When a listing is created, Osello picks its primary image and its alternate images from the photos already on your product. It aims for images that meet the marketplace's rules for that field, without ever choosing the same photo twice.
The primary image
Osello starts with the photo your product already uses as its main image. That's your choice, so it keeps it — unless another image is clearly better: known to meet a marketplace rule your photo is known to break, and no worse on anything else. A photo Osello simply knows less about never wins the slot.
When your photo does break a rule, Osello looks for a better option in this order:
- Other versions of the same photo. If you've already cropped or edited that image, the version that meets the rules is used. Staying with the photo you picked matters more than switching to a different one.
- Your other product photos. Only when nothing based on the original works does Osello move to a different photo — and only once your primary photo (and the other photo) have been analyzed by Osello's AI. Until then Osello has nothing reliable to compare, so it sticks with your photo or one of its own versions.
If nothing is clearly better, your original photo stays. The listing's readiness check reports the image if it doesn't meet the marketplace's rules, so you can fix it rather than have a worse photo chosen for you.
Which rules matter most
Marketplaces care about some things more than others, so Osello weighs them in order:
- Which way the product faces — front-facing is the usual requirement.
- The background — often required or preferred to be white.
- The shape of the image — the aspect ratio the marketplace asks for.
A photo that faces the right way wins over one that merely has a better background. You can see which rules apply to a field on the marketplace's Fields page — open the field and read its instructions.
Shape never changes which photo is chosen. Facing and background decide which photo; the aspect ratio only decides which version of that photo — when you already have a crop of it in the right shape, the crop is used. Osello won't switch to a different product photo just because it happens to be the right shape.
Alternate images
The alternate images are your remaining product photos, with a few adjustments:
- The primary image is left out, along with any crop or edited version of it, so the same photo never appears twice.
- Off-shape photos are swapped for a correctly cropped version of the same photo when you already have one.
- Preferred angles come first. When a marketplace asks to lead with a back or side view, Osello moves that photo to the front of the list — preferring an alternate angle of the primary image itself.
- Customization photos are dropped when the marketplace excludes them, such as images showing monogramming or other made-to-order details.
- The list is trimmed to the maximum number of images the marketplace accepts.
Why a photo you expected wasn't chosen
Your photos hadn't been analyzed yet. Osello studies each image to learn which way the product faces and what the background looks like, and that runs in the background after images arrive. Until your primary photo has been analyzed, Osello only ever swaps in a crop or edit of that same photo — it won't weigh your other photos against it. And a photo that hasn't been analyzed can never be a better match, so your original choice stays.
Images are chosen once, when the listing is created. They aren't re-picked on their own once the analysis catches up, so if a better photo has since become available, use Update with AI on the field or pick the image yourself.
Nothing available met the rules. If none of your photos meet the marketplace's requirements, Osello keeps your primary image rather than substituting a worse one, and the listing reports the problem so you can fix it — see required fields and listing readiness.
Osello won't crop or edit during this step. Choosing images is only ever a selection. Cropping to shape and whitening backgrounds happen separately, so a photo is never silently altered while a listing is being created.
Change the images yourself
Open the listing, find Primary Image or Alternate Images on the Fields tab, and click the pencil to pick different photos. Anything you set by hand is kept — Osello never overwrites a value you chose.