Zenfolio’s BookMe experiencing rapid growth

GaryPageau , ,
BookMe home page

BookMe, the contactless booking and calendaring solution created by Zenfolio, has brought in nearly $1,000,000 in revenue for photographers since in launching in May, 2020, despite the pandemic. The company says photographers who have adopted this innovation have managed to triple their bookings and revenues at the height of the pandemic.

According to data shared by Zenfolio, BookMe users show photographers have an average of 9 services, with an average service price of $300. With the “location” feature, photographers have seen a 50/50 split between studio and on-location sessions, which indicates a high demand for photographer flexibility during the pandemic. BookMe has recorded a 4,556% growth rate in a very short period of time.

BookMe features include:

 

BookMe customer view
  • Clients can access BookMe on their chosen photographer’s website and get all the information they need to make the booking themselves. It allows them to select a shoot type, pick a location, set a date, as well as make payment.
  • Photographers are able to take bookings 24 hours a day and manage them all in one place. They can create custom photo sessions and print packages, with prices and payment terms and it syncs with the photographer’s Google Calendar, allowing clients to see photographers’ availability in real time, preventing scheduling conflicts.
  • It also offers mini-sessions and flexible invoicing to help maximize shoot times while staying on track with payments and appointments.

“BookMe has been a game-changer for me,” says Amanda Deyo, wedding photographer, who tripled her bookings in a month. “It is rare to find a website that offers client galleries, sales tools as well as a client booking and scheduling solution that takes payments all in one. Not only have I managed to increase my bookings and revenue, but I have also gained extra hours of free time which can now be spent focusing on other areas of my business.”

Zenfolio migrates to IBM

In other Zenfolio news, the company announced the completion of an 18-month, multi-million dollar project, including migrating 4 billion photographer images (16 Petabytes of data) to the IBM Cloud, to position the company as “the leading SaaS  platform for photographers, including several major updates that will enhance functionality and stability.”

“Building a highly scalable intelligent SaaS platform from the ground up using best-of-breed cloud technologies has enabled Zenfolio to leverage AI and machine learning to deliver a compelling experience for our photographers to present their craft,” says Keith Barraclough, CTO, Zenfolio. “We can now be smarter in how we deliver images to a smartphone, how we offer our photographers intelligent CRM to reach their clients, and how we enable  compelling e-commerce around the photoshoot experience.”

Zenfolio is leveraging IBM Cloud to deliver a highly available, scalable cloud-based SaaS platform that leverages cloud storage from IBM and is designed to benefit from high-value technology, such as AI.

“Infusing IBM Watson into cloud solutions provides Zenfolio with cutting-edge media delivery technology at a global scale,” says Rob Sauerwalt, Vice President, Customer Success IBM Public Cloud. “We have been impressed with the Zenfolio team’s approach and commitment to deliver innovative solutions for photographers and their clients. By running its solution on IBM Cloud, they’re able to drive innovation at scale in a secured environment.”