The online photo album market - France

1.2 A high-potential global market

The growth of online photo albums is mainly due to the growth of online sales and the fact that this product lends itself particularly well to this. The freedom and flexibility that characterize these products, combined with the design potential (***), are expected to drive market growth.

This chart shows revenues for the global photo printing and merchandising market in **** and provides a forecast for ****. In **** the global photo printing and merchandising market will be worth US$**.* billion.

The global photo printing market World, ****-****, in billions of USD Source: ****

The photo printing market is being transformed by the development of technology on a global scale. Purchases of personalized products via photo printing services are contributing to the growth of the global photo printing market. The portfolio of products and services for processing, recording, transferring, presenting, and archiving photographs continues expanding.

As a result, the global online photo album market has been growing strongly for several years and is still in an upward phase. The large number of specialized companies may diminish and be replaced by larger entities. Good Internet visibility and optimum service quality should ensure a promising future for any company specializing in online photo albums.

1.3 A French market on the rise

The photography market:

The activity of professional photographers is recorded in the Insee nomenclature under NAF code **.**Z: Photographic activities. This code covers:

commercial or private photographic production: identity photography, class photography, wedding photography, advertising photography, publishing photography, fashion photography, real estate photography, tourism photography, aerial photography, and video production for events: weddings, meetings, etc. film processing: development, printing, and enlargement of photos and films produced by customers, photo and film development and printing laboratories, photo stores with one-hour development, slide mounting, copying, restoration, and retouching of photographs freelance photojournalist activities microfilming of documents activities of author-photographers and art photographers activities of Freelance photojournalists

The French photographic services market will be worth *.* billion euros in ****, up **. *% in ****.

France, ****-****, in millions of euros source : Statista

However, this increase in sales masks the significant changes in the market in recent years. This increase in sales is mainly due to players other than independent photographers who carry out ancillary activities. This is particularly true ofpure players such as Cheerz, Photobox, Photoweb, and Meero.

Photo printing: a source market for online albums

The online photo album market is closely linked to the photo printing market. Ten years ago, the latter, with its kiosks and ...

2.1 E-commerce in France

Every year, the French e-commerce federation Fevad publishes an annual report. The latest edition presents a wealth of data on the state of the sector in France.

e-commerce sales trends France, ****-****, in billions of euros Source: ****

According to the report, **** was a record-breaking year for e-commerce. Online sales reached ***.* billion euros, up **.*% in ****. France ranks *nd in Europe, ahead of Germany and the UK. The number of transactions carried out online in **** totaled *.* billion, up a dazzling **.*% from the previous year.

**** was also a good year, with online sales platforms benefiting from the closure of physical sales outlets during the confinements.

Top e-commerce sites in France:

Most-visited e-commerce sites France, ****, in penetration rate Source: ****

The typical customer :

Customers who make online purchases are as likely to be men as women, and over **% of both categories are e-buyers. Income doesn't influence target reach rates either, but CSP + will be more inclined to consume online. **.*% of CSP - consumers buy products online versus **.*% of CSP +. (***) However, only **% of inactive people shop online. This distribution is logical and shows that online marketplaces have nothing to envy physical points of sale in terms of customer base.

Age of online buyers France, ****, in % of ...

2.2 Demand for physical souvenirs is real and timeless

Photo consumption in all its forms on the rise In ****, over *,*** billion photos were taken every day in Western Europe via smartphone ** million is the number of prints made by Cewe, Europe's leading photo printer, every year. [***].

What's more, global online photo consumption (***) has been growing overall since ****, and in the face of this virtual consumption, physical memories are regaining their value in the eyes of consumers. It is part of nostalgic vintage fashions, notably with the boom in sales of polaroid cameras. In ****, sales of instant cameras grew by **% to ***,*** units sold in the first quarter, while digital cameras struggled. [***]

Global online photo consumption France, ****-****, in percent

Print frequency

In ****, Cewe commissioned a survey by OpinionWay entitled: Les Français et l'impression de photos numériques [***]. Among other things, the survey reveals how often photos are developed using a digital camera.

how often do you tier digital photos physically? France, ****, in Source: ****

The market has not yet convinced the entire customer base. The figures must have changed since then with the wide range of new online solutions that make it easier to print photos without leaving home, nevertheless, this graph shows that in ****, demand for photo printing still remained ...

2.3 French habits

Photos, mainly used to make photo albums:

Around three quarters of French citizens (***) in **** say they print their photos, mainly to create photo albums.

Response to the question "What do you do with your printed photos?" France, ****, in %

The main occasions for realising a photo album :

For the French, births, weddings and travel are the * most important occasions for immortalizing photos.

Answer to the question: "What are the * most important moments to immortalize?" France, ****, in %

The main qualities of photos according to the French :

For the French, a photo should above all be natural and spontaneous, and not retouched and thought-out .

Answer to the question: "For you, a photo should above all: " France, ****, in

2.4 Seasonal demand for photo albums: a popular gift

The graph below shows the proportion of searches for a given term in a given region over a given period relative to when it was most searched for (***). Thus, a value of ** means that the keyword was used less frequently in the region concerned, and a value of * means that there is insufficient data for this keyword.

Search for "Photo album France, ****-****

Over the past * years, demand has been highly cyclical, with a peak of interest during the Christmas and New Year holidays, which is consistent with the demand for photo albums during the festive season

2.5 Audience analysis

ONLINE PHOTO ALBUM MARKET - Audience breakdown by age group France, ****, %, %, %, %, %, %, %, %, %, %, %, % Source: ****

Data analysis suggests that the audience in the market studied is mainly made up of people aged ** to ** (***). ONLINE PHOTO ALBUM MARKET - Audience breakdown by gender France, ****, % of total Semrusg The overall analysis of the market studied reveals a trend where women represent a slightly higher audience share than men. More precisely, women make up **.**% of the total audience, while men represent **.**%. This gender breakdown indicates a predominance of women in the market audience in question. ONLINE PHOTO ALBUM MARKET - Audience breakdown by gender and age France, ****, % (***) Source : Semrush Data analysis shows that the market studied attracts more women than men in all age brackets. The most prominent female audience is in the **-** age bracket (***). ONLINE PHOTO ALBUM MARKET - Audience breakdown by income level France, ****, % of total Semrush The audience is predominantly low-income, representing **.*% of the total audience. Middle-income earners comprise a smaller share at **.**%, while high-income earners represent the smallest audience segment at **.**%. ONLINE PHOTO ALBUM MARKET - Audience breakdown by education level France, ****, % of total Semrush In the market studied, overall trends in audience education show a predominance of people with higher education. ...

3.1 Towards market consolidation: many players but common software

A host of players

In France, the market is fragmented, with many players, but the number is still very small. The low barriers to entry mean that many sites offer photo prints, and albums in particular, but it's safe to assume that with the growing interest in the sector, this offer will stabilize and concentrate on a few main players.

The way the sites work is always the same: the site offers editing software which, once downloaded from a smartphone or computer, enables the user to create a model of the desired photo album. Most sites also offer direct online editing, but the software remains the most popular option, so you can save your work and continue later without risking losing everything.

The leading players are Mon album photo, Cewe, Pixum, Lalalab, PhotoBox, Photoservice, Cheerz...)

The similar web website allows you to compare the traffic of the various players and draw up the following rankings:

Source: ****

A stabilizing number of players

While the market offers many opportunities, in France, around ten players are now well established, with sales of several million euros, and are the target of acquisition by investment funds or long-established companies. The M* Group, for example, acquired Mon ...

3.2 The takeover of specialist players by major European groups, and the GAFAs' offer

European-scale structuring

Historically, start-ups specializing in online photo development have addressed the French market, forming a relatively fragmented market around these players (***). In recent years, however, major European groups have taken over these specialized players. for example, German giant Cewe bought French company Cheerz and German company Whitewall in **** and ****. [***]

At the same time, three of the four GAFAs have positioned themselves in the segment with varying degrees of success:

Amazon is a pioneer among its peers and launched in the segment in **** under the name Amazon Prints service Google launched a photo printing and online photo album service via Google Photos in France in **** Apple, on the other hand, abandoned its photo printing service in ****

Thus, it seems that the market is subject to restructuring in the future and should begin to concentrate on a few leading players:

3.3 Managing the first kilometer

First-mile management for online retailers is becoming a major growth driver for small and medium-sized businesses, which do not yet have the logistical resources or shipment volumes to benefit from advantageous solutions and rates.

The first mile covers all the stages from receipt of an order on an e-commerce site (***).

The first kilometer is a decisive factor in customer satisfaction since it can result in a positive or negative experience. The only physical point of contact between an e-retailer and its customers is the delivery; the first kilometer is proving to be the major challenge for small and medium-sized e-commerce businesses, given that **% of e-shoppers consider that respecting delivery times is an essential criterion when making an online purchase in ****. [***]

La Poste offers collection services under contract with commitment. The table below shows the professional rates applied by La Poste for parcel collections (***).

Source: ****

4.1 A highly diversified offering

The main offer

Competition has given rise to a wide variety of products. While album-editing software is often similar, competition comes in the form, printing method, number of pages, size, and materials used. The photo album itself can be adapted to suit different events (***)

Different formats:

There's no point in trying to list all the formats available online. Nevertheless, the standard formats offered by most sites are portrait, landscape (***).

The different covers :

Rigid: A sturdy result that gives the album a long life; Soft: A low-cost option, allowing a certain amount of page flexibility; Leather: Black or brown, leather offers not only quality protection, but also a stylish element that adds value to the object; Linen: Woven linen allows a variety of colors and gives a family look to the object, without affecting its quality;

Different types of paper:

Standard paper *** g / m² offers clear, crisp photos; Glossy paper *** g / m² offers better colors and sharper images than standard paper; Semi-gloss *** g/m², top-of-the-range paper for superior photo and text quality;

Source: ****

Finally, some sites play on design: the monalbumphoto. fr site offers two design options: the printed photo album and the "do-it-yourself" photo album. In the second option, the site ...

4.2 Average prices by product type

The most standard photo book is the softcover photo book. It's the cheapest photo book on the market because it's the simplest and least expensive to design. For more upscale books, there's the hardcover book. This book is a little more expensive because it has a hardcover. Finally, there are also offers for more original and sophisticated covers, such as canvas, leather, glass, or other high-quality materials.

Price comparison for photo albums and booksFrance, ****, in €

Source: ****

On average, a book or photo album purchased online can cost between €** for the cheapest and €** for the most expensive, depending on the number of photos. [***]

For A* Portrait photo albums ** x **.* cm (***)

For an additional page

4.3 Famileo, the return of the family photo album

Famileo is a French start-up that was founded in **** by Tanguy de Gélis and Armel de Lesquen. The company has set up an online service that enables the elderly to receive news from their loved ones through gazettes. Using the Famileo application, family members can write messages and share photos. All messages are automatically formatted and printed as a personalized paper journal. The gazette is then sent by post at a set frequency. [***]

Famileo's success can be explained by the need for families and isolated grandparents to maintain a regular social link, particularly in retirement homes. Each gazette is limited to ** messages and can be fed by ** potential users. The start-up now employs around sixty people and will be printing over **,*** gazettes every week by ****.

By ****, Famileo will have two foreign branches: in Spain and the United States.

The rates applied by Famileo in **** are as follows:

Source: ****

Sales trends are available in the Famileo company sheet at the end of the study.

5.1 Regulations

French law governing the conduct of online business is defined in a number of different regulatory texts. Some of these are specific to online commerce, while others apply to all commercial activities.

The main applicable regulations are as follows:

Law no. ****-*** of June **, **** for confidence in the digital economy, which concerns the provision of mandatory information online, and the obligations and liability of content and hosting providers. Law no. ****-*** of March **, **** on consumer rights transposing Directive ****/**/EU on consumer rights, which sets out the main rules for conducting e-commerce with consumers. Law no. **-** of January *, ****, as amended, relating to information technology, files and freedoms (***). Law no. **-*** of August *, **** (***), which stipulates that all information communicated to consumers must be in French. The French Consumer Code, which contains provisions on unfair and aggressive commercial practices, unfair terms, mandatory information to be provided to consumers, and advertising and marketing rules.

6.1 Segmentation

• Mon Album Photo (Groupe Albelli)
• Cewe
• Flexilivre
• Photoroom
• Photobox
• Photomaton
• Photoweb
• Fujifilm
• Pixum
• Famileo
• Smart Photo
• Journi Print
• My Poster
• Saal Digital
• Ifolor
• The Photobooth Company (The Fotobox)
• Vip Box