More kiosks, more options for retailers and consumers

FUJIFILM managing director Dave Marshall could be described as Australia’s kiosk king, having driven the uptake of the company’s ubiquitous photo finishing system through many major retail channels, from BIG W to Harvey Norman and Camera House.

Speaking at the PMA conference in Melbourne last week, Marshall said FUJIFILM will sell more kiosks in Australia this year than it did in 2009.

The company will also record a 20% increase in wet lab installations. The company is also expanding the size of its retail footprint with pharmacies, once a key destination for film processing, identified as a prime area for growth.

Marshall also outlined the company’s strategy for online customer service.

“By July 1 this year all software for our kiosks will be in the sky,” he said.

“We’ll have a complete cloud-based operation.” He said one of the biggest advantages of this is that kiosk software can be updated directly from the internet, instead of the old system, where the freestanding kiosks had to be updated individually on the ground.

“Online printing will grow by 15% this year. If you (retailers) don’t do it you’re giving away money,” he said.

Marshall said photo books and similar products now accounted for more than a third of the online market with canvas, gifting and prints each accounting for around 20% of the market.

He added that consumers were looking for a “more comfortable” experience in store, with more automatic functions and the ability to make a photo book “in seconds”.

Kodak used the PMA show to promote its new modular retail ‘solution’ – the Kodak Photo Bar, which provides retailers with a flexible design for shopping mall locations.

Design director Curtis Martlew (from We are Human) told PIN Online that the Photo Bar concept allows retailers to present an array of print options with adjacent displays of selected cameras and accessories.

The first Photo Bar in Australia has been installed at Westfield’s Carindale Shopping Centre in Queensland.

Australia is still a strong market for photo finishing, according to HP’s worldwide product marketing manager – retail publishing solutions Alex Liff, whose company recently completed the installation of its retail publishing systems in 185 Australian and New Zealand Kmart stores and 21 Ted’s Cameras stores.

Liff told PIN Online that Australia is a “far stronger” market for HP than most other developed countries, with “healthier volumes” and consumers who are “quicker to adapt” to new technologies.

‘The market is flat-lining in the US and Europe,” he said.

HP unveiled its Retail Concept Store and new Photosmart consumer printers at PMA along with expanded portfolio of web-to-mail, web-to-store and in-store assets for on-demand publishing of licensed printable content from 20 licensed content partners.