Though the photo specialty channel has had a rough decade adjusting to the digital transition, those that have weathered the storm are reinventing themselves as profitable parts of the worldwide $83 billion imaging industry. Photo specialty retailers that gathered in Las Vegas last month swapped profit ideas at the annual PMA Show. 600 vendors opened their booths at the Las Vegas Convention Center showing not only new cameras, which traditionally have profit margins under 10%, but a variety of imaging products like collage prints, postcards, and all manner of photobooks.
Kiosk and printing manufacturers are courting retailers hard, trying to sell one-stop solutions for creating high-margin imaging products. Fujifilm and Xerox have announced a new partnership that will create minilabs like the Xerox Phaser 7760 ($6200, available in April) which allow all sorts of retailers, not just camera shop owners, to get into the photobook and calendar business. KIS Photo-Me, a kiosk company based in France, is
pushing a small stand alone kiosk called a “Swifti” that lets tourists turn their vacation snapshots into postcards.
Online retailers like Shutterfly.com and Photoworks.com are also represented at PMA ‘07. Shutterfly, which had its third profitable year in 2006 with 123 million in revenue, is introducing new software which will allow its MAC customers to instantly upload images from iPhoto. Shutterfly spokesperson Bridgette Thomas says higher-margin products like framable 11×14 collage prints and the “keepsake box” (which Rosie O’Donnell gave Tom Cruise last Christmas) have been a big part of the company’s growth.
