Online Photo Printing Services are Booming

By Ron Leach

A new report from InfoTrends indicates an increased growth in the use of online photo printing services, resulting in surging revenues for web-based print providers. According to the Weymouth, MA-based market research and consulting firm, online photo service providers generated almost $450 million in revenue from prints and photo merchandise in 2006, and that figure is expected to exceed $1 billion by 2011.

The InfoTrends report points to several factors that are responsible for to this growth: One key is the stabilization of print prices after several years of decline. Other contributing developments include a consumer shift toward retail and online printing, and significant increases in the overall volume of prints and photo merchandise. There are nonetheless, challenges to businesses offering online photo services, including some projections that web-based image viewing (as opposed to printing) is gaining popularity for an increasing percentage of the population, and the possibility that late adopters of digital imaging technology may not share and print as many images as did the early adopters.

Alan Bullock, an Associate at InfoTrends, notes that “There are still many new customers to be gained, and retail partnerships such as those recently announced between Shutterfly and Target, Kodak Gallery and Best Buy, and Kodak Gallery and Target, can expose many more consumers to available products and services and should result in overall growth.”