Photobook markets continue to gain traction across the USA, Western Europe and Eastern Europe, achieving a combined retail value of $1.4 billion in 2013 - up over $120 million on the previous year - according to the latest international photobook research from Futuresource Consulting.
"The photobook market is alive and kicking, and remains one of the more robust segments of the photo imaging market," says Jeremy Wills, Senior Market Analyst at Futuresource Consulting.
"We're seeing value growth across the USA and Europe, which will stretch out across the next three years, with volume growth continuing beyond that period. In the short term, the sector will continue to be driven by viral marketing, a greater consumer awareness of services and the potential for orders from smartphones, tablets and social networking/image sharing platforms, largely as a result of a significant marketing spend from the industry."
"Looking at retail pricing, average photobook retail prices have been declining and will continue to do so, due to increased competition and promotional activity. However, the market is exhibiting high price elasticity; price declines are more than offset by the additional new business that's being generated. In addition, we are expecting larger photobook SKUs, silver halide photobooks and fewer promotions to help to slow the price decline, all resulting in a market value exceeding $1.6 billion by 2016," says Wills.
Online ordering channels dominate the consumer photobook market across all markets covered by these reports. In-store ordering of photobooks is also expected to increase as photobooks are increasingly produced in-store, with the USA and Germany leading this trend.
The USA, Western Europe and Eastern Europe (Czech, Hungary, Poland and Russia) markets will be worth $979 million, $625 million and $37 million respectively in 2016.
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