A better way to manage Takealot Marketplace images
High quality images are a vital component of any product listing on the Takealot Marketplace. However, uploading images, creating direct links and ensuring that they end up in the correct loadsheet is tedious and can often result in the loadsheet being rejected.
In this article, we’ll take you through the processes and tools that we recommend for managing images when creating new listing for the Takealot Marketplace.
Takealot has a very strict technical requirements for images that are added to a Marketplace product listing. If a seller does not follow these requirements their product listing will be rejected.
General Requirements for Takealot Marketplace Images:
- Images must be either in .jpg/.jpeg format or .png format
- Image background must be White and cannot be transparent.
- Minimum 72 DPI (to maintain the image clarity when zoomed)
- The maximum file size is 2MB
- Colour mode is sRGB
- Image composition: 85% – 95% of the frame needs to be filled out.
- Aspect ratio: as close to a square aspect ratio as possible or in ratios of: 4:3, 3:2,16:9, 5:3 and 5:4. A ratio of 8:1 will not be accepted
- Maximum 2048 px by 2048 px on ANY side.
- Minimum: No shorter than 600 px on ANY side
For more details on image requirements you can read the offical Takealot Marketplace Image requirement guide
Getting Started
Cloudinary is image hosting tool that makes managing images for the Takealot Marketplace Loadsheet significantly easier.
Cloudinary provides tools that are well suited managing images for the Takealot Marketplace loadsheet:
- A simple interface to upload images
- At a glance view image specifications
- Copy a direct image link with a single click The image hosting service offers a generous free tier that will fit the requirements of any Takealot Marketplace Seller.
To get started with Cloudinary, you can sign up for a free account here. Once you’ve created your account you’ll see the dashboard.
To upload you first image to your Cloudinary Media Library click on Media Library
The Media Library is where all your image assets will be stored. You can create folders and organise your images however you see fit.
Click the Upload button to begin the upload process
Locate the images you require for your Takealot Loadsheet. Cloudinary allows you to select and upload multiple images at once.
Once your image has been upload it will appear in the Media Library.
Along the bottom of the image thumbnail you can see both the image file size and the image dimensions.
At the top of the thumbnail the paperclip button is a direct image link, clicking this button will automatically copy a direct link that you can immediately paste onto your Takealot Marketplace Loadsheet.
Editing and Resizing Images
However, the Takealot Catalogue team will reject this image since its dimensions are too large. Takealot restricts images to a maximum 2048 px by 2048 px, whereas our image is 2535 px by 1617 px.
Cloudinary makes it very simple to adjust image dimensions.
To adjust the dimensions of an image that are larger than those required by the Takealot Marketplace hover over the image thumbnail and click the Edit icon
The image editor tool from Cloudinary allows us to easily adjust the dimensions of an image.
Under the Resize & Crop heading ensure that Mode is set to scale, then move the Height or Width slider until the image dimensions are below 2048 px by 2048 px.
Once you are happy with the size of your image, you can copy the new image link – displayed under the HTTPS heading – and paste it into your Takealot Marketplace Loadsheet.
Adding Cloudinary to your Takealot Marketplace product creation workflow will help decrease the number of errors that occur on your Loadsheet.