Photo books, Calendars... advice?

[patcollins]

I am a web designer who is currently building a series of sites where the customers can design their own photo books, calendars, greeting cards, photo cards .

Most of the orders will be small from end users but the accumulated volume will be high . I am having great difficulty securing the services of a printing firm due to the fact that I'm not ordering 300+ of the same product , but sadly little Timmy's mother doesnt want 300+ copies of his school formal photo book.

Am I just looking in the wrong place or is what I'm asking not reasonable ? I would have thought it would be a good opportunity for a small to medium business to charge a premium for 1 off jobs? Can someone offer me some advice on whos door to knock on? or will i need to go and buy my own gear?

Obviously I want to be competitive with the hoards already doing it online , I do have some great niche ideas but price will be a factor . I've calculated what people are saying is costs them per page and going on market price theres enough profit to go around for anyone interested.

Thanks
Pat

 

[Whygen]

Are you UK based?

 

[WiseGuy]

Pat,
There are many companies doing this sort of business in the US and most of the "big boys" offer these services are a very low cost. I was the Marketing Manager for a place called the Personalization Station. In the 90's we were one of the largest players in this area of custom photo calendars. We sold 10's of thousands a year. But eventually the bigger players in photo services such as OFOTO (Kodak), Snapfish, Walmart, VistaPrint, etc.... drove us out of business. Mostly because we wouldn't change our business model - but the point is, there was LOTS of competition with a huge investment in automated back-end systems to make it work financially.

Not trying to be a wet blanket, but it is a very tough business to just break into. I would look at maybe partnering with one of these suppliers and this way you're really just a front-end marketing and sales arm for them. I'm sure some of these companies offer up some sort of branded programs.

Good luck!
Michael

 

[patcollins]

Thanks

Thanks

Thanks Michael for the feedback , I've definitely got no illusions of taking on any big company in the near future . I think what you say is right about being a front end , but unfortunately the margins vs headaches with some of these guys is why I'm out trying to source my own team of suppliers.

It's always been my primary intention to be the middle man for the bulk of the stuff , and I have a few untapped niche markets that I think will do really well in my local Australian market place.

Maybe I'm just being naive but it just seems that some of the industry sales people are being short sited , especially since I'm letting them call the numbers. I had one guy quote me $145 for a photo calendar because he didn't want to touch the idea ..... but like you said it may have accumulated into 10000 calendar job. The same guys probably going to complain if it's quiet next month.

 

[Banditto1]

We tried it, but the customer side took too long. Too many grandma's that would take up valuable CSR time.
There are guy on the internet are completely web enabled the client does the design on the screen.

 

[patcollins]

Thats exactly what I'm trying to do ... have a totally automated process.

 

[Carl38]

Hi Pat,

You may check our Koffeeware Photo Web Shop solution. It is a fully customizable e-commerce solution dedicated at selling photo customized photo products.

Best regards,
Carl

 

[[email protected]]

If partnering with an established online supplier is a possibility, take a look a moo.com. There may be something there for you.

 

[ilovemedia]

Although I think it’s important to contact a client as soon as you can, I still feel like ten minutes is a bit over exaturated. It’s important to get back with them, but you shouldn’t drop everything to tend to an e-mail response.

 

[design]

is there any software or machanisam to reduse the gaininess(noise) in photos in toner based machine?

 

[printchesco]

If you expect to make a lot of business doing this and feel that the profit would be good in the long run, then there's no problem investing on some of your own equipment. However, you'd have to make a good plan and account for certain problems that you could encounter along the way. Oh and you need to refine the ordering process or people will just get confused.