A folder of 300 unlabeled product shots is a liability. Someone picks the wrong colorway for a listing, a wholesale customer asks which jacket is the one on the left, a warehouse photo comes back without a SKU. Labeling the image itself, not just the file name, solves all three — because the label survives being copied, emailed, screenshotted, and pasted into a chat.
What to put on a product photo
- Product name — the customer-facing name, not the internal one.
- SKU or style code — the string your team actually searches for.
- Variant — color, size, material. This is where most mistakes happen.
- Price — only for internal sheets, wholesale line sheets, or promotional images you control; prices burned into permanent catalog imagery age badly.
A workflow that scales
- Decide one corner for the name and one for the code. Bottom-left name, top-right SKU works well because product shots are usually centered.
- Use the caption bar or data plate style — they read on both white-background studio shots and lifestyle photos.
- Size labels at about 3.5% of image width so they look identical after your platform resizes everything.
- Export as JPEG and keep the label in the file name too: A2210-navy-labeled.jpg.
Studio shots vs. lifestyle shots
On a clean white background, plain dark text needs no backing plate and looks more premium. On a lifestyle image with a busy scene, use a translucent bar or an outline; do not put text over a model's face or the product's key detail.
Internal vs. customer-facing labels
Keep two exports when it matters. The internal version carries SKU, cost code, and shelf location; the customer-facing version carries only the name and, if relevant, the price. Labeling both from the same source photo takes seconds and prevents the classic error of a cost code shipping to a customer.
Marketplace rules
Several marketplaces restrict text, badges, and promotional overlays on the main product image. Check the platform's image policy: in general, put labeled versions in the secondary image slots and keep the primary image clean.
Do it now: open the free photo labeler, drop in your image, and drag the label where you want it. Everything runs in your browser — the photo is never uploaded.