2 January 2018

Photo Personalisation: an opportunity for PSPs to diversify and profit

Technology has revolutionised most industries, but none more than print. And it is technology that's driving the photo personalisation market across the globe. The introduction of the smartphone with its integrated camera has galvanised users into wanting to do much more with their images than just share them in cyberspace. Users are starting to realise that they can design and order an unparalleled number of personalised photo products from their mobile devices, using images that are stored on their phones.

4G networks have also become so prevalent that these users can literally be on the move almost anywhere and be able to click a link to a photo gift, upload a photo and pay online whenever they want to.

The advances in digital printing have given us amazing choice when it comes to choosing a digital press, and the quality has never been higher. Digital printing has also given us the flexibility and speed to handle orders with a quantity of one, efficiently and profitably.

What's interesting now is the coming together of these technologies and how this has created a new impetus in a market that has been established for a number of years. Only now is it possible to harness the speed and availability of the phone network, combine this with photo personalisation software that's accessed from smartphones, and deliver a print ready file to a digital press that can output a beautiful keepsake, all within a matter of minutes.

It's time printers took full advantage of these technologies. Most will already have a high quality digital press and maybe even some capacity too. Printers will also have the skills in-house to produce a wide range of photo-centric products such as calendars, prints, canvases and photo gifts.

Technology is a major factor that can help printers reach their target audience. Smartphone users are typically prolific social media users, and use social media to search for and review products that they want to purchase. Social media can provide a ready-made target audience of smartphone users with hundreds of images each. In fact, Infotrends predicts that there will be 1.7 trillion photos taken in 2017 alone.

Taopix gives print service providers a software platform that allows them to create templates and sell highly personalised, profitable photo products online to smartphone users through a customisable web app. There is no limit to the type of products that can be sold, and smartphone users can be either android or iOS users.

With the western Europe market set to reach €3.3 billion* in 2018, now is the time to take a closer look at this profitable and growing sector.

For more information, visit www.taopix.com