Template Designer

Elevate Your Design Game

Welcome back! We’re thrilled to introduce you to a game-changing tool that will take your design skills to the next level: the Template Designer. No need for any drum rolls, just a reliable and cloud-based solution that will empower your creativity. With the Template Designer, you can easily create and share templates for various purposes, from ID cards to certificates. By offering schools additional design options for their in-house services, impress and retain new business like never before.

This blog is just a taster of what this bad boy can do. Watch the webinar linked below to see a deep dive into the functionality.

Unleash Your Creative Flexibility

Getting started is a breeze. Access Template Designer right from Studio and step into your very own creative haven, where templates are just a click away. They’re automatically linked to your Studio session, eliminating the need to juggle between different tools.

The Template Designer is all about flexibility. You can work with a single template and fine-tune it to your needs or effortlessly create variations. If you need to make adjustments, just duplicate a template and customize it to suit your project. Simple!

Discover the Key Features

Let’s dive into the exciting features that Template Designer offers. Easily create headers, sub-headers, and body text, acting as placeholders for client labels, addresses, cities, states, names, and more.

With these placeholders, populate the relevant subject data from Commerce/Studio. By configuring advanced rules, you can make specific lines transparent if you are supplied incomplete data. This ensures only available information is visible. Brilliant right? Remember, it’s always best to export a small sample to test!

You can add image placeholders, choose between original or JPEG images, and seamlessly remove backgrounds. Want to populate a cropped image from your session? We’ve got you. Customize your design to pull precisely the image you’d like to populate.

With Template Designer, utilize a vast library of backgrounds, allowing you to craft truly unique ID cards. You’ve got options! You can link your own background folders through Commerce (which is also linked to 36Pix) and even import your own images straight into Template Designer. You can also access an additional background area that pulls from the vast library of stock images from Unsplash. The template designer is your oyster!

Say you are using one set color as your background; with advanced rules, you can configure the background to change color depending on the grade or any other parameter you desire.

Need to add a special addition for students on a set bus route or a specific cafeteria option? With Template Designer, you can! Green for Option A, Blue for Option B, etc. It sure is a clever bit of kit! 

You have a wide array of media elements at your disposal, making image uploads a thing of the past. Just drag and drop your graphics and watch your designs come to life.

Seamless Integration with Portal

Templates designed with Template Designer are seamlessly linked to Portal, making it easy for schools to locate students and print replacements. It’s all about streamlining your processes. Every time schools print or render using Template Designer in Portal, behind the scenes, you can watch the magic happen in real-time. 

We’re constantly innovating the template design area and have exciting additions planned for the coming year. Think Memory Mate, Teammate, or Sports Mate; the choice is yours. Watch this space; these are coming very soon!

Whatcha waiting for? It’s time to elevate your design game with the Template Designer. Take inspiration from existing school designs and add your own flair, transforming them into something better and faster.

Want to read more about Template Designer? We’ve got a ton of information in our knowledge base area. If you ever have questions or need guidance, we’re here to assist you every step of the way. Reach out to us anytime through Slack.

The Data on Digitals

Here at Fotomerchant, we’re fueled by data. Always hungry to learn more about parent buying habits, we believe that without data, you’re only guessing. With digital products’ popularity increasing, we turned our inquisitive eye towards this trend. In today’s digital age, including digital photos in your product offerings is no longer optional; it’s necessary. If you don’t do it, your competitors will, and we can’t let that happen, can we?

This blog is the second installment of our two-part series uncovering the potential of digital products. Before we begin, we’d like to clarify that when we say ‘digital product,’ we mean image or video files captured digitally and distributed electronically. Click here to learn more about what makes our digital delivery particularly powerful.

Now, let’s dive head first into the digital delivery data. The following data was captured in our School Photography Industry Report. Over the past two years, we’ve surveyed over 74,000 parents. Through our survey, we’ve noticed the digital shift reshaping the school photography industry. Here’s what we’ve learned.

How Do Parents Use Their School Photos?

The data speaks loud and clear. Parents want digital photos. A staggering 53% of parents now want to see their child’s school photos as digital products. Yep, that’s over half of all parents!

Why? 33% of parents want digital images to share on social media. They’re not just collecting dust; these images are used to share with friends and family digitally. It’s the new norm, people!

What Parents Want in a Package

What do parents want in their school photo packages? Well, 46% of parents want digital photos included. Adding digital products to your catalog increases the overall perceived value of your other physical offerings. It’s a no-brainer!

But it’s not just about throwing in some pixels; it’s about customization. Custom backgrounds are all the rage, with 55% of parents wanting the option to choose backgrounds that resonate with them. Customization is key to making parents happy, whether it’s solid colors, textured backgrounds, or themed settings.

The data doesn’t lie; providing various options can be a game-changer. About 71% prefer solid colors, 57% love a bit of texture, and there’s a strong demand for themed backgrounds that reflect holidays, sports, and school environments.

This is a great way to increase your revenue, upsell by offering customization options, such as custom backgrounds, and watch your sales soar.

Another exciting opportunity to supercharge your offerings is through creating digital bundles. Release them at different times throughout the year to keep your customers engaged and excited about ordering more photos. 

Offer new themes, backgrounds, or exclusive deals to entice parents to come back for more.

How Much Are Digital Products Worth?

Now, the big question: How much are digital products worth? The data reveals that 40% of parents believe digital photos are equally or more valuable than physical prints. Whereas 47% value digital prints as less than a digital photo. The pricing strategy here is crucial. We recommend experimenting with different price points and packaging to find what resonates with your customer base.

Give ’em freebies! We’ve uncovered some interesting data around the value of “free items.” By including a free digital item in select packages or bundles, you can enhance their perceived value. This strategy can attract customers to your best-selling offerings and boost sales for packages that may have previously underperformed. 

So there you have it, folks! The digital wave is here, and it’s time to ride it to boost your revenue and cater to your customers’ evolving preferences. Have any follow-up questions? Don’t hesitate to reach out to us for support. Thanks for joining us, and until next time, keep capturing those memories!

Studio 101

Unveiling the Magic of Studio 101

Grab your cameras and buckle up. We’re about to take you on a thrilling adventure through the world of Studio. Whether you’re a total newbie or a seasoned pro, this blog guides you through the basics and shares some of the exciting hidden gems that Studio has to offer. This will be a very high-level look at Studio. To see a more in-depth demonstration, watch the webinar by clicking the button below.

Ready to make your workflow better and faster than ever before? Let’s dive in.

Studio’s Exciting Updates

Hold onto your hats, folks. We’ve been hard at work adding some seriously cool new features. There’s recently been a flurry of wonderful additions that are about to make your Studio experience even better. 

Don’t get us started on the fresh look of the interface; it’s got everyone talking! Whether you’re excited about the new facelift or just eager to explore new functionalities, there’s something in store for everyone. Click here to view the down-low on all Studio’s recent updates.

Exploring the Basics

As you step into Studio, you’ll find yourself faced with sessions. Think of these as folders that neatly hold your individual photography jobs, complete with subject data and their images. The best part? No fumbling around with buttons; you can jump straight into a session just by clicking anywhere on it.

Once you’re inside a session, this is where the real magic happens. Here, you can see images, subjects, and groups. Once in the subject area, sort through your images with our clever layered filters. You’ll feel like a digital wizard with filters that let you sort images based on smiles, open or closed eyes, and poses. 

But hold on, because there’s a trick up our sleeve! Our multi-select magic lets you swiftly glide through multiple images with a single click and easily cull images with eyes closed, etc. Say goodbye to tedious clicks; say hello to efficiency.

Facial Recognition and Group Organization – The Dream Team

Let’s talk about facial recognition. It’s about to make your group organization game so much stronger. Have you ever imagined effortlessly matching faces to names without battling typos and data messes? Dream no more. With facial recognition, dealing with groups is now a breeze. You can give rows names, assign positions, and witness Studio efficiently organize chaos. We know the data schools provide isn’t always top-notch, so let Studio help you understand it! 

And guess what? Every change you make within Studio will automatically occur across the whole Fotomerchant ecosystem. Yep, this includes both Commerce and Portal. Brilliant right?  No need to do the whole import/export dance! We’ve got you covered. 

Template Editor – Unlock Your Inner Artist

Prepare to have your mind blown by the template editor. This is where you can craft stunning ID cards, memory mates, certificates, and more, all with your unique touch. But wait, there’s more! Advanced rules that put you in control: dynamic logos, color shifts, and text transformations. This is the place where your artistic vision and Studio’s tech prowess come together in harmony. 

Mastering Shortcuts 

If you’re all about efficiency, you’ll love Studio’s keyboard shortcuts. Zip through subjects, choose poses and perform bulk actions with just a few clever key presses. Watch our recent webinar to learn how you can access this holy grail of Studio shortcuts. Oh, and don’t worry, we’ve accounted for both Apple and Windows users! 

And there you have it. Your crash course in Studio 101! From mastering image management to becoming a group organization maestro or even creating unique templates, Studio’s got your back. 

That’s just scratching the surface of what Studio can do. Watch our webinar hosted by Christian Perry and Tearah Fox to see a more in-depth Studio deep dive.

Facial Recognition and Face Collation

Welcome back to the third part of our thrilling facial recognition deep dive. Can you believe we’ve made it this far? Time flies when you’re having fun. And speaking of time, today we’re going to explore a treasure trove of memories and revenue potential that you might not even know you possess! Let’s tug at those parents’ heartstrings!

Discover the Gold Mine

What if I told you that you were sitting on an archival gold mine? If you have worked with the same school for multiple years, you have the potential to generate timeline or journey products. By using facial recognition to create a timeline product, you can create beautiful, nostalgic photo collections that showcase the growth and development of children over time.

It’s like a visual journey through their lives, and parents absolutely love it!

Yeah, we know. Manually sorting through your back catalog of images is tedious. Thanks to the magic of facial recognition, you can now find each child’s previous images taken by your studio in seconds. Timeline products have never been easier!

What is Face Collation, and How Does it Work?

Say hello to the game-changer: Face Collation!  This fantastic feature takes facial indexing and matching to a whole new level. It allows you to identify a single photo that references each subject in your back catalog. No more sifting through years of photographs!

So, how does it work? Simple! You need one set of data and images, preferably the most recent year, to create the subject information with one identifying photo indexed and associated with the subject record. Then, you upload all the remaining years’ photos into an unknown gallery, ensuring all faces are indexed. Now comes the magic moment: unleash our Face Collation AI and watch it find all the photos belonging to each subject from over the years. Voilà!

That’s just a brief overview. Want to see the nitty gritty? Click here to see our knowledge base document on the feature.

Making Memories Last a Lifetime

The timeline products are just the beginning of the potential goldmine of revenue. Think about re-targeting at the end of the school year. How powerful would it be to remind parents of all the wonderful memories you’ve captured throughout their child’s year? With face collation, you can make that happen effortlessly.

Unlocking the Past

If you’ve acquired a new business and inherited a massive backlog of photos, fret not! Facial recognition and face collation are here to save you once again. Just run those old photos through the system and let the AI work its magic to match subjects and create delightful galleries to promote and sell. With this technology, you can offer personalized products that hold immense sentimental value for your customers. What’s not to love?

If we reflect on the data from our 2023 Annual School Photography report, it’s clear that the main purchasing driver for parents is to capture a moment in time. The data doesn’t lie. Start utilizing face collation to provide parents with products they really want.

So, let’s embrace the power of facial recognition and face collation. It’s the key to unlocking your archives and new opportunities to create products that touch people’s hearts and bring smiles to their faces.

To view the other blogs we have on harnessing the power of facial recognition, click here and here.

Until next time, keep capturing those precious moments!

Onboarding with Fotomerchant

Welcome, Fotomerchants-in-Training

We know you’re itching to get started with our amazing platform, and today, we’re going to give you a sneak peek into the wonderful world of onboarding. 

We’ve been busy streamlining our onboarding to ensure you feel supported and productive throughout the whole process. Each year, we’ve been making improvements to our onboarding. Why? Because we want to make sure you have the smoothest journey possible. After all, we’re all in this together!

Onboarding: A Two-Way Street

Yep, onboarding is a bit like a tango; it takes two to make it work! We want to know all about you and your studio. The more we know, the better we can support you. We’ll leave no stone unturned to understand your needs, expectations, and quirks.

In case you haven’t noticed, we love a good laugh and camaraderie. Working with us is a hoot! So buckle up and get ready for some fun as we embark on this Fotomerchant adventure together.

We’re Your Partners

Fotomerchant is all about being your partner in crime. We don’t just hand you a ‘get started with Fotomerchant’ box and disappear. We’re here to guide you through the process and ensure you’re fulfilling solo confidently when the time comes. And guess what? The onboarding is just the beginning of our partnership!

Unraveling the Mysteries of Onboarding

Let’s dive into the onboarding guide, shall we? You’ll have your logo and our side by side because this is a partnership, my friends! Throughout the onboarding, you’ll be introduced to our stellar team and wowed by the wonders of our industry-leading conversational support model. Ever used Slack before? You’re in for a treat!

Our onboarding area includes many handy links for you to stay across all elements of your set-up, including extra information such as webinars, blogs, and case studies. Our knowledge base area is also easily accessible here, so you can read up on implementing some of our cool features. From here, you can easily navigate through the Fotomerchant universe!

With us, you can sleep easily. We’ve got your timeline covered, and you’ll have a clear understanding of your onboarding arc. We separate each component via product lines/genres in our new and improved onboarding process. No workflow is the same, so each onboard setup must differ. So, we split your onboarding into different genres or product lines. This allows us to accommodate for any nuances in each of your genre setups. We’re flexible like that!

We believe in transparency all the way! You’ll always know exactly what’s happening, who’s doing what, and when it’ll all be ready. You’ll be able to track our progress, see due dates, and where the roadblocks are. Some of these due dates will be for us, others for you. Nevertheless, you can rest assured you will always feel in the loop of your onboarding journey.

Ask Away

If you have any questions or suggestions after this blog, just message us. We’re all ears and eager to make this process even better for you! To experience a more in-depth guide to this new onboarding system, take a look at our recent webinar. Peter Koop and Tearah Fox will show you the ropes alongside some classic Australian/Canadian banter. 

Well, that’s all for now. Until next time!

Fotomerchant’s School Photography Insights

Informing, Educating, and Inspiring Growth

We’re thrilled to welcome back the School Photography Industry Report for 2023! This year’s edition is better than ever, building upon the success of last year’s report. As a joint initiative between Fotomerchant and School Photographers of America, we aim to provide you with valuable data to inform, educate, and inspire your organization’s growth. 

At its core, this report aims to uncover what parents truly want when it comes to school photography. It serves as a source of truth, helping us understand their preferences, needs, and expectations. We can foster continuous growth and improvement in the historic School Photography industry by delving into the insights provided. What’s not to love?!

This blog will present a high-level view of the report, and we highly recommend you take a look at the full report to gain an all-encompassing view of the data. For now, let’s look at some of the highlights. Strap in. We’ve got some transformative data to reveal. 

The Power of Data

Last year’s report was well-received, and we’re grateful to announce that our survey respondents have increased by an impressive 44% this year! You beauty!

With this expanded participation, we have been able to evaluate and compare data gathered over the past couple of years, giving us a comprehensive view of the industry’s progress and changes. We’re pumped to see what the future holds and how this report can continue to benefit the school photography community. To further the growth of this survey in future years, read the bottom of this page, where you can find out how to share the survey.

Let’s Dive into the 2023 Report

We’re not joking when we say this year’s report is better than ever. We’ve received invaluable feedback from 44,000 parents who shared their opinions on various topics, such as print size, photo quality, likes and dislikes, and more. Our survey covered 74,000 parents from 50 states across the U.S., representing 2,500 schools. That’s a whole lot of opinions! 

We’ve also expanded the report to include a dedicated section on yearbooks, incorporating 13 new questions. You’ve got no excuse to sleep on the importance of yearbooks. 65% of parents reported buying one last year, highlighting the clear demand for this product offering.

Insights from Parents

As a starting point, we began with parents, hoping to understand their purchasing behaviors better. We can use demographic data as a baseline to correlate how these factors affect their purchasing habits.

Most parents were female, aged 25-60, and the primary decision-makers in their households. English was the primary language for 96% of respondents. We also found that most parents had children attending public schools, making this report a good reflection of the overall educational landscape in the U.S. With data from many states, we have a rich and diverse dataset to draw insights from. High fives all around here at the Fotomerchant & SPOA HQ!

What Do Parents Think?

To understand parents’ perspectives, we asked them a series of targeted questions. Here’s a glimpse of what we discovered.

How do parents want to purchase their school photos? The top preference for current purchase methods was pre-paying online. However, when asked about their preferred ordering process, most parents chose to receive an online proof via email or an order form. The least popular option was a packaged print ordered at wholesale. The data never lies; it’s clear that parents want the convenience of online proofing.

What do parents think about price, quality, and choice? Opinions on price were divided, with a 50/50 split between parents who found it too expensive and those who considered it fair.

Although, the majority of parents expressed satisfaction with the quality of the photos. 

How do parents want to be notified about picture day? Email and text alerts emerged as the top preferences for parents to receive notifications about picture day. This is excellent news for any studios looking to convince schools of the importance of providing emails for their students.

Alongside this data, it was also revealed that most parents preferred to be notified one month in advance, allowing them ample time to prepare.

Insights from Educators and Schools

There’s no denying it, educators and school administrators play a crucial role in the school photography ecosystem. It’s important to consider their opinions and perspectives to ensure client retention. Here are some highlights of what our report revealed about educators.

What Do Educators Think?

We set out to understand if educators knew how parents preferred to purchase school photos. We suspected a slight disconnect, and boy, oh boy, there was some interesting data revealed here. There was a significant difference between educators’ responses and those of parents. 

For example, prepaying online and prepaying via a paper order were the most common methods reported by educators, while parents showed a stronger preference for online proofing. This disparity highlights the need for better communication between schools and parents to align their expectations.

We also asked educators their opinions on price, quality, and choice. While the majority believed that the price of school photos was fair, there was uncertainty regarding parents’ satisfaction with the cost. 

Similarly, opinions on the variety and options offered to parents were split, further indicating a disconnect between educators’ and parents’ perceptions. An example is the disparity between educator and parent answers when asked questions about shipping options.

The Importance of Yearbooks

Yearbooks hold a special place in the hearts of parents, serving as a milestone and a cherished keepsake of their child’s academic journey. 

Our survey revealed that 65% of parents purchased a yearbook last year, highlighting the strong demand for this product. Price emerged as a pain point, with 40% of parents indicating they would change their minds if the price were more favorable.

Personalization was also highlighted as important, with 61% of parents valuing the inclusion of their child’s photo and name on the cover. You heard them. Parents want personalization!

We want to stress that we’ve only scratched the surface of understanding yearbook preferences. We’re well aware that there are many aspects to this product offering we may not have covered. This year’s yearbook data is an excellent baseline for us to build on in future years. Watch this space!

A Deeper Understanding

We plan to release a separate insights report based on two years of surveys to enhance our understanding further and provide you with even more valuable insights. This upcoming report will offer a deeper dive into the data and trends. Keep your eyes peeled for this.

We Value Your Feedback

Your insights are crucial in making this annual report meaningful and impactful. Please take a moment to share your thoughts on what you found informative and where you think improvements can be made. Your on-the-ground knowledge is invaluable to the effectiveness of this report. Scan the QR code to share your thoughts.

Join Us!

To expand the reach of our survey and gather more comprehensive data, we invite you to sign up to help us distribute next year’s 2024 survey to your contacts. Your involvement will contribute to the collective knowledge of the school photography industry, so don’t take a backseat! The future growth of this report hinges on you sharing future surveys. Sign up by scanning the QR code above and be part of shaping this industry’s future. 

Bon Voyage 2023 School Photography Industry Report

Now that our report is out in the world, making waves, we’d like to extend our gratitude to all the participants and contributors who made this report possible. Your input and engagement are invaluable to shaping the school photography industry. Let’s continue to learn, grow, and provide the best possible experiences for parents and schools alike. 

With powerful data, you can make educated decisions for the future of your business. Remember, without data, we’re only guessing. Let’s navigate the industry together and create a bright future based on a solid bedrock of data.

Hungry for more? Watch our latest webinar, where Lucy Richards and Luke Calo dive deeper into this report. From the minds who helped to build this report, it’s not one to be missed!

2022 Recap

As the world returned to normality, business began again as usual… but we didn’t. Committed to pushing forward through innovation, our 2022 was a year like no other. As our team grew, we churned out new features, upped our marketing presence, and finessed our support model. Our commitment to being thought leaders in the industry also came to fruition this year with our School Photography Industry Report. This year was full of new beginnings, from new conferences to illuminating webinars. So let’s take a look at Fotomerchant’s 2022.

Team Expansion

Our relatively small team grew exponentially this year. After two company acquisitions (in 2021) and many hires later, we have over doubled in size. The more, the merrier, we say! With a more significant presence and more products than ever before, we are looking to expand further to keep up. The two companies we acquired were Simplephoto and Elementice. Many of the original teams from these companies are still with us, so this year the main focus was pulling together to build one united Fotomerchant team. We are pretty chuffed with how it has gone. As 2022 comes to a close, I can confidently say that we are all working towards the same goal, and it feels amazing.

We have all bonded over our love for pranks. We especially love pranks that make the CEO confused as to why everyone else is upside down. :wink:

Leadership Summit

2022 marked a year of putting plans into action for us. We have always had big dreams, and this year many came to fruition mainly because of our team size expansion. More hands on deck always make a difference.

The first-ever leadership summit occurred this year. Leaders from all departments: sales, development, customer support, marketing, etc., gathered in sunny Byron Bay. We had some of our US team leaders fly over as well, which was exciting. Each team leader presented past achievements, past failures (we’re all human, after all), and future direction plans. This was hugely successful as many new connections between problems were found through inter-departmental solutions. After the leadership summit, the rest of the team was presented with the findings of the summit and the new direction that developed. This meeting of minds kick-started our current approach, which we feel super clear in.

New Features That Excite Us

Choosing just a handful of features to highlight in this recap was more challenging than expected. Why? There were so many dang good ones! The developers sure were busy this year. Below I’ve linked a few crowd favorites. Click the header to view our knowledge base documentation on the feature.

Bulk Subject Editing

This is a new feature in Studio that packs a punch. All your data correction dreams have come true with this release. You can now edit all the subject data for a session in bulk; no more individual subject editing. Say hello to a streamlined workflow. While bulk editing, you can perform various actions to update or manipulate the data.

Auto Cropping Orders to Direct Fulfillment Labs

For those using a direct fulfillment lab, you can turn on auto-cropping. This allows Studios to opt-in for images to be automatically cropped by the system to match the aspect ratio of the ordered product. Automation is the way of the future, so jump on board and optimize your workflow.

Paper Order Imports

Need a solution for fulfilling paper orders? We heard you. You can now upload a data file to Studio and have it send the orders directly to your integrated lab with your online orders. There is a small wholesale charge for using this feature, so contact your support team on Slack for more information.

Conferences We Attended

With our team size growing this year, we had more opportunities to spread our wings and attend new conferences.

SPAC 2022

The usual suspect, SPAC 2022, was a great success. With our presence being the largest yet, we made a splash. We had a new look this year, our marketing team had been hard at work, and it sure paid off. We looked amazing!

Our end-to-end workflow solution was our main talking point this year. We wanted to demonstrate how you can use us in an end-to-end capacity or slot us into the missing parts of your workflow.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • Backgrounds Masterclass with 36Pix

  • School Photography Industry Report 2022 – Interim Results

  • Growing as a Volume Studio with Strawbridge

  • Live Case Study with Prime Sports

  • Australia Day Party

Oh, and how could I forget! The winner of our trip to Australia competition. Congratulations, Greg Chatmon. We can’t wait to see you down under in 2023!

SPOA 2022

This was a new conference for us, and boy oh boy, was it great! SPOA, aka School Photographers of America, was held in Houston, Texas. A small but mighty team attended this conference. This was a successful trip for us, and we can’t wait to see how the same event turns out next year.

As you can see from the images below, our out-of-this-world space party was a smashing success.

SPOA-2
SPOA-1

School Photography Industry Report

We’re all self-proclaimed data nerds, so the School Photography Industry Report was a significant achievement for us this year. This report was a joint initiative between Fotomerchant and School Photographers of America (SPOA). We believe that if we can progress the industry with knowledge, we all grow together. Our big focus is providing studios with data they can use to make educated decisions. Why don’t you take a look for yourself? Download the report and prepare to have your mind blown.

Want some more information about the report? Read this blog to learn more.

Webinars

We rolled out our webinars with full force this year. Providing content for the industry of value is paramount to us; you also got to see some of our very handsome/beautiful faces. Now that’s what I call a win-win. Here are some of your favorite webinars:

Our very own Christian Perry gave us a wonderful webinar this year. Filled with Texan charm and illuminating industry knowledge, we recommend you give this one a listen. On-ground knowledge is something we take very seriously here at Fotomerchant. Christian allows us to keep our finger on the pulse of what matters and the pressing issues in the industry. By knowing what works and what needs improvement, we can streamline your workflow with precision and evidence.

After partnering with the good folk at 36Pix, we celebrated with a webinar. Some people celebrate with champagne, while others opt for an invigorating webinar, know your poison, I guess? Our industry report results illuminated the importance of backgrounds. Your customers want good, premium backgrounds! The people at 36 Pix understand this, so we decided to chat about it. We caught up with Robert Ste-Marie, founder & president of 36Pix, to discuss some of the challenges studios have faced when using backgrounds and how we can alleviate some of these issues. Give this webinar a listen to peep into the future of background use in shopping carts.

We are committed to providing an end-to-end solution that you can easily slot into your workflow. Preorder automation was a missing piece of the puzzle we are delighted to have resolved. No more preorder handling via other systems if you use one of our direct fulfillment labs. Preorders can now utilize subject matching for smart-automated image populations and direct fulfillment to our integrated labs. This webinar will run you through the advanced auto-order population system. We have you covered, from automated identification of pose selections to tag rules like sibling or buddy photos.

Blogs

We ramped up our blog post-production on our mission to provide great value content. Here are some of our popular 2022 blogs, go on, take a look!

This was one of our most outstanding achievements this year for our business and the industry in general. We see data worth much of its weight in gold, and we think you should too. Our industry report provided brilliant data that both surprised and reaffirmed our guesses. This blog introduced some results we pulled out of the survey, but I recommend you also take a look at the final report I linked above.

Make marketing pain-free with templated session templates. Rest easy with our new capabilities to trigger marketing campaigns via stages in your sessions. Take a look at this blog to learn how to set up marketing at the start of the season and alleviate promotional stress.

This feature made a splash in 2022. Allowing customers to opt into your marketing so you don’t need to rely on clients to provide emails is essential. Our opt-in feature collects information in a user-friendly form that will help you match your images to customers and, in turn, collect those sweet customer emails. Sound interesting? Read through this blog and reach out to your friendly Fotomerchant human to learn how to implement this feature.

Awww

We want to end on a sentimental note. Thank you to everyone who has supported us throughout the past year; you know who you are. We hold all the industry relationships we have established close to our hearts and love the space we work in. Y’all are a good bunch. Speaking of good eggs, I’d like to express how lovely this team is to be a part of. We work in an amazing community that becomes strengthened by the day.

aww-2
aww-1
aww-3

2023 School Photography Industry Report

Our 2023 School Photography Industry Report is right around the corner, and we hope you are excited as we are to prepare for 2023 and onwards with data that provides values. So, before the new report is released, let’s reflect on how it can improve your studio’s functions for the better.

Why the Survey Matters

With great data comes great responsibility. 2023 is your year to harness the data collected in our industry report and make revenue-increasing changes. If you watched our recent roundtable webinar, you might have noticed the excitement and buzz our guest studios emitted around the 2022 survey that allowed studios to understand better what the customer wants. Such insight cannot be underestimated, but don’t just take it from us! Here is what some of the participating studios had to say:

“It's really good, important information. And it's been helpful to look at and say, okay, the projects that are currently working, does it align with what we just learned?”

Amanda Cairer, Interstate

“If you are not paying attention to the real data, and you're thinking about how you think, what you think, your opinion, all those things. It's gonna bite you because that's not correct.”

Cindy Gallian, Texas Photography

The Power of Asking the Right Questions

This year we called upon studio guests and webinar participants to help us craft the perfect survey questions. As much as we pride ourselves on keeping up with all industry-related trends and movements, we recognize that studios have an on-the-ground knowledge that hugely benefits building our survey questions. So we wanted to hear from you. Yes, you! This was an excellent opportunity for studios to obtain an answer to the age-old question, what do my customers really want?

Gearing your questions to answer suspicions you may have about the importance of, e.g., paper flyers, is essential when thinking about the industry’s general direction. As stated in the roundtable:

“A lot of what we do in our industry is still based upon the industrial and information age. So those type of questions that pull us in deeper into the digital age and trying to understand what mom the consumer is going to do are really helpful."

Kevin Betelli, Leonards

How Are We Improving

As our first attempt at such a mammoth data collation, we inevitably made some mistakes. We are only human, after all! Learning from what we missed, our 2023 report will now include yearbook and sport event data findings.

As we expand our scope of research, we are also conscious of building upon what we have already gathered. One of the great benefits of having an industry report already under our belt is the comparisons we can draw between 2022 and 2023. Customer behaviors will undoubtedly shift coming out of COVID and entering into a shifting economic climate. Priorities in products may change as financial pressure increases. As we look forward to the future, each year will provide the potential to compare new reports with the past and notice any trends developing in the data. By tracking how customers are shopping, we can help you to make educated decisions when planning the future of your studio.

Our 2022 report gave us a great foundation to build upon as we aim for the stars in our data-fuelled rocket. Did you miss out on our 2022 report? Check out some past webinars and blogs featuring that data anytime on our website.

Gallery Notification Emails

We always have our ear to the ground here at Fotomerchant, and one of the biggest concerns that keeps on arising is, “how on earth do I get customers ordering online?” Our answer to that is always – gallery notification emails. It is as simple as that. Reach out to customers via email marketing and allow parents easy access to their cart using a direct button link. Oh, and we can automate this. When we say workflow without the work, we mean it. Automated galley notification emails so easy you don’t even need to lift a finger. Amazing right?

We understand that many studios require email marketing to be triggered at different stages in their workflow, depending on their editing system. As a response to this, we set up many different triggers that can send off your marketing depending on what works for your studio. Use it whichever way works best for you…unless you need us to do foot massages, we will politely decline this offer.

https://teensexonline.com

dumanbet

asyabahis

pinbahis giriş

sekabet

olabahis

maltcasino

faffbet

radissonbet.info

jetbahis

rexbet

1xbet

What is a Gallery Notification Email?

Before we dive head first into the exciting triggers that can send off your gallery notification emails, let me show you what this email entails. Our gallery notification emails include your striking logo, a direct address to the subject’s first name (if applicable), and a simple call to action prompting the parent to click the button for a direct link to their cart. We also populate the subject password in the email if the parent needs to add a sibling to the order.

You can, of course, customize the text in the email as you please or use the generic example we have above!

Gallery Notification Triggers

Emails being automated is all good and well, but what makes a difference is having control over the point in your workflow that triggers the emails. No two studios’ workflows are the same, so we have a few triggers you can choose from to ensure your emails are sent at the correct time. Let me take you through it.

Subject Created Trigger

A subject-created trigger will occur as soon as an email is imported into Fotomerchant alongside subject data. The delay you choose for the emails to send after this trigger occurs can range from 10 minutes to 6+ days. Deciding to delay all depends on how long you usually take to import images. If you are looking to use this trigger to notify parents their images are online, I would recommend you take a look at the image added trigger below instead.

Subject Image Added Trigger

This trigger is pretty self-explanatory; if you upload images to a subject gallery, emails will begin to send. Once again, we can set any delay you would like for this, from as little as 10 minutes to 6+ days, it is customizable to suit your workflow needs. You may require a larger delay if you edit images after you import them into Fotomerchant, and we can account for that no problem. The email will be set up to only send once per day to not spam your customers with an email every-time an individual image is added. No one likes to be spammed, so let’s not put your customers through that.

Stage Change Trigger

This trigger occurs when a stage is either set active or changes over. For example, if you had a pre-pay stage where you did not want to gallery notification email to send out, we could set up the emails to send once you have activated the proofing stage. If you need some more information on what stages are, click here to read another blog post that will run through this feature.

Manually Triggered

This type of trigger is not automated, so it will require a Fotomerchant team member to trigger the emails for you. We usually encourage this setup if you are still working out your workflow; this will prevent any accidental emails from being triggered. While you sort out your internal workflow and adjust to our new system, let us take care of the email triggering.

So what are you waiting for? Link parents to their shopping carts easily via our automated gallery notification emails. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you require more information on anything mentioned above.

Abandoned Cart Email

You sit down to make an order, but then a bird flies in the room, the baby starts crying, and a storm begins while the washing is still out on the line! Life happens. Customers often have their time intercepted by an array of distractions that prevent them from completing their orders. But, sometimes, all it takes is a little nudge, and boom, they have ordered some prints! Abandoned cart emails are one of the oldest tricks in the book and act as a gentle reminder for a customer to complete their order when life gets in the way. 

We provide our studios with the capability of automated abandoned cart emails. Although they are simple in premise, they sure are effective. Yep, I said automated. Workflow without the work!

What is an Abandoned Cart Email?

Abandoned cart. Oh, the horror! That bundle of words can bring fear into any studio’s heart. However, when I say abandoned cart email, that’s a different story. An abandoned cart email will be sent to any customers with products in their shopping cart who have not completed one of these two actions: completed an order or cleared their cart. The email will wait four hours before sending and include a direct button link back to the shopping cart with the products still inside. Handy eh?

Here is one of our generic abandoned cart emails that has been tried and tested by many of our studios.

Your abandoned cart email workflow can also include a follow-up reminder which is sent four days after the initial to anyone who still has products in their cart and hasn’t completed an order or cleared their cart. So scoop up those extra sales and give customers the gentle tap on the shoulder they need!

Some Real-Life Evidence

The influence we have seen of abandoned cart emails on studio revenue is impressive. We believe an online shopping experience should never exist without an abandoned cart email. All the data you are about to see below is real; gathered evidence that abandoned cart emails are totally awesome. Take studio X, for example:

Over the spring season, around 54,969 abandoned cart emails were sent to some forgetful and distracted customers. Around 60% of customers opened the email. Of those customers, 30% opened the shopping cart back up, and 36% of those who clicked the link placed an order. That was the cumulative percentage of conversion rates for all those data nerds out there. The overall conversion rate was 6%. Before I hear you say, “6%?! That isn’t much”, let me put that into perspective. For this studio’s case, that 6% brought in 3,545 extra sales, which wouldn’t have occurred. Not using abandoned cart emails in parallel to your online shopping cart is truly leaving money and sales on the table. We would much rather you have that extra revenue safe and sound in your wallet.

Customize, Split Test, and Learn!

In past posts, I have briefly mentioned our split testing capabilities; well, here they are again. You can not only generate more profit using abandoned cart emails but also learn more about your customers. You can also split test different abandoned cart header images, button sizes, and email copy. Seeing as our abandoned cart emails are automated and ongoing, why not test on this stream of customers? You can determine what defines a winning email copy and set a time limit. Once the test is complete, the system will use the winner as the new email going forward. Learn about your customers through split testing to market to them better in the future! Click here to learn more about split testing. 

For some situations, abandoned cart emails aren’t the best protocol. Know of a client that is particularly sensitive to their parents/subjects being emailed? No problemo. We can set the abandoned cart email to ignore any customers linked to that specific client. So you can keep raking in those extra sales with other jobs and exclude the ones that would prefer no extra marketing. Customers can also unsubscribe, or opt out of marketing/abandoned cart emails anytime. Yay for options! 

If you want to learn more about our abandoned cart emails, I have great news for you! We have an upcoming webinar where we’ll explore the ins and outs of our abandoned cart emails. Make sure you follow us on our socials for the latest registration information.