Retail and e-commerce guide

Cloudinary is a powerful microservice that seamlessly integrates into your tech stack. It provides end-to-end image and video management at scale, leveraging automation and AI to optimize performance, quality, and visual experience. While API-first, Cloudinary also offers a Media Library UI for easy asset management.

For e-commerce, this means faster load times, visually cohesive product displays, and a seamless, high-quality shopping experience—enhanced by personalization—across websites, marketplaces, and social platforms.

How Cloudinary enhances your image and video workflow

Cloudinary empowers you to optimize, personalize, and automate images and videos at scale. Here are key ways it transforms your workflow:

Dynamic customization across channels

Adapt images and videos for every channel

Store a single source asset and dynamically generate variations optimized for different platforms:

Personalize product visuals

Automatically customize product images with user-defined text and color selection for a tailored experience.

AI-powered image and video enhancements

AI background removal and replacement

Instantly remove and replace backgrounds in images using generative AI.

Smart video cropping

Ensure the main subject stays in focus when resizing or cropping videos:

Auto-generated alt text

Leverage AI-powered object detection to generate meaningful alt text automatically:

AI outpainting for extended images

Use generative AI to expand images seamlessly when changing the aspect ratio:

Recolor products with AI

Generate product images in different colors without costly repeat photo shoots:

Interactive and adaptive video experiences

Dynamic video overlays

Ensure text, highlights, and effects move dynamically with items in a video:

How to use this guide

To get the most out of this guide, we recommend the following approach:

Best practices

• Start with Best practices to understand the foundational elements Cloudinary provides. This section outlines key considerations that help you make informed decisions before implementation.

Visual differentiators

• Explore Visual differentiators to discover branding, personalization, and immersive media techniques for a distinctive and engaging shopping experience.

Workflows

• Use the Workflows section for step-by-step guidance on structuring efficient image and video workflows. This section provides detailed examples for managing both product and non-product images, helping you tailor Cloudinary’s capabilities to your organization’s needs.