Selling Online

Product photos for an online shop: what each channel wants, and what the rules are

Last updated 2026-09-23From Plien Roob — AI model photography for online stores

A good-looking photo and a photo that sells are not the same thing. A photo that sells has to clear the channel's own requirements first; looking good comes after. This page is a table of contents for everything Plien Roob has written for sellers, in the order shops actually meet it.

One — what the channel wants

Each channel has its own size and aspect rules, and those rules change. The pages below give the numbers together with the date we read the official page, so you know how fresh the information is.

Two square panels on white: on the left a small cream dress in the middle of an otherwise empty frame, on the right the same dress filling almost the full height, shown whole — On the left, the dress is about a third of the frame's height, so its details are hard to make out once it is shrunk to a small tile on a listing page. On the right, the same dress sits in the centre, almost the full height of the frame, whole, on white, which matches Shopee's cover criteria and TikTok Shop's main-image rules on centring, a white background and showing the whole product. A tall, narrow item like a dress still covers less than half of a square image's area even at almost full height. We made both panels ourselves from a ghost mannequin result from our system, originally a 3:4 portrait image, by placing the same dress on a white square at two sizes.

On the left, the dress is about a third of the frame's height, so its details are hard to make out once it is shrunk to a small tile on a listing page. On the right, the same dress sits in the centre, almost the full height of the frame, whole, on white, which matches Shopee's cover criteria and TikTok Shop's main-image rules on centring, a white background and showing the whole product. A tall, narrow item like a dress still covers less than half of a square image's area even at almost full height. We made both panels ourselves from a ghost mannequin result from our system, originally a 3:4 portrait image, by placing the same dress on a white square at two sizes.

Two — how far you can go with AI images

The short answer is that both Shopee and TikTok Shop allow them, with conditions — and the conditions are in their own terms, not our opinion. The page below summarises the official pages together with the date they were read.

What Shopee and TikTok Shop say about AI-generated content, summarised from the official pages with dates, and stating plainly that we are not lawyers.Selling with AI model photos: platform rules

Three — cost per image

A photography fee is a fixed cost paid up front per item, and items that never sell do not refund it. The more often you list, the more that matters. The page below compares the real prices of both routes.

Photography fees compared with Plien Roob's per-image price, worked out from real plan prices rather than a number we made up.Weekly listings without hiring a photographer

Four — shops that don't photograph the stock themselves

Personal shoppers, pre-order shops and secondhand sellers are in the same position: whatever the supplier sent, plus the one shot they took before the item went out. Each of those carries a different thing to watch.

Five — listing a lot, and keeping up

Every channel requirement on these pages is written together with the date we read the official page, because platforms change their pages without announcing it. Before any decision that matters, open the official page again on the day.

Frequently asked questions

What size do Shopee product photos need to be?

According to the official pages Plien Roob read on 20 September 2026, Shopee recommends a cover image larger than 500 pixels on each side, the product taking up more than half the image, and no watermark, logo or text covering the product on the cover. Platforms change these pages at any time, so check the official page again before deciding.

Do I have to tell customers a photo was made with AI?

Both Shopee and TikTok Shop allow AI images with conditions, and the conditions are in each platform's own terms rather than our opinion. Our platform-rules page summarises the official pages with the date they were read, and states plainly that we are not lawyers.

Can I list photos my supplier sent me?

That is a rights question that depends on your agreement with the supplier, and there is a second thing to watch: another site's watermark carried in the image. While testing Plien Roob, a watermark sitting on the fabric was copied through into the result, because the system deliberately preserves everything on the cloth.

How does a shop listing dozens of items a week keep up?

Generate as a set or as a batch in one run, so one product yields several images without pressing generate for each. Sign up free for 10 credits, given once, with no card needed. Your first free-plan image has no watermark; the images after it do.