Today’s digital world has brought photography into our daily life like never before — we’re accumulating hundreds of snapshots of all sorts of moments and memories. But for most of us, those photos remain primarily on our phones, and cloud and hard drives. This single detail might seem trivial for most, but many printers and photolabs will see red flags. It is true that for a time, many players in the imaging industry have struggled, but the avant-garde ones have caught on to the trends of the changing times. The witty print and photo product retailers are already benefiting from growth promised by online customers avid for high-end goods. The star of luxury photo products has incontestably been the photobook. And as the photo album market is reaching maturity, vendors need to keep their business up to date in order to retain their share of the pie.
As this day and age is encouraging digitization of the photo album industry, let’s look at 4 ways to modernize your photobook printing business.
- Make it online
Hopefully this is just a simple reminder for most: this is the number one rule for any business today. There is no better way to get the opportunity to showcase your products to untapped audiences. A few points to keep in mind when starting an online photobook business are to build a webstore which represents your brand, is based on data and analytics, has an appropriate range of products, and has the optimal technology in order for you to engulf the market rapidly.
- Allow your customers the best technology to create their photobook
A webstore is one of the fastest ways to expose your business’ premium service capabilities while also automating your operational processes. Nonetheless, there’s a difference between showcasing your own products and actually letting customers create one for themselves. We recommend considering a photobook designer with hassle-free creation journey and that can be fully integrated with all eCommerce and printing workflows. Installing an online photo album design tool into your eStore will allow customers to literally design their own products which suit their wishes. This increases customer engagement on your website and enhances your brand image on the market. Many more trickledown effects are to be expected, including increases in time spent on site, which in turn has positive implications on SEO. Moreover, integrated workflows guarantee that customers receive their products at record speeds, and that your business has the ability to fulfill more orders and grow its basket of revenues.
- Give your customers all the extras they want to create it
As reported in our Luxury personalization & its opportunity for print: The rise of the high-end photo product article, the online photo printing industry is seeing notable innovations. Engraving, dust jackets, die-cut, embossing, and high definition photography printing are a few examples of what used to be novel nice-to-haves, but are now becoming the norm in the industry. A study by Market Research Future expects the global photo printing market to reach a valuation of $27 million by 2023.[1] Being in that trade, it is your mandate to give customers reasons to continue taking photos and gain their business. Innovative embellishment options and extras answer the growing demand for high-end photo products and will give your photo album printing business that modern and luxe feel.
- Offer packages and upsell/cross-sell options
As we discussed previously, the journey on your webstore must be smooth and effortless from homepage to check-out. But what happens once customers have embarked down the road of design and are wrapping up their personalization? First, product changing options can give a touch of modernity to customers who are used to choices, as well as be put towards an effort to further grow your basket of revenues. Indeed, customers will be able to use the option to upgrade their original choices, thereby contributing to the success of your upselling strategy. Moreover, including the albums into packages can help you not only win over the budget-conscious customers, but also poses as an elegant way to encourage them to use more of your services. This, in turn, contributes to your cross-selling efforts.
[1] https://www.marketresearchfuture.com/reports/photo-printing-market-2701
