Personalized Photo Products : Kodak & LifePics Partner to Provide Retailers with Cost-Effective Online Photo Merchandise Services
Private-Label Net-to-Retail Photo Fulfillment and In-Store Photo Specialty Gift Catalog Add Value to Kodak Kiosks
November 18, 2011The new services were developed to permit photo retailers to leverage their existing fleets of Kodak photofinishing equipment to cost effectively enter the net-to-retail fulfillment business, and offer consumers the convenience of ordering photos online and picking them up the same day in-store. The first two services, private-labeled net-to-retail photo order fulfillment and in-store photo specialty gift catalog ordering, are available now to U.S. retailers.
The net-to-retail order fulfillment path for photo merchandise is growing steadily in the U.S. According to InfoTrends, more than 21% of printed photo merchandise products (photo books, cards, calendars, specialty prints) ordered online in 2011 will be fulfilled in a retail store. That percentage is expected to approach 28% by 2015. The Kodak and LifePics partnership is designed to allow retailers who have made an investment in Kodak in-store equipment to participate in this market, adding value to their existing Kodak fleet and enhancing their portfolios of premium photo products that can be fulfilled in-store or offsite.
Retailers seeking to implement online photo services can take advantage of a pre-integrated net-to-retail order fulfillment solution. The service uses LifePics-enabled private-label photo merchandizing websites and Kodak’s net-to-retail connectivity installed on a Kodak Picture Kiosk or Adaptive Picture Exchange (APEX) minilab (V5.0 or higher) to fulfill online orders in-store for products such as photo books, greeting cards, calendars, collages and prints.
“Consumers want the ability to place orders online and pick them up in-store,” said Larry Trevarthen, vice president, Worldwide Marketing, Retail Systems Solutions, Eastman Kodak. “LifePics’ market-leading web-based photo services running on Kodak’s retail systems is an efficient, cost effective way for retailers to deliver the value and convenience of net-to-retail photo ordering for consumers.”
The Kodak/LifePics net-to-retail photo order fulfillment service is an alternative to web-based photo services that fulfill orders offsite and ship to home. “The ability to fulfill same-day orders is especially important during holiday seasons when retailers can offer online order service up to the holiday, providing retailers with an opportunity to increase photo revenue,” added Trevarthen.
Seattle-based Bartell Drugs, a drugstore chain with 58 stores, implemented the Kodak and LifePics service and has seen results. According to Howie Cohen, general merchandise buyer at Bartell Drugs, “We saw significant uptake in orders after we implemented the net-to-retail service. Sales of premium products like photo books have been particularly strong since we established a web presence.”
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