At last month's Dscoop Edge Indy conference in Indianapolis, Ind., a presentation on "Photo Merchandising Trends and Opportunities," from David Haueter of Rise Above Research, revealed some interesting trends in photo merchandise sales, particularly in the school photo market.
Overall, Haueter projects the growth to be flat for output products - in the categories surveyed - but that doesn't consider the future impact of AI - which is still unknown.
Personalized products without photos will be a major growth category, he added. These products have a personal touch but with text, other art ... or a combination. Four-in-10 respondents to the Rise Above Research Survey bought a personalized product that didn't include a photo. Interestingly, young males were heavy users of this type of product.
In the few questions related to the school photography market, Haueter noticed that 13-to-17-year-olds were most likely to buy photo merchandise (while acknowledging the parents were the ones actually buying the products). He observed, that while fewer respondents said they bought photo products through schools, their average spend was up to $61.50 from $54 in the year-prior survey. The 18-to-24-year-olds were the highest-spending category, as well as being the category where most-interested in buying the school photo products.