Print on Demand providers killing the small printshop.

[dgberg]

Yes this is a business topic but it is also a topic relative to our printing group.

I just lost my second artisan/photography printing client this year to a Print On Demand service. I don't have many more I can lose.
I spent an hour going through that clients site yesterday taking notes on their new POD service.
Pricing, offerings, media, mounting and framing options and shipping.
I see why they went this direction too. I offer a lot here and figured I still have less than half of the offerings on that site and still no free shipping.
For example I did a large gallery wrap for a client in Jan. Had to build a 32" x 42" x 2.5" crate. $35 materials and an 1:15 to build.
I wanted to ship same day so I took it down to the postal service to mail, another 45 minutes and $65 to ship.
Charged the client $100 , nothing for the 2 hours labor to build and package and deliver the crate.
It took me longer to do that than to make the gallery wrap.
All the artist has to do after the art creation is shoot and edit the art and put it up on their site.
Everything from that point on is taken care of by the POD company. Taking the order, printing mounting and shipping.
The artist no longer is stuck with the arduous process of back and forth between the purchasing client and print provider.
Sure they are still in the marketing loop maybe over the phone or by email but once the client decides what they want they just select art and enter cc info and done.
Pretty hard to compete with that.
I presently have the capacity to do about 50% more than I presently do.
Losing those two artists takes away another 5% of my client base.
Does anyone here running a print studio have a website set up for artists and photographers where you are the print providers?
Not sure if that is something I want to get into in my late 60's? Time for a review of my business model.
Thoughts, suggestions?

[Rand47]

Dan,

Hard to compete with the convenience, for sure.  But how does the delivered product compare with the quality of your work?  If it is genuinely equivalent, you’re in for a rough ride.  But I’m guessing that the dictum that something can always be done a little worse, a lot cheaper, might apply here.  Why not test for yourself?  Put some images up, have them delivered to you and see what they look like compared to your equivalent product.  Assuming you have a distinct quality advantage, that’s something you can market to the clients who are thinking of abandoning ship for a POD service.  You’ll have “hard copy” proof of a superior product.

In an age of “good enough” - and if the POD product is “good enough” it is just evidence that our mass media, mass pop culture society has taken one more step toward uniform mediocrity.

My little (and I mean “little”) print studio survives on being a niche operation where the business model is a literal “sit down with the photographer here in my studio” as we optimize file for printing, talk about intention, talk about possible improvement in the “presence” in the printed image based on file modification.  Then on to paper selection, careful soft proof with the client participating, hard proofing, and final print and approval.  From that point on, I can do a kind of print on demand for those images that they’ve approved, but are most often shipped to the artist for their own distribution.  This obviously limits my potential for penetration into a large client base.  Artists/photographers have to either be local, or willing to travel for sessions.  The clients I do have LOVE what I do.  But it’s certainly not a practical model.

Rand

[John V.]

I use to offer fulfillment/drop shipping services to a number of Etsy sellers. I dropped out for a while and came back, and the whole game had changed. Everyone(sellers) wanted API functionality to make order processing simple. Simple to the point where the seller had to do absolutely nothing to get their orders fulfilled. They got an order on Etsy and it would automatically be sent to the printer, processed, and shipped out. I had an order form on my website that had to be filled out. Having this feature available to clients is probably pretty critical at this point if that's your market. I would have had to get something custom coded for my website to add this, and I just never pulled the trigger on it. Not sure how much to would cost. Probably a couple grand at least.

Printfuls API info https://www.printful.com/api https://www.printful.com/docs

John V.

[dgberg]

Dan,

Hard to compete with the convenience, for sure.  But how does the delivered product compare with the quality of your work?  If it is genuinely equivalent, you’re in for a rough ride.  But I’m guessing that the dictum that something can always be done a little worse, a lot cheaper, might apply here.  Why not test for yourself?  Put some images up, have them delivered to you and see what they look like compared to your equivalent product.  Assuming you have a distinct quality advantage, that’s something you can market to the clients who are thinking of abandoning ship for a POD service.  You’ll have “hard copy” proof of a superior product.

In an age of “good enough” - and if the POD product is “good enough” it is just evidence that our mass media, mass pop culture society has taken one more step toward uniform mediocrity.

My little (and I mean “little”) print studio survives on being a niche operation where the business model is a literal “sit down with the photographer here in my studio” as we optimize file for printing, talk about intention, talk about possible improvement in the “presence” in the printed image based on file modification.  Then on to paper selection, careful soft proof with the client participating, hard proofing, and final print and approval.  From that point on, I can do a kind of print on demand for those images that they’ve approved, but are most often shipped to the artist for their own distribution.  This obviously limits my potential for penetration into a large client base.  Artists/photographers have to either be local, or willing to travel for sessions.  The clients I do have LOVE what I do.  But it’s certainly not a practical model.

Rand

We have pretty much the exact same model. Most of my clients are photography enthusiasts many from the local photo club. The artisans again are all local.
Most come in and sit with me to go over their work before printing. I have not seen any of the prints put out by the POD companies but I would say my quality is second to none.
Part of my problem is running a business out of a huge studio shop with only a limited number of customers. When I had my cabinetry company I needed every inch of my 3500 sq. ft. shop when we were busy.
 It got to the point that I had to get out of the shop to sell projects to keep the guys busy. I had to turn from a craftsman into an almost full time marketing person, which got old really fast.
I see the same thing happening all over again. Seems like I am spending every waking moment trying to get new print clients with no time left to be doing what I started this business for.
Nice to have this much space for everything I do it is just a lot to heat, electricity and insure.. Keep plugging ahead, thank you Rand.

I will check out the Printfuls site, thank you John.

[dgberg]

I use to offer fulfillment/drop shipping services to a number of Etsy sellers. I dropped out for a while and came back, and the whole game had changed. Everyone(sellers) wanted API functionality to make order processing simple. Simple to the point where the seller had to do absolutely nothing to get their orders fulfilled. They got an order on Etsy and it would automatically be sent to the printer, processed, and shipped out. I had an order form on my website that had to be filled out. Having this feature available to clients is probably pretty critical at this point if that's your market. I would have had to get something custom coded for my website to add this, and I just never pulled the trigger on it. Not sure how much to would cost. Probably a couple grand at least.

Printfuls API info https://www.printful.com/api https://www.printful.com/docs

John V.

I just checked out their site and Printful seems like all the other POD sites.
I am not selling any of my photography. We are a printing, mounting and framing studio..

[mearussi]

It's hard to compete with free shipping which I assume they can offer because of high volume thereby getting a price break with their shipper.

You can compete on quality but not on price (unless you want to bankrupt yourself). Also you can offer more paper and canvas printing options than any POD can, specifically archival printing products which PODs could care less about. I also would be surprised if their print quality can match what you produce. As some else suggested have that POD print one of your images and then compare it to what you can do and then show that to your clients. If your clients care more about quality than the lowest price then they should want to stay with you.

[John V.]

I just checked out their site and Printful seems like all the other POD sites.
I am not selling any of my photography. We are a printing, mounting and framing studio..

I just mentioned Printful as an example of a POD service that offers the API feature that can tie into Etsy, Shopify, etc seller stores. My point was, volume sellers (artists, photographers) want this api feature to make their lives as a seller easier. Zero work on their part, aside from just listing their items online. Having an api designed and added to your website could be a worthwhile investment if you offer print fulfillment services.

[dgberg]

Understand.

[budjames]

Yeah, my photolab was disappointed when I bought my first Epson printer and printed my own photography fine art prints. I loved the quality, controlling the process and immediacy of making my own prints.

Perhaps you need to focus on quality difference, assuming that it exists. If clients don't appreciate any differences, then you will continue to be frustrated. It might be time to consider a new business.

I wonder what happened to all those folks who manufactured phone booths after we all started using cell phones?

Regards,
Bud James

Please check out my fine art and travel photography at www.budjames.photography or on Instagram at www.instagram.com/budjamesphoto.

[MichaelKoerner]

As I am actually considering to open a boutique print shop in my local, rural area I thought a lot about those topics during last year.

So I have no first hand experience, yet.

That said, in my opinion, the world won't turn backwards. Online services exist and have their advantages, as mentioned above.

So I would offer cooperation with such a service to my clients: Preparing the files for excellent printability still is a field where lots of know-how is needed - and the difference doing that properly or not is visible. As already said, well calibrated machines produce fine results today - in a grand printing fab as well.

From my own experience I presume that many photographers lacking of that knowledge (and being aware of that lacking) avoid using online services. No one will have a look at one's files there, no one will ask about lacking profiles, color spaces, paper choices...

Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of such a online service could lead to customer retention - you can offer the conveniences and low prices, thus perhaps reducing the amount of in-house printings, but perhaps increasing sellable service time (but I have to admit: No proper idea yet how to sell this service time :-/ )

In-house prints (fast, unquestionable quality, special papers, test stripes...) could then perhaps be sold more expensive than before.

Customer base could perhaps be expanded to those amateurs who are afraid of/not able to use an online service but won't pay the normal prices of boutique print shop normally.

One point to mention to pro customers: The convenience of having the print sent to end customers directly via online service requires lots of trust - you won't see the result before your customer does...

As said - lot of ideas, but not much personal experience yet.

Regards, Michael

[dgberg]

Thanks for your input Michael and best of luck in your new venture.
I have it all here a 3500 sq. ft. shop with all the equipment you could ever want or need.
The issue is how to get customers.
Last summer I sent a letter to a local photo club president with discount coupons of 20% for all the members. In addition I sent him 2-$25 and 1-$50 gift certificates to give as prizes when they run their contests.
If you can believe no one turned in those free certificates and not one person called or emailed me about the 20% off. Did the president just throw them away? The customers I do have are the best.
Trying to get new ones, not so easy.

[MichaelKoerner]

I have it all here a 3500 sq. ft. shop with all the equipment you could ever want or need.

Just had a look at your website: Really huge shop :-) Sorry, my first post was inappropriate - you have to keep your machines busy.

So, how about cooperating with some POD as a production facility? It can't hurt to ask (but that will need some software/API for sure).

Despite of that: Photoclub members could be interested in free tours and tailored workshops. I assume, you considered that already. But in my area those guys either print themselves or know how to deal with PODs. Some of them just need support on profiling/color management and sometimes bigger formats.

In my view, new generations of "photographers" to be addressed are the ones photographing with mobiles. I assume most of them don't even think about printing big, let alone on fine art papers. Mainly a communication task, but those are the people who still "gasp" when they see some of their mobile pix the first time manually brushed up, sharpened - and no, perhaps not on canvas, which is rather "usual" in the meantime, but on nice, heavy paper, matted, framed...

But if you wanted to address this target group, IMHO you would have to invest in a (design oriented) website relaunch and social media marketing.

[mcpix]

If you can believe no one turned in those free certificates and not one person called or emailed me about the 20% off. Did the president just throw them away? The customers I do have are the best.
Trying to get new ones, not so easy.

I've given gift certificates for the last 10+ years at the local county fair photo exhibit. In all that time only one person ever came in and used their certificate. I've also given gift certificates to the local photo club's contests. A couple of people have cashed in those certificates but I've never had any repeat business. Everyone loves my work, but it's always a challenge to get new business. I just picked up a new account last week who was using Shutterfly and some other online lab but ran into the problem of long processing times. I had his order ready the next day. He said I was his new "photo guy". We'll see.

It's hard to compete with a service that handles all the shipping and handling, even if we offer better quality. I have one customer that uses me for all his local sales, but he let's a POD service handle all the orders that need to be shipped.

For my business, I've decided that I just need to keep trying to get the word out in my local area about my services. It's hard. I've been in business 30+ years, have a retail location on a busy street, a decent website and a number of 5 star yelp reviews and people still tell me that they never knew I existed until they came in the door.

[MichaelKoerner]

Mcpix,

did you try social media/google campaigns? I was told they could be tailor-made regarding target groups, but would like to hear about first hand experiences.

[Rand47]

So I would offer cooperation with such a service to my clients: Preparing the files for excellent printability still is a field where lots of know-how is needed - and the difference doing that properly or not is visible. As already said, well calibrated machines produce fine results today - in a grand printing fab as well.

I do a little of this now.  I’m not a fan of metal prints (for a number of reasons), but some of my clients are for some of their work.  The same “black box” frustration is there with metal prints, and to some degree even more so since there is generally a shift toward green and especially in the blacks and deep shadows - IF one is not very careful.

I have an arrangement with a local purveyor of metal prints.  I have the ICC profiles they use.  A client can come to me for file optimization, and we can soft proof to the metal printer’s setup.   I also will sometimes make a “strip print” from the center of what is to be a LARGE metal print as a test of resolution, image brightness, color fidelity, etc.  These I make on a metallic paper soft proofed to look as identical to the soft proofed file for metal as possible.  This print often goes with the file as “a target to shoot at” for the metal print shop.  Has worked well.  The clients like it because their metal prints turn out better than the black box and pray approach, and the metal printer likes it because he has fewer “disappointed” customers and rejected prints.

Rand

[dgberg]

Rand,
Many of the Metal print color issues come from printers using CMYK dye sub machines. The color output on my P8000 is spot on and never needs any adjustments.  Black and white is a totally different story. Even with the black and grays their always is some tint. I’m still working on it.

[Alistair]

Sorry to hear about your customer losses Dan. Being in a related business, I can off a few observations from afar for what they are worth.

Your customers and market have undergone huge changes in the last 10-15 years. The impression I get from your website is that your business has not. Not saying that my impression is correct, simply the impression conveyed by your site. You probably need to invest in a marketing consultant who can help you identify your target customers and then re-jig your branding and offering to better target those customers. And that will probably (but not definitely) mean a sharp turn into the digital world.

You are obviously a smart guy with a technical bent and the good news is that there a lot of user-friendly tools available at very little cost to enable a digital transition. You don't have to pay someone to do it for you. Look to software like Woocommerce which is very easy to use and there is nothing you cannot do with it. What you suggest in your original post is quite easy with the right plugin. You can even use something like Printify and use them to extend your offering. https://printify.com/woocommerce/.

My impression is that you have a great capability there, you just need to re-think who your customers are now and rebuild your brand and offering to appeal to them (if you want to invest the time and a bit of money at your life stage - and there is no reason why not!).