Image Troubleshooting

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Every detail page requires at least one product image. In this set of pages, you can find information on requirements for product images, what you can do with your images, and how to troubleshoot when you have product image-related issues. Select a page from the left navigation pane to see more information.

Product image requirements

Every detail page in the AlphaDiscounters store requires at least one product image, and we recommend you provide six images and one video. Good images make it easy for customers to evaluate the product. Images should be clear, informative, and attractive. The first image on the product detail page is the “MAIN” image and is shown to customers in search. The MAIN image must show only the product for sale on a white background, and the product should fill the image frame. Additional images should show the product in use or in an environment, different angles, and different features.

Important: You can find a list of AlphaDiscounters image standards specific to some product categories in the corresponding category Product page style guides. Note that in the case of overlaps or conflicts, the guidelines of each category takes precedence.

Image Issues

When you upload your image files, they are checked to confirm that they meet technical file requirements. Files failing to meet these requirements will not be uploaded to your listings. When images are received from multiple sellers, AlphaDiscounters will favor the images that meets the style guides and standards.

If the images on your AlphaDiscounters product listings do not comply with these product image requirements or violate the Selling Policies and Seller Code of Conduct, the product listings may be removed from search until a compliant image is provided.

Are you having problems uploading images?

For more information and image examples, refer to Image Issues.

Site standards for ALL product images

Images must accurately represent the product that is for sale.
Images must match the product title.
Product must fill at least 85% of the image.
The optimal zoom experience for detail pages requires files to be 1600px or larger on the longest side. Zoom has been shown to help enhance sales. If you are unable to meet this requirement, the smallest your file can be for zoom is 1000px, and the smallest your file can be for the site is 500px.
Images must not exceed 10,000px on the longest side.
Images must be JPEG (.jpg or .jpeg), TIFF (.tif), PNG(.png), or GIF (.gif) file formats. JPEG is preferred. Our servers do not support animated.gifs.
Images must not be blurry, pixelated, or have jagged edges.
Images must not contain nudity or be sexually suggestive. Leotards, underwear, and swimwear for kids and baby must not be shown on a human model.
Images must not include any AlphaDiscounters logos or trademarks, or variations, modifications or anything confusingly similar to AlphaDiscounters logos and trademarks.
Images must not include any badges used on AlphaDiscounters, or variations, modifications or anything confusingly similar to such badges. Refer to trademark usage guidelines for more details.

Site standards for MAIN product images

MAIN images must have a pure white background (pure white blends in with the AlphaDiscounters search and product detail pages—RGB color values of 255, 255, 255).
MAIN images must be professional photographs of the actual product (graphics, illustrations, mockups, or placeholders are not allowed). They must not show excluded accessories or props that might confuse the customer.
MAIN images must not include text, logos, borders, color blocks, watermarks, or other graphics over the top of a product or in the background.
MAIN images must not include multiple views of a single product.
MAIN images must show the entire product that is for sale. Images must not touch or be cut off by the edge of the image frame, with exception of Jewelry (such as necklaces).
MAIN images must show products outside of their packaging. Boxes, bags, or cases should not appear in the image unless they are an important product feature.
MAIN images must not show a human model that is sitting, kneeling, leaning or lying down; however, expressing various physical mobility’s with assistive technology is encouraged (wheelchairs, prosthetics, etc.).
MAIN images of multi-pack apparel items and accessories must be photographed flat (off-model).
MAIN images of clothing accessories must not show any part of a mannequin, regardless of the mannequin’s appearance (clear, solid-color, flesh-toned, framework or hanger).
MAIN images for Women’s and Men’s clothing must show the product on a human model.
All images of Kids & Baby clothing must be photographed flat (off-model).
MAIN images of shoes must show a single shoe, facing left at a 45-degree angle.

If you are creating your own images, you may find our self-service imaging products and photography videos useful.

Refer to the full Image Style Guide to understand the requirements across all different Clothing product categories. This document will also give you the guidance on image requirements with clear do’s and don’ts in the Clothing category and examples that help you to create compliant images.

Missing product images

To troubleshoot missing images, first verify that your images were submitted properly. If, after verification, the images still do not appear, contact AlphaDiscounters Seller Support and report a technical support issue. The troubleshooting steps you take depend on your submission method.

It can take up to 24 hours after adding an image for it to appear on AlphaDiscounters.

Note: Uploading an image doesn’t guarantee that it will be displayed. AlphaDiscounters selects the images to display amongst all the available ones. Follow the guidelines provided in the Product image requirements help page to ensure your images are eligible to be displayed.

Troubleshooting images in Seller Central

The “Add a Product” feature allows you to upload a product image as you create a new product. After creating a product, you can use the Manage Inventory feature to provide a new product image.

If you use either of these features to manage your products, do the following:

Click the Inventory link, and then click Manage Inventory.
Search for or locate the product with the missing image.
Click the product name, which will load the product’s detail page.
Is there a product image(s) on this page? If so, you can choose to not upload.
It takes up to 24 hours for an image to be displayed. If it has been more than 24 hours that you sent your images, then move to step 6. Otherwise check again after 24 hours.
Your image might not be displayed because it does not meet the AlphaDiscounters image standards, outlined here. If your image doesn’t meet standards, fix the image by going to the Manage Inventory page, locate the product and click Edit and choose Manage Images. Follow the on-screen directions to submit a new image. Note that because we are continuously improving our image selection process, we may not yet indicate all the reasons why your image has not been selected. If you believe the current selection is incorrect, refer to the section below about contacting AlphaDiscounters Services for technical support.

Troubleshooting images with inventory files

An inventory file allows you to specify a location from which AlphaDiscounters retrieves a copy of your product images. However, errors in your inventory file can block AlphaDiscounters from successfully retrieving the product images.

This section lists some common errors that are related to the image:

Symptom

Reason

Resolution

Product image does not appear on AlphaDiscounters

The most common reason is that the URL for that image does not actually capture the product image

Verify the image URL and resubmit the product image feed.

AlphaDiscounters rejects the image.

The most common reason is that the submitted image is encoded in an invalid format. AlphaDiscounters can only accept images in .jpg, .tif, or .gif formats.

Convert the file to .jpg, .tif, or .gif, revise the product image feed file, and resubmit the product image feed.

You can refer here to know more about correcting invalid image URL error.

Note: You must use a direct URL. A pop-up or a redirecting URL will not be accepted, and the upload will not be processed.

If you use inventory files to manage your products, do the following:

Check your inventory file processing reports for errors. For more information, see Review Processing Reports.
Modify your inventory file to correct any errors contained in the processing report.
Upload your modified inventory file.
Repeat until your inventory file is free of errors.
Allow 24 hours for your images to appear.

Getting additional technical support

If you have followed the troubleshooting steps above and your product images still appear to be missing, contact AlphaDiscounters Selling Partner Support.

In your message, include the following:

The troubleshooting steps you have already taken.
The method you use for managing your product and inventory data. Batch ID, in case you used troubleshooting steps with Inventory Files.
The for each product without a product image.

Rotate a product image

Image-viewing software will sometimes auto-rotate images so that they look correct in the viewer, but the saved version of the image is still not properly oriented. This is why you might see some images upside down or sideways after you upload them to AlphaDiscounters.

Rotate an image

You cannot edit an image after uploading it. You must first rotate the image where it is saved using a photo-editing program. To do this:

Open the image in a photo-editing program.
Rotate the image, and re-save it.
Re-upload the image to AlphaDiscounters.

Note: You must re-save the image after rotating it to correct the orientation. If the rotation is not saved, the image might continue to look correct in the image viewer, but still appear incorrectly after you upload it to AlphaDiscounters.

Technical Image File Requirements

The image should meet the following technical requirements:

File format should be JPEG/JPG, PNG, TIFF or GIF (JPG preferred).
Color should be RGB or CMYK (RGB is preferred because CMYK color sometimes shows color tonal variations when displayed on our website). See Image color section below.
Resolution should be at least 72 dpi.
Images should be 1,600 pixels or larger on the longest side. This minimum size requirement enables the zoom function on the website. Zoom has been proven to enhance sales.
Files cannot exceed 10,000 pixels on the longest side.

Most image editing software includes a function that indicates and lets you change the pixel dimensions. If you do not have image editing software, but the image will display in a browser, you may be able to right-click and view the image properties to indicate the pixel dimensions.

For the best results, submit your images with minimal or no compression. Resizing small images to be larger reduces image quality.

For JPEG images, save at the highest possible quality level and avoid resaving the image in JPEG format while editing the image. For TIFF files, do not apply any file compression. Remove layers from all images before submitting.

Our servers can only accept images that are formatted to our specifications. We reserve the right to reject images that do not meet our content standards, even if the images meet the technical formatting specifications.

We do NOT accept images submitted in these formats

We do NOT accept file formats that are proprietary to a specific software application, including, but not limited to

· EPS (Encapsulated Postscript File)

· BMP (Windows Bitmap)

· PDF (Portable Document Format)

· PSD (Native Photoshop Files)

· IA (Adobe Illustrator)

· ERT (European Online)

· CDR (Corel DRAW)

· CPT (Corel Paint)

· FH (Macromedia Freehand)

· FLA (Flash), .PICT (MAC OSX default)

· PSP (Paint Shop Pro)

· DOC (Microsoft Word)

Image Color

Our customers use a wide variety of displays that render colors differently. It is likely that colors you see on your screen are different from what someone else sees. To ensure your images display accurately, follow our image color specifications.

Color Mode	Description	Accepted?
RGB	RGB is the color mode native to the web and most color screen displays. RGB stands for red, green, and blue. These three colors displayed at varying levels of intensity create over 16 million colors. The RGB color space is used for product images.	Yes
CMYK	CMYK tends to show color tonal variations when displayed on a website, since this color mode is designated for printed materials not web display.	Not preferred. Use RGB instead.
Grayscale	Grayscale is a color mode that is used both in print and on the web. The grayscale color space uses 256 shades of grey to create images.	The grayscale color mode can be used for images on Alphadiscounters.com only when it accurately depicts the color of gray or silver metal products.

Color Profiles and Color Display

ICC color profiles are a type of data stored in an image to indicate how electronic equipment interprets color data. These are useful in the printing industry to ensure color accuracy, but are not commonly used for web display.

Images which rely on a specific color profile for accurate color display may not appear as intended on AlphaDiscounters.

To ensure color accuracy, submit files that use the RGB or working color format. To convert your image profile to RGB or Working RGB you must have image editing software that has that capability.

Name Your Image Files

The naming requirements in this page apply to the tool used to upload images in bulk. See Upload Images.

We use the file name of your images to associate them with your product’s detail page and to identify them as Main or Additional images.

To name your images files, create the file name with three components, separated from each other by a period. Spaces, dashes or additional characters will prevent your image from uploading to AlphaDiscounters (for example, NEW-B0001 23456.jpg).

The accepted naming convention is: Products + variant code + file extension (for example, B000123456.MAIN.jpg or B000123456.PT02.jpg).

The variant code is a 4-character code that indicates what type of image you are uploading. Images with no variant code in their name will be treated as a Main image. For example, B000123456.MAIN.jpg or B000123456.jpg will both be treated as Main images.

For additional images, choose a four-character variant code based on the content of the image. For example, B000123456.PT01.jpg would show part 1, and B000123456.BACK.jpg would show the back of the product.

Note: There is a list of specific variant codes that are accepted by AlphaDiscounters. See the below table for the most common variant codes. If you receive an incorrect file name error, but you followed the correct naming convention, your product may not yet be active in the AlphaDiscounters catalog.

Image Type	Description	Variant codes
Main image	Used for Main images. The Main image shows in search and browse and is the primary image on your products detail page.	MAIN
Swatch shots	The SWITCH shows up in the thumbnail underneath or to the right of the larger image on a detail page. Usually a color sample image for use on detail pages that offer multiple versions of the product. If a SWITCH does not exist, the MAIN image will be used as the thumbnail image instead.	SWCH
Part shots	Additional angles, product in use, screen shots, accessories, or product details.	PT01, PT02, PT03 and so on until PT99
Interior shots	Usually for sample pages of books.	IN01, IN02, IN03 and so on until IN 99
Angle shots	Used to show additional angles or sides of a product.	TOPP, BOTT, LEFT, RIGHT, FRONT, BACK, SIDE
Pair shots	Used to show a pair of shoes or similar product with a pair.	PAIR
Fact shots	Nutritional facts and ingredients label.	FACT
Energy guide	Energy Guide images.	EEGL
Awards	Test results, awards and certificates associated with the product must be uploaded as AW01, AW02, etc. This ensures the award is displayed in the special designated Awards Section on the page. Please note that the compliance with any legal or copyright requirements for these awards is your responsibility.	AW01, AW02, up to AW99
Lay down or Flat apparel image	Used to show the full view of an apparel item off-figure in a flat or lay down shot	FL01

Image Troubleshooting

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