The Importance of Backgrounds

Backgrounds: this can be a truly divisive feature option. Through our exposure to the industry, we have noticed a clear preference for the style of background depending on the demographic of the shopper. Lucky for Fotomerchant customers, the 36pix team has provided us with an extensive range of backgrounds to please the fussiest shoppers. I’m looking at you, Grandma.

Why Bother with Backgrounds?

If you have perused our recent national survey documentation, you may have seen some interesting findings about backgrounds. These are important to consider when you are kitting out your Fotomerchant background gallery options. So let’s start your introduction to Fotomerchant backgrounds here and get elbow deep in some data.

It is important to first lay down some demographic information from the 30K parents who completed our survey:

  • 99.7% were residing in the United States

  • 93.1% were Female identifying

  • 49.8% were 36-45 years old

Make of that demographic what you will, but keep this in mind when looking at the following stats. Half of these survey participants listed that 52.7% of their school photographers provide backgrounds.

Hold onto your seats. If you are a studio in the 47.3% percentile that doesn’t provide backgrounds, look at the graphic below. Yes, you are reading that correctly 81.1% of parents would like to see some backgrounds. I bet you are glad you clicked on this article now. First of all, you’re welcome; second of all, get some backgrounds!

Woah Woah! Easy there. Just because you have a bunch of backgrounds does not mean you should show them all. Have you ever stood in the supermarket, frozen by choice of cereal? Yeh, your shoppers have as well. Don’t freeze your customers with the paradox of choice. Show fewer backgrounds and make the shopper’s decision easy.

To help inform your decisions on which backgrounds to prioritize, we included a question about the type/style in our survey. As you can see below, basic colors were an obvious winner at 28.6% Textures closely followed this at 22.4%. What this data tells us is that sometimes less is more. Hence, simple, basic color backgrounds let the student be the star of the show. View the graphic below to see how other background options were scaled.

The demographic of the shopper can often influence the background they choose, which can vary from school to school. Why not do your very own split test with your backgrounds? Provide one school with some basic colored/textural backgrounds and another with more themed/school environment backgrounds. Using our handy reporting system, you can then analyze how often the backgrounds are added to the cart. Decipher the popular backgrounds depending on whether the shopper’s child is a senior vs. in a primary school. Let us know your findings; as you can probably tell by now, we are true data nerds!

36Pix

So, now you are as excited about green screen backgrounds as we are, let me introduce 36Pix. 36Pix has been providing us with new backgrounds so you can offer your customers some snazzy options. You can check out our webinar with 36Pix for more details about our partnership.

Here are some of the new premium backgrounds available to Fotomerchant customers:

How does this look within the shopping cart, I hear you ask? Click the video below to see these bad boys in action:

Play Video

The video above gives you a quick run-through of where to set up and view your green screen backgrounds. First, go into your media library on the left panel. You will see a background folder with some standard backgrounds. If you click the folder below, CloudCT Premium Backgrounds, you can view our premium backgrounds. This folder is updated throughout the season, meaning you can spice up your backgrounds regularly. Never a dull background day with us here! Stay up to date with the freshest styles and designs.


Adding backgrounds gives your shoppers a dynamic and visual experience. It allows them to sprinkle some personality into their print and create the perfect piece to sit in their family home. That’s what is at the heart of backgrounds, and it’s the customization to make their print feel more like their own. So don’t deny your parents any longer. Instead, provide them with backgrounds that warm their heart and widen their smile.

That’s a Knockout!

Behind every good background is a good knockout. To create a seamless transition of a student onto a background, use our knockout feature in Studio.

No, Jessica isn’t having a photoshoot on a beautiful autumn day; she is actually sitting on a stool in rainy Buffalo. :shushing_face: Behold the work of our magical AI knockout technology.

Click here to read a recent blog about how you can automate your background knockouts. Then, if you are still hungry for more, why not head over and watch our webinar about pre-order automation and the role knockouts play? Thanks for hearing me out about the importance of backgrounds; I promise you won’t regret adding some color and personality to your shopper’s carts.

School Photography Industry Report

The day we have all been waiting for with bated breath is finally here. So, with great excitement, I’m here to welcome you to the first School Photography Industry report! The report you will see below is a joint initiative between Fotomerchant and School Photographers of America (SPOA).

Data. Does that excite you? Well, it should. The data we collated for your benefit can transform how you conduct your studio. We believe that data allows for educated and concise moves within the industry. Without data, we would be standing in the dark, unable to track what works and flops. This report is your touchstone for valuable information and insights that will inform and inspire your organization to grow.

The best part of this is that we’re just getting started. This report is a foundation for further research and comparison to find correlations and insights that will span into the future. So strap in and get ready for a wave of beneficial information coming your way in future reports. 

The report is split into four key components: Demographics, Price, Quality, and Choice. I will give a brief overview of the highlights captured in this report. For the in-depth analysis, you can download the report for your casual perusal. We cast our metaphorical net large for this survey and surveyed a whopping 31 thousand individuals. 

See the below graphic to see this number broken down.

We surveyed a mix of parents and teachers to understand better customers’ order habits and the more practical needs of teachers. ​​Teachers hold crucial input as they hold an influence over school photos and yearbook processes.

Without giving too many spoilers away, you really should see it for yourself; here are some interesting results we saw emerge from the data for parents. For the parent demographics, we noticed the majority of survey respondents were 36-45 years of age and female; this changes how we interpret the data collected further below.

Woah, Woah, easy there! That is all I am going to show you here. Download the report to see more of this juicy data (and there is plenty more where that came from). 

As we look to use this report as a baseline for further studies in the future, it would be greatly appreciated if you could provide your feedback via the feedback form. After you undoubtedly devour the report, please share your thoughts on what you found informative and where you think we can improve.

More is better when it comes to data collection. If your company wishes to participate and gain access to these surveys to be included in your communications this fall, please register here.

We could not have completed this mammoth effort without help from a plethora of studios nationwide and the individuals who graciously donated their time and feedback. We extend a huge thank you to everyone involved in creating this report. We are standing on the precipice of knowledge that can mold our industry for the better, only created through a collaborative effort and understanding of a common shared goal, which I think we can all agree is to provide a service that makes us all proud.

Survey Interim Results

Without data, we are guessing at best.

In 2021 Fotomerchant announced we had joined School Photographers of America as a strategic partner, and one of our initiatives was to launch an industry-first national survey. During SPAC, we presented a broader outline of what we aim to achieve along with some of the interim results we had collected over the first few months, and we’re excited to share this information with you.

What Is The Report?

Without data, we are at best guessing what drives our customers to make the purchases they do. We don’t clearly understand why they purchase the things they do or what products they want. While you likely have customer reports that give you a glimpse of this information, we are creating this annual report using a national survey of parents and schools to provide insights across the entire industry.

This report is a collaboration between Fotomerchant and SPOA, and the full report will be available at their conference in June, so make sure you attend. 

What Data Are We Capturing?

This year, we’ve been collecting data from parents and schools to give us an initial understanding of what they want and where their pain points are. The initial goal is to establish a baseline that we can later build upon. In the future, we’ll be expanding the areas of inquiry, such as doing a deep dive into the digital products parents may be interested in or asking an expanded set of targeted pricing questions. In addition, we will look to broaden the survey to include school photography studios and, potentially, vendors. There is endless potential on how we grow the survey and limitless opportunities for data collection.

We’re currently focusing on four critical areas of interest:

Demographics 

An essential part of the survey, we’re delving deep with this to obtain the who and where information we need to get a baseline.

Price

We want to know how much are parents willing to pay and why. Along with uncovering if they think the pricing is fair or too expensive and so on.

Quality 

Discover what parents expect and how important quality is to them relative to price.

Choice

Learn if we are giving parents what they want and determine if we are giving them too much choice or too little.

Interim Results

We received over 10,000 responses from both parents and teachers across 24 states during the first week of launch. We’ve pulled a handful of this data and are thrilled to share the insights with you: 

Here’s a brief look at some of the questions we’re trying to answer:

What size prints do parents want?

Keep in mind that we are barely scratching the surface here, and there are many more questions we ask, but this is a quick example to give you a taste of the type of questions we’re asking. While you may have a pretty good idea of what your customers want, do you have the data to back it up? Also, is there an opportunity for you to dial in your product offerings? 

80% of parents want a 5×7 print, and only 7% of parents want 1×2 minis

How much do parents think digital is worth? 

There’s no denying that digital is growing, and we know parents are interested. However, we want to learn more about what they think digital is worth, if we are pricing them correctly, and how these answers may vary from state to state, zip code to zip code, household income to household income, etc.

66% of parents think digital is worth $10+

Are parents happy with their eCommerce experience? 

With sales rapidly moving online, accelerated by the pandemic, is the online shopping user experience fulfilling their expectations, or is there room for improvement.

54% of parents are happy with their current eCommerce experience, and 46% are unsure or not satisfied with their experience

Are schools being offered backgrounds by their studio? 

There are exciting insights about parents wanting choices on the types of backgrounds they want to buy, such as basic colors, textured, themed, patriotic, etc.

Only 36.5% of schools are being offered backgrounds by their studio, and 63.5% of schools are unsure or are not being offered backgrounds

Does any of this data change based on location? 

This ties back into the demographic information we’re capturing for each survey respondent. Likely, behaviors and expectations will not be uniform. For example, buyer information collected in New Jersey will be different from information collected in Florida. We’re gathering the empirical data to back up this theory and provide solid evidence to support it.

Find out at SPOA in June if this data changes based on location and get even more details.

How You Can Help

If you’re interested in helping, you can share the survey with your parents and schools! The more data we collect, the more comprehensive and accurate it will be for the industry. Parents are also happy to participate in the survey, and we’ve had a respectable conversion rate of just over 1% and an excellent completion rate of close to 90%. While there is room for improvement, we’re thrilled parents are responding positively, and we’ll be looking to tailoring the performance of the survey over the coming years.

We’ve collected some incredibly insightful data across 24 states. Still, we want to obtain data from across the country and need enough data points to make the findings statistically relevant. We have just over 10,000 completed parent surveys, and we want to have over 100,000 completed surveys by the time we generate the report in June. Achieving this goal will be of tremendous value for the entire industry, and we believe that we can only do it together with your help.

Subject Image Added Event Trigger

When it comes to marketing to customers, you may shy away from expanding beyond a manually sent “Your Images are Online” alert due to the complexity of setting up triggered email campaigns, or worse, fear of accidentally triggering an email before the images are ready. While potentially valid depending on the service you’re using, this decision can drastically reduce your potential income. Think of it this way, when you send out a single email alerting customers that their images are online, your entire profits for that shoot are based on that one email. If the email is triggered too early, the impression customers receive isn’t the greatest. There has to be a better way to market images, and we’re happy to say we’ve created it.

Fotomerchant now offers a streamlined workflow to let your customers know their images are online that leaves less room for error and gives you the ability to automatically send emails each time images are added into the gallery. How did we do it? We created the Subject Image Added Event Trigger that allows you to preload subject data without triggering emails to customers.

How does it work? 

Simply preload subject data into a session at any time, and until the images of the subject are uploaded, no emails will send out to parents. When the images are added, the email will be triggered once within a 12 hour period to help eliminate spamming and provide you with the ability to make quick adjustments without triggering additional emails. The trigger can be used in conjunction with other scheduled campaigns as well, so you’ll never have to miss an opportunity to market your images. 

Here’s an example use case for seniors:

  • Let’s say you receive subject data in late June. You can create the sessions within your account and preload this data.
  • You take the senior’s photos at the school in mid-July.
  • You upload the retouched images into their gallery a short time after the shoot, and the trigger sends an alert to the customers letting them know their images are online.
  • You take additional photos of the same senior outdoors in August. 
  • You upload the retouched outdoor images into their gallery, and another trigger is sent to the customers letting them know new images have been added into their gallery for purchase.

This allows you to focus on the shoot, retouching the images, uploading the gallery, and provides you peace of mind that the customer will be alerted each time their gallery is updated with new photos.

In a nutshell, the trigger takes out all the back and forth often needed when setting up email campaigns and streamlines your workflow. You now preload data once and know emails will be triggered when you add new images. As a result, sales are not missed or delayed, parents are excited to get emails, and you can spend more time doing what you do best: getting more clients and taking epic photos.

Fotomerchant has acquired Simplephoto!

A pioneer in e-commerce for photography studios everywhere, Simplephoto are one of the longest-running and most respected platforms in our industry.

It’s a really exciting moment for us and a huge step toward our mission of creating a workflow without the work.

You probably have a bunch of questions and we promise we’re going to get around to answering them in the days and weeks ahead. We will be sharing more information shortly so make sure you stay tuned to our social channels and keep an eye on your inbox but if you feel like you just HAVE to know something, don’t hesitate to get in touch or read the full press release below.

Please join us in welcoming Simplephoto to the Fotomerchant team.

Kinds regards,

Derek, Elmar and the entire Fotomerchant team.

Elmar Platzer & Derek Clapham - Co-Founders of Fotomerchant

PRESS RELEASE:


FOTOMERCHANT COMPLETES ACQUISITION OF SIMPLEPHOTO

The world’s #1 workflow platform for volume photography studios and a pioneer in e-commerce for photographers have come together to transform the global volume photography market.

Customers will be able to unlock even greater value through the release of new automated tools to make their workflow better & faster.


SYDNEY, Australia. – 23rd February 2021 – Fotomerchant, the leading workflow platform for volume photography studios, today announced it has completed its acquisition of Simplephoto, a pioneer and one of the longest-running e-commerce platforms for the photography market. This marks the first acquisition for Fotomerchant as it continues its expansion into global markets.

Comments on the announcement: 

“Simplephoto is an extraordinary company with an amazing team and a solid product that has been developed over the last 21 years,” said Elmar Platzer, CEO, Fotomerchant. “Combining our highly capable, committed teams, and customer bases will provide us with the scale required to further accelerate what already is an industry-leading rate of innovation. This acquisition perfectly supports our vision for the industry, which is to provide volume studios with an alternative to the old way of working – by delivering powerful AI-driven tools and insights to transform their workflow.”  

“When we first met Fotomerchant a few years ago, we had an instant connection with their team. Their passion for challenging the way studios work and improving the industry really resonated with us” said William Metz, Founder of Simplephoto. “The workflow solutions and reputation Fotomerchant has built in a few short years are extraordinary. When they approached us last year at SPAC 2020 and offered to acquire us, we knew it was the right decision for our team and our valued customers.” 

A clear goal to move the industry forward

With the acquisition of Simplephoto, Fotomerchant will be further enabled to drive the volume industry forward through innovation and technology. The addition of the Simplephoto team will make Fotomerchant stronger than ever, bringing more than 30 years of expertise together with a singular vision of driving the industry forward.

Working better and faster together. 

Combining the development and support expertise of both the Fotomerchant and Simplephoto teams ensures that customers will continue to receive the best workflow solution possible today and into the future with accelerated innovation and product development.

A relentless approach to quality support

Today’s volume studios need the best support possible. Bringing the two most recognized support teams together ensures that Fotomerchant customers will get the most responsive and personal support in the industry.