What Makes a Rug Product Image Successful on Home24?
What Makes a Rug Product Image Successful on Home24?
Home24 is not a classic open marketplace - and that’s crucial information for rug retailers. While over 700,000 third-party sellers compete on Amazon, Home24 operates with a curated model: Only around 100 selected retailers are approved, and every product is reviewed before going live. That means less competition - but also higher requirements for image quality. Anyone who tries to launch on Home24 with poor product photos won’t go live at all. In this article, you’ll learn what Home24 technically and strategically expects from rug images, how the Scandinavian Design Ethos influences your visual language, and how AI lifestyle images help you achieve the editorial quality that Home24 customers expect.
Why Rugs Are Particularly Hard to Photograph
No product in the home & living segment suffers as much from bad photography as a rug. The problem starts with size: A rug in 200x300cm needs either a studio professional with the right equipment or a top-down view that shows the pattern - but that view destroys the three-dimensionality. High-pile rugs look like a flat cotton runner from above. Pile height, the play of light in the fibers, the softness you can almost feel - all of that disappears with a straight-down camera angle.
The second challenge is pile direction. Velour, viscose, and high-pile variants show completely different colors depending on light and viewing angle. The shimmer effect of a viscose rug is a key selling point - and barely communicable in a single front-facing image. Customers who buy a pastel gray rug online and find a beige-gray one at home will return it - and that’s a math problem for every retailer.
For Home24, the style question adds another layer: The marketplace has a clear design ethos rooted in Scandinavian interior design. Clean shapes, natural materials, light tones, functional elegance. A rug image presented on a white background without context doesn’t answer the first question of the Home24 target audience: “Does this rug fit my interior?” Room scenes that reflect this ethos aren’t an optional add-on on Home24 - they’re the difference between going live and having your product rejected.
Image Requirements on Home24 for Rugs
Home24 runs its Seller Portal on the Mirakl Marketplace Platform. The full technical specifications only become available after registration in the home24 Seller Portal - that’s part of the curation process. What is known from available information:
Main image: A white or very light background with the rug as the central subject is recommended. Minimum resolution is 1,000x1,000px - however, for Home24’s design standard, at least 2,000x2,000px is recommended, as zoom function and detail representation matter to the design-conscious target audience. The main image is the first quality filter for Home24’s review team.
Additional images (Misc Images): Home24 distinguishes between standard additional photos and so-called “Mood Images” - lifestyle images that convey emotions and context. For rugs, both image types are important: Detail shots for material and texture, room scenes for size reference and style connection.
Number of images: 8-15 images per listing are recommended. Fully illustrated listings are prioritized by the review team and have better chances of editorial placement.
Image review: All images go through mandatory review by Home24’s quality team. Approval takes 1-10 days. Images that don’t meet technical or aesthetic standards are rejected - the product only goes live after correction.
Color space and format: RGB files are expected (as with all digital platforms). JPG and PNG are accepted. Color accuracy is especially critical for Home24, as the platform evaluates return rates as a quality metric.
Home24’s Scandinavian Design Ethos
Home24 has a clearer aesthetic identity than most other marketplaces. Anyone comparing Home24’s homepage and category pages with Amazon or Otto will immediately see the difference: less product surface area, more white space, consistently bright image worlds, clean shapes. The Scandinavian design principle - function and aesthetics in balance - runs through the entire platform.
For rug images, this means concretely: Lifestyle images that perform well on Home24 typically show bright rooms, natural materials (wood, linen, untreated surfaces), little visual clutter, and a rug that can be clearly assigned to an interior style - Scandinavian-minimalist, modern, classic, or naturalist. The typical Home24 customer is design-conscious, urban, and female (25-55 years) and doesn’t buy a single product, but a vision of living.
This target audience responds positively to images that show how the rug changes the overall picture of a room - not just product documentation. A lifestyle image showing a bright Scandinavian living room with the rug as an anchor point communicates more selling arguments than five technical detail shots combined.
Image Strategy: Combining Cutouts and Mood Images
The optimal image strategy on Home24 combines two image types with clearly defined roles.
The cutout main image delivers objective product information: Pattern, color, format, proportions. It enables direct comparison between products and passes the review check without issues. For the cutout, the classic quality criteria apply: even lighting, no shadows on the background, rug centered and shown without compression. For rugs with pile direction, at least two cutout shots from different angles are needed to show the shimmer effect.
The Mood Images are the Home24-specific lever. These lifestyle images show the rug in a concrete interior context and answer the emotional purchase question. For Home24, scenarios that reflect the Scandinavian Design Ethos are recommended: bright rooms, clean lines, natural materials. A boho rug lying in a hippie-chaos room in the image doesn’t fit Home24’s visual language - even if the product is good.
Effective Mood Images for rugs on Home24:
- Bright living room with the rug under a seating group (size orientation)
- Bedroom section next to the bed (most typical rug use)
- Detail shot of the pile with side lighting (communicates texture and quality)
- Top-down view from a slight angle (shows pattern without total flat overhead view)
AI Lifestyle Images for Home24-Compliant Scenarios
The main problem for many rug retailers: Producing multiple high-quality lifestyle shoots in different styles is expensive and logistically demanding. Photographing a rug in 10 different room scenarios means 10 different studio setups or access to staged living spaces.
AI-based image generation like showcase solves this problem. From a single high-quality cutout, any number of lifestyle scenarios can be generated - the rug is integrated into virtual rooms, light and perspective are adjusted, different interior styles are possible without a single rebuild. Especially valuable for Home24: You can deliberately produce scenarios that match the platform’s Scandinavian Design Ethos - bright birch wood furniture, linen-colored sofas, natural materials in the background.
The workflow for Home24-optimized rug images with showcase:
- Professional cutout as base (studio, white background, optimal lighting for pile quality)
- Cutout is used for Amazon and as Home24 main image
- From the cutout, 3-5 lifestyle scenarios are generated via AI (Scandinavian, Modern, Classic, Naturalist)
- Detail shot of pile texture via AI zoom and targeted lighting
- Complete image set uploaded to Home24 - review in 1-10 days
The cutout is thus not only usable for one platform but the starting point for a complete, platform-appropriate image strategy.
Cost Table: Rug Images for Home24
| Image Type | Traditional Production | With showcase |
|---|---|---|
| Cutout main image | €150-300 (studio) | €150-300 (studio base still required) |
| Mood Image / Lifestyle (per scene) | €300-800 (studio setup + stylist) | €15-40 (AI from cutout) |
| Detail shot pile texture | €80-150 | Included in showcase |
| Color variant (same pattern) | €200-400 (new shoot) | €20-50 (AI color adjustment) |
| Complete set (1 rug, 10 images) | €1,200-2,500 | €200-450 |
Home24’s curation process means: Cheaply produced photos don’t go live. The break-even for showcase is reached with just a few products - after that, cost savings scale significantly.
Your Rug Image Checklist for Home24
Before uploading to the home24 Seller Portal:
- Main image: white background, min. 2,000x2,000px, rug centered, no shadows
- At least 1 cutout from angled perspective (shows pile height and three-dimensionality)
- For viscose/velour: second cutout with different light angle (shimmer effect visible)
- At least 2 Mood Images in Home24-compliant aesthetic (bright, clean, Scandinavian-oriented)
- Lifestyle image with reference objects for size orientation (sofa, bed, armchair)
- Detail shot of pile texture (communicates material quality and haptics)
- All images in RGB (no CMYK), verify color accuracy before upload with screen comparison
- Number of images: at least 8 images for complete listing and better review chances
FAQs on Rug Product Images on Home24
Do I need a white background for the main image on Home24? Yes - for the main image, a white or very light background is recommended. This meets Home24’s image standard and reliably passes the mandatory review by the quality team. For additional images (Mood Images), lifestyle scenarios are not only allowed but expressly desired - Home24 explicitly distinguishes between standard product photos and Mood Images.
How long does image review take on Home24? Home24 has a dedicated review team that checks all product images before go-live. Approval takes 1-10 days. Images that don’t meet technical or aesthetic requirements are rejected, and the product only goes live after correction. While this process is more demanding than on Amazon, it also protects against low-quality competition.
Is Home24 worth it for rug retailers at all? Home24 grew to over 100 million euros in marketplace revenue within 18 months - with only around 100 approved third-party sellers. That means significantly less competition than on Amazon (700,000+ sellers) or Otto. The 15% commission is comparable to Amazon, but the target audience is more design-conscious and willing to pay. For rug retailers in the mid-range to premium segment, Home24 is an attractive channel.
Which interior style works best in rug lifestyle images on Home24? Home24’s Scandinavian Design Ethos is reflected in the platform’s visual language. Bright rooms, natural materials (wood, linen, cotton), clean shapes, and little visual clutter perform best. That doesn’t mean only Scandinavian rug designs can be listed - but the staging should follow this ethos. A patterned oriental rug in a tidy bright living room with wood furniture will convert better on Home24 than the same rug in an opulently decorated baroque room.
Can I use the same images on Home24 as on Amazon? The cutout yes - it’s suitable as the main image on both platforms. Amazon’s white background standard and Home24’s main image recommendation are compatible. The lifestyle images should differ, however: Amazon’s optional secondary images have no unified style standard, while Home24 has a specific aesthetic. With showcase, you can generate Amazon-compatible and Home24-compliant lifestyle images in various scenarios from one cutout - without double shoots.
Related articles:
- How do you create perfect rug product images for Amazon? - Amazon technical requirements and image strategy for the largest marketplace
- What images does your rug need for strong performance on Otto? - Wohnwelten logic and RGB strategy for Otto
- [INTERN: Teppich/Wayfair] - Teppich-Bilder für Wayfair optimieren
Your next step: You have a rug cutout but no Home24-compliant Mood Images in Scandinavian aesthetic yet? Try showcase for free - no credit card required: https://getshowcase.ai/
About the author
Author
Tim Hoffmann
Chief Product Officer, getshowcase.ai
Tim Hoffmann leads the product strategy for the AI image studio at showcase (getshowcase.ai). He brings years of e-commerce experience in product data, marketplace integrations, and visual content creation. His focus: helping Home & Living retailers turn product cutouts into photorealistic lifestyle images and room scenes in minutes – without expensive shoots, with measurably better conversion. Tim shares practical strategies for product images that perform on marketplaces and in your own shop.
