The Future of the Print Shop.
Hi guys.
I hope all is well and that you’ve enjoyed the brief glimpses of warm weather lately. It’s lashing here in Shannon today as I type this. Good fun, as ever.
Today I’m writing about the future of the Jerry Lane Photography print shop. In early April I shared a blog post about the changes coming to my offerings at markets (if they were to be happening). Almost a month on I have an update on this change, which is rooted in a month of slow thinking, listening carefully to customers, and – to speak frankly – looking long and hard at my finances and the space & time I have. Before I share the future of the print store, let’s take a moment to look at what has been.
Reviewing The Current Offerings.
To date I have offered the following:
40 images in ‘standard prints’, at 2x sizes, and in 3 Frame options: mounted - unframed, mounted in black frames, and mounted in white frames. These have typically been sold at the Ballybunion Community Market and have ranged in prices from €20.00-€60.00. I have kept these in stock in my home studio, which accounted for a lot of space and logistics.
16 different greeting cards, all at 148mm x 148mm with white envelopes. These have retailed in the region of €4 each. These were also kept in my home studio.
19 images in Fine Art Prints in two aspect ratios with 3 sizes for each aspect. Each of these was available as just a print, or in one of 3 frames - black, oak, and almond. These have ranged from €59.99 to just shy of €600.00. The reason for the lower end prints here being more expensive is simple – each Fine Art Print has been made to order from Professional print labs in Ireland. This has meant that I’m not only paying a higher price in general as these are much more expensive to get made than standard prints, I’m also having to pay in the region of €7.50-€13.50 for postage of the print to me each time I order a one-off print. This naturally eats in to already small margins and makes charging anything less than the €59.99 utterly pointless.
The Future Starts Slow
Holding all of the standard prints above with some of the images selling much slower than others has meant holding a lot of space for stocks with little return – especially outside of market season. The margins on these standard prints are small and while I always wish to offer a wide range of products at a wider range of price points, the current approach isn’t something I can continue to do – both logistically and financially. Consequently, today I am announcing the start of a slow transition towards a new offering that is more sustainable for my business, while also striving to offer you the best quality of prints for the most affordable pricing I can do. This future is centred around a few core values:
Quality leads the way: I want to provide only the best quality rendition of my photographs – in no uncertain terms this means Fine Art Prints. They’re archival quality with archival inks, and if you mind them they should look as good in 70-100 years as they do the day you get yours.
Curation & Data Driven Decisions: While it’s nice to offer over 40 image varieties, doing so isn’t ideal when space and money are limited. I’m letting data lead in terms of what sells and what doesn’t, carefully reviewing website sales data, market sales data, and I’m removing the images that don’t sell from my offerings. As always, any of my images can be made available on direct order at a custom cost. Simply contact me if you don’t see the image you want on the site.
Delight: I want not only to provide the best renditions of my images but to also build to providing sustainable packaging that is carefully crafted and protects your artwork while also looking great. I want to build buying experiences that delight customers. I want quality to be the bedrock that I build on going forward.
All of this will take time. All of it will be slow. I won’t get it right at every step along the way, i’m human, and I’ll do my best.
The shape of things to come.
Going forward I will only offer Fine Art Prints and a gorgeous new range of Greeting Cards. I’ll be adding cards for special occasions and opening up a custom card option in time.
I will build a back stock of Fine Art Prints and reduce the price of the prints accordingly by reducing the large shipping costs on individual prints.
In 2024 I aim to bring the bulk of my smaller sized range of Fine Art Prints in-house through the purchase of my own professional printer and ongoing training and learnings.
I will no longer offer standard photo prints. While this will increase the entry price point for owning a print of my work, I believe the above changes will ensure that quality leads the way and that buyers will ultimately get a better quality piece of my work. My aim is to bring the entry costs down to about €30.00 for the smallest prints (up just €10.00 from the current entry price of standard prints). I will also continue to take direct requests for customs sizes and print options – such as tray frames, canvas prints, and more. Costs for these will be quoted to you during the direct request process.
This change will roll out in the coming months and I will aim to only stock Fine Art Prints at the upcoming Summer Markets in Ballybunion. Again, while this will marginally increase the cost of entry, the quality of the print you are going to get is endlessly better and so very worth the change.
For now, you can pick up some of the cheapest prints I have left from the clearance sale by popping over to the home page of the site to get your hands on them while they last.
I’ll be at the markets again come June, but won’t be at the MOYA Market this weekend. I’ll be there taking photos for the festival but not selling them!
One more thing…
Lastly, if you follow me on Instagram you can now follow my new account – Made By Jerry Lane – which will focus on my other creative work; content creation, website design, sustainable productivity systems and more. It means that my main account – Jerry Lane Photography – can return to being only about the images I make.
