PHOTOGRAPHERS. DESIGNERS. A new market-research report from InfoTrends seems to suggest that professional photographers who can help make it easier for consumers to convert images into attractively designed books, posters, collages, and other projects can develop additional sources of revenues.
In the report entitled, “U.S. Consumer Photo Merchandise Market Forecast: 2010-2015,” InfoTrends projects that the photo merchandise market can grow substantially, reaching $2.2 billion in revenues by 2015.
They group photo merchandise in four categories:
- Photo books
- Photo greeting cards
- Photo calendars
- Specialty photo items
Specialty photo items include enlargements greater than 8 x 10 inches, posters, framed photo prints, photo collages, and fine-art photo prints on canvas.
InfoTrends analysts believes that photo books will contribute the most to overall revenue and will experience the largest growth numbers.
Attracting more first-time buyers into the photo merchandise market will be essential to achieving the forecasted growth rates, notes David Haueter, an associate director at InfoTrends: “Our consumer research data shows that, in 2010, only 32% of survey respondents had purchased any type of photo merchandise in the past year. This was an increase over 2009 numbers (25%), but there is still nearly 70% of the population that have not purchased photo merchandise in the last year.”
He believes vendors of photo merchandise can succeed by offering attractive and competitive products and marketing efforts that clearly show the benefits. In addition, photo-merchandise vendors must be constantly looking ahead to anticipate what additional products their customers will want or what types of new design or product features will appeal to them.
Vendors who sell photo merchandise to consumers must also consider how to improve the workflow process associated with creating and ordering photo merchandise items to make it simpler for their customers.
“There are challenges involved in being successful in this market,” Haueter says, “But InfoTrends has a very positive outlook on the long-term health and growth of this market, as it gives consumers a creative outlet for doing things with their photos.”
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U.S. Consumer Photo Merchandise Market Forecast: 2010-2015
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