WEPB image format in PrestaShop to boost your store
In e-commerce, to offer an optimal user experience, it's essential to use adapted image formats that combine quality and performance for a beautiful, fluid store. That's where the WebP format comes in.
What is WebP format?
Developed by Google in 2010, the WebP format is a modern digital image format designed specifically for the web. It uses advanced compression technology based on wavelet transformation to achieve a significant reduction in file size without compromising image quality. The WebP format supports both still and moving images, offering an alternative to traditional formats such as JPEG and PNG traditionally used in PrestaShop product sheets.
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Benefits of the WebP format for e-commerce sites:
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Smaller file size: One of the main advantages of the WebP format is its ability to significantly reduce the size of image files, sometimes by up to 30% less than JPEG and PNG formats. Smaller file sizes mean faster page loading times, which improves the user experience on e-commerce sites. Faster loading times can also help reduce bounce rates and increase conversion rates.
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High image quality: Despite its more efficient compression, the WebP format manages to maintain high image quality. It supports both lossless and lossy compression algorithms, giving developers the flexibility to choose the appropriate level of compression to suit their needs. WebP images can display rich detail and color, ensuring that products on e-commerce sites are attractively presented to users.
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Transparency and animation: The WebP format supports transparency, which is particularly advantageous for e-commerce sites when it comes to overlaying images on complex backgrounds or integrating logos with smooth contours.
Moreover, it also allows the creation of animated images, thus theoretically offering an opportunity to present products as animated WebPs of better quality than gif while retaining smaller file sizes. I confess I haven't yet found the time to test, but I don't think PrestaShop 8.x is ready for this yet. Anyone care to test? -
Browser support: Over time, the WebP format has gained in popularity and is now supported by many popular browsers such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Opera and more. This means that PrestaShop sites using the WebP format can reach a wide audience without worrying about browser compatibility.
How to make Webp compatible with your PrestaShop store?
Simplifying the issue, there are two possibilities:
-Either you're already on the latest version of PretaShop 8.x, good news this format is natively supported, you don't have to do anything special.
-Either you're running PS 1.6 or 1.7. In this case, unless you're using a module that completely overrides image management, both in BO and in the store, you can't use this format directly. You need to load images in one of the supported formats (jpg, png, tiff...) and use either a module or an external service to convert images to webp a posteriori.
Great news, Merlin Backoffice Flex 2.0.1 supports WEBP. What does this add?
-Smaller files means shorter transfer times from PC or image server to PrestaShop. More admin time saved.
-Merlin Backoffice Flex, it's the king of mass image management: automatic association of images to categories, products or declinations, background transfers, product creation by simply dragging and dropping photos into the interface, parametric caption generator, duplicate management and automatic photo updates, etc., the list of features around images is very long.
All these features now also work from images in Webp format, brilliant.
It's free!
Are you a Merlin Backoffice subscriber? then yes, it's free for you. That's the advantage of the subscription system: you get all the new features as soon as they're released, without having to pay anything.
You're not a user yet? Merlin Backoffice is completely free for 15 days. What are you waiting for?
Don't wait any longer to upgrade to Flex 2.0.1 and boost your product pages. You'll put a smile on Google's face, your customers' face and your accountant's face.