pixels on the longest side; 2,000 pixels recommended.
• Background must be pure white (255, 255, 255) on the main image only.
• Product fills at least 85 percent of frame.
• No text, watermarks, logos, borders, or props on the main image.
• JPEG in sRGB is the safest format choice for most categories.

eBay rules are looser than Amazon. The minimum size is 500 pixels on the longest side, but eBay recommends and rewards 1,600 pixels or larger because that activates the zoom feature in the buyer interface. Listings with photos below 800 pixels rank visibly lower.

Background restrictions are minimal. eBay does not require a white background, although white is still the most common and the most likely to convert because it makes the product easy to see at thumbnail size. Lifestyle shots, in-context photos, and creative compositions are all acceptable on eBay, including on the gallery image.

eBay allows up to 24 free photos per listing depending on the category — substantially more than the 7 to 9 typical for Amazon listings. This means there is room to show the product from multiple angles, in use, with size references, and with detail close-ups, without paying extra. eBay does not allow stock photos as the gallery image in most categories; the platform requires that you photograph the actual item you are selling, especially for used goods.

Accepted formats are JPG, PNG, BMP, GIF, and TIF. Maximum file size is 12 MB per image. In practice, well-prepared images should land between 300 KB and 800 KB regardless of the cap.

• Minimum 500 pixels on the longest side; 1,600 pixels recommended for zoom.
• No background restrictions, but white converts best for the gallery image.
• Up to 24 free photos per listing in most categories.
• Stock photos generally not allowed as the gallery image, especially for used items.
• Maximum 12 MB per image; aim for 300 to 800 KB in practice.

The same source images can serve both marketplaces if you prepare them correctly. The workflow is the same regardless of how you captured the photos — phone, DSLR, or studio rig.

Start with the largest source file you have. Crop to a square aspect ratio with the product centered — Amazon and eBay both display gallery thumbnails as squares, and any non-square photo will get cropped at the platform discretion, often badly. For Amazon, ensure the background is pure white; for eBay, you have more freedom but white remains a safe default. Confirm the product fills at least 85 percent of the frame for Amazon compliance.

Once cropped and color-corrected, resize each image to 2,000 by 2,000 pixels. This single dimension works for both platforms — well above the Amazon 1,000-pixel minimum, well above the eBay 1,600-pixel recommendation. Use the Image Resizer to handle a batch in one pass.

Then compress. Both Amazon and eBay accept large files, but smaller files load faster on slow connections, which matters for mobile shoppers — and shoppers on slow connections are a meaningful share of marketplace traffic. Run the resized images through the Image Compressor at JPG quality 82 to 85. The output should land at 250 to 700 KB per image. This is the sweet spot: small enough for fast loading, large enough that zoom still looks sharp.

• Square crop with product centered; both platforms display square thumbnails.
• Resize to 2,000 by 2,000 pixels for both Amazon and eBay compatibility.
• Compress to JPG quality 82 to 85, targeting 250 to 700 KB per image.
• Process in batches rather than image-by-image when preparing a catalog.

The single most common cause of Amazon main-image suppression is an off-white background. A background that looks white to the human eye may be 252, 252, 252 or 250, 250, 250 in RGB — close to white but not pure white. Amazon automated checks compare against pure 255, 255, 255 and flag anything below threshold.

The second most common cause is a product that does not fill enough of the frame. A shoe photographed in the middle of a wide white background may only occupy 60 percent of the image. Amazon wants 85 percent or more, which usually means cropping more aggressively after the white-background photo is taken.

Other frequent suppression triggers include text overlay (price, free shipping, brand name), watermarks for stolen-image protection, props that are not part of the sale, shadows that read as colored rather than gray, multiple products in one image when only one is sold, and color profile issues that cause the white to display as off-white in the buyer browser.

Recovery from suppression usually requires uploading a corrected image, then waiting 24 to 72 hours for the Amazon review pipeline to re-evaluate. There is no manual escalation path that meaningfully speeds this up except for cases where the suppression was a clear false positive.

• Pure 255, 255, 255 white background is enforced strictly on Amazon main images.
• Crop aggressively so the product fills 85 percent of the frame or more.
• No text, watermarks, props, or extra products on the main image.
• Suppression recovery takes 24 to 72 hours after corrected image upload.

Sellers with large catalogs deal with hundreds or thousands of product images. The file-size choices that look minor for one listing become significant at scale.

Saving each image at JPG quality 82 to 85 produces files of 250 to 700 KB depending on product complexity. A catalog of 1,000 SKUs at this size totals 250 to 700 MB — manageable on any modern storage and bandwidth setup. Saving the same catalog as PNG would produce files 5 to 10 times larger with no visible quality improvement, since product photos are photographic content where JPG performs perfectly.

If you maintain a separate archive of full-resolution source images for future use — for marketing collateral, print materials, or replacement listings — keep those archives in a different folder from the marketplace-ready compressed versions. Mixing source and output files in the same directory leads to accidentally re-uploading the wrong version, which can either bloat the listing or, worse, upload an uncompressed file that fails marketplace size limits.

When uploading via Amazon bulk image upload tool or via eBay File Exchange, file naming matters. Both platforms expect specific naming conventions to match images to SKUs. The most common pattern is SKU.MAIN.jpg for the main image and SKU.PT01.jpg, SKU.PT02.jpg for additional views on Amazon. eBay uses simpler conventions but consistent naming still helps you find files later.

• JPG quality 82 to 85 hits the right size-quality tradeoff for marketplace listings.
• Keep source archives separate from marketplace-ready files to prevent upload mistakes.
• Follow each platform naming convention when bulk uploading.
• A 1,000 SKU catalog should total 250 to 700 MB of marketplace-ready images, not gigabytes.

Most product photos start out non-square, especially when shot on a phone. Most iPhones save as HEIC by default. Both formats need conversion before upload.

For non-square photos, crop to a square that keeps the product centered with comfortable headroom. Avoid stretching to square — distorted product photos look amateurish and harm conversion. If the original photo has too little room around the product to crop square cleanly, retake the photo with more space around the subject.

For HEIC source images, convert to JPG before uploading. Amazon and eBay both technically accept some HEIC files, but compatibility is inconsistent across the platforms processing pipelines and the safer choice is always to convert to JPG first. The File Converter handles batch HEIC-to-JPG conversion in one operation, after which the resize and compress workflow above applies normally.

• Crop to square with product centered; never stretch to square.
• Convert HEIC to JPG before upload — compatibility on the marketplaces is inconsistent.
• The same resize-and-compress workflow applies after format conversion.
• Retake photos with more headroom if the original cannot crop square cleanly.