Glossary · Marketplaces
Gallery image (secondary image)
A gallery image is any listing photo after the main image, used for other angles, details, scale, lifestyle scenes and infographics, and held to looser rules than the first slot.
Gallery images go by several names. Amazon calls them additional images and files them under variant codes such as PT01; sellers also say secondary images. On Etsy, Shopify, TikTok Shop and Walmart they are simply the photos after the first one. They are where a listing answers the questions the main image cannot: what the back looks like, how big it is, what it is made of and how it is used.
Each platform sets its own count. Amazon recommends at least six images and one video. TikTok Shop allows up to 9 square images and asks for no duplicate angles. Etsy allows up to 20 photos and 2 videos per listing. Walmart recommends a minimum of four images and lists duplicates as not allowed.
Looser does not mean anything goes. Amazon's rules for all images ban reviews, star ratings and claims such as "free shipping", and ban Amazon logos and badges such as "Amazon's Choice", "Best Seller" and "Prime". TikTok Shop's listing quality guide asks sellers to avoid promotional stickers and to avoid one base photo turned into several colours with editing software.
The common mistakes are padding: near-identical crops of the same angle, the main image repeated with a coloured border, or every colour variant made from one photo. Shoppers notice, and the platforms' own rules count against it.
PicBarn's gallery pack puts your own photo in slot one and fills the later slots with lifestyle, on-model and infographic images built around the unchanged product pixels.
See also
- Main imageThe main image is the first photo in a product listing, the one buyers see in search results, and on most marketplaces it must show the real product alone on a plain white background.
- Amazon image variant codes (MAIN, PT01, SWCH…)Amazon image variant codes are the labels, such as MAIN, PT01 and SWCH, that tell Amazon which slot an uploaded image fills: the main image, an additional image or a colour swatch.
- Lifestyle imageA lifestyle image shows the product in use or in a real-looking setting, such as a kitchen, desk or garden, to show scale, context and who the product is for.
- Infographic imageAn infographic image is a gallery photo with added text, icons or callouts that explain features, dimensions or materials, placed after the main image because main images must carry no added text.
Related
- AI product photography — lifestyle scenes from one photoPlace your product in a kitchen, living room, desk or outdoor scene. The product stays pixel-exact; the scene, light and shadows are generated around it.
- Amazon infographic images — A+ feature callouts with real textMake Amazon infographic images and A+ content modules in a minute: describe the product, type up to four selling points, pick a layout. The text is rendered exactly as typed, readable at thumbnail size. 1 credit per image.
- Etsy listing photo requirements: sizes, formats, the unedited-photo rule, and how to export them from one photoEtsy’s photo rules from its own help pages: 2,000 px recommended, 635 px floor for the first photo, 20 photos and 2 videos per listing, jpg/png/gif/svg/heic, the new rule that most listings need one unedited real photo, and what AI edits are allowed.