Futuresource analyst optimistic about future of prints, margins

Jeremy Wilks, senior market analyst, Futuresource Consulting, recently published an interesting perspective on the demand for prints, called Photo Prints – Part of the Physical Media Revival. In the article, Wilks notes, despite the massive increase in photos being captured per year, demand for prints has declined, due to other ways of sharing and viewing images, like screens, messaging apps, social media, etc.

He notes, however, a growing positive effect on photo prints in key developed markets.

“Nevertheless, a combination of factors in recent years has started to have a positive impact on the photo prints markets in North America, Asia and Europe,” he writes. “The rising popularity of instant print cameras and, more recently, mobile photo printers, especially amongst the Millennials and Generation Z has segued into the commercial photo printing world. Many of these consumers grew up in a digital age – they are now turning to vinyl records, printed books and photo prints (from both digital images and film) as ‘novelty’ products, which they attribute some value to.”

Wilks added younger generations of photo printers print for a wide variety of reasons, including decoration, as well as being less price-sensitive than their forebears, which leads to ways for retailers to recapture lost margin.

“These volume and value trends are highlighted by Futuresource’s newly published consumer-ordered Photo Prints Market Report, Europe, he adds. “In 2017, whilst overall sales volumes were down, volumes in the instant and web-to-home channels rose and, following many years of decline, market value was relatively flat. There is a similar outlook for 2018. This report is part of Futuresource’s wider European photo market tracking, covering Photo Prints, Photobooks, Photo-Merchandise (Calendars/Cards/Photo Gifts/Wall Décor), Retail Minilabs/Print Kiosks/Photo Printers and in-depth consumer research (our Imaging Ecosystems report).”

Wilks concludes it isn’t clear if this is an on-going trend or a fad, but the increasing number of printing devices and images captured annually does offer the opportunity for future photo printing.