Case Study
O'Connor Studios
Photographing underclass, cap & gown, proofs, classroom groups, panoramics, and sports, O’Connor Studios is a rapidly expanding studio. Since 2019, Fotomerchant has been helping power their workflow, e-commerce, and marketing.
Watch our recent talk with General Manager Jason Vanikiotis or read on for the full case study below.
Background
Starting out himself in 1965, Jack O’Connor quickly grew his photography business with the launch of the O’Connor School of Pictures from Main Street in Tewksbury, MA.
Known today as O’Connor Studios and based out of Boston, MA, the business employs over 100 staff during peak seasons and has photographed more than 12 million students.
And with any business going through periods of growth and change come unique challenges. For O’Connor, one of the biggest challenges they faced was finding better customer support to support their business. And as luck would have it, another Fotomerchant customer just happened to be listening.
Filling the Gaps
We were introduced to the O’Connor Studios team during a critical point in their season by an existing Fotomerchant customer (thank you).
After an impromptu flight to Boston, it was quickly realized that there were some significant gaps in their workflow, not just in relation to their search for better support, but particularly expanding their online presence. We dove right in with and got to work.
"Fotomerchant stuck with us the entire time. There was no being pushed around to other people. It was just, here's the team cause we're going to do it for you.
We hit the ground running and within a month, we got their studio up and running, accommodating existing workflow tools whilst transforming their online presence with Folio, our attested website portfolio builder. It provided O’Connor Studios with the customizable features needed to fill the nagging voids and made for a quick transition to a better online presence.
"The software is good, great actually. It's been fantastic and we truly enjoy it."
"Awesome, absolutely awesome."
Since adopting Fotomerchant, O’Connor continues to expand its online presence using Commerce, Studio, Folio, and our revolutionary marketing features that are built right in.
Navigating Change
COVID had a significant impact on many of our studios, and O’Connor Studios was no exception. When they reached out to us saying they weren’t sure they would be able to photograph during the season, (but wanted to continue setting things up), we knew how critical this was and immediately began working with their team to do everything in our power to accommodate the changes being thrown their way.
"It all had to kind of fall on Fotomerchant's marketing system."
O’Connor Studios knew if they were unable to send flyers to a school, they’d need to be able to send email marketing campaigns to parents which was going to be entirely new for them.
We quickly helped initiate their new email marketing program, and got parents and schools setup to receive marketing campaigns which worked perfectly.
As a result, the switch to the email marketing campaigns saw their package averages go up about 3-4% compared to what they were previously online, and they had 80% more online ordering with only 20% ordering with the flyers. We’re now looking forward to the next season of activity and how we can continue to improve their results through our seasonal marketing programs available to Fotomerchant customers.
Just Around the River Bend
We’ve partnered with the O’Connor team for about 3 years and are continually impressed with their determination, passion in the industry, and willingness to take those leaps of faith even when they don’t know what may lie ahead.
O’Connor’s excitement for trying and learning new things has expanded their opportunities and kept them going despite the challenges they’ve faced.
Our teams are thrilled to continue to work together to discover new ways to improve workflows and solve as many industry challenges as we can.
Let’s go!
Get in touch for a chat or even jump straight in with a live demo — and discover how you can make your Studio workflow better & faster with Fotomerchant. We promise you’ll love working with us.