USA Photobook market to reach 25 million units this year

"This market is really starting to ramp up, with US photobooks on track to make double-digit volume growth again this year and also in 2012," says Jeremy Wills, Senior Consultant with Futuresource. "Our forecasts are indicating 25 million photobooks will be sold in 2011 and nearly 29 million in 2012."

Despite the increase in sales volumes, there is a high level of competition and a glut of softcover and smaller sized photobooks, which is driving down the average retail price per unit. In particular, competition is strong among the online consumer portals, such as Shutterfly, Snapfish and Kodak Gallery, as well as the fact that there are a greater number of high street retailers offering photobooks.

"The decline in average retail price per unit will continue across the forecast period, out to 2015," says Wills, "but that is being overshadowed by the increasing number of units being sold, and the retail market value of photobooks is on track to rise by 17% in 2011."

The online channels are still the main source of photobook orders, though in-store will begin to take a larger share of the market. Despite this, online orders will still account for around 75% of the market by 2015.

"The growth of in-store is being driven by a growing installed base of photobook-capable equipment at retail," says Wills, "with some of the mass-merchandisers, such as Walmart and Target, and pharmacy chains like CVS and Rite-Aid either fully or partially re-equipping their stores."

Just as the 4"x6" photo prints market has been impacted – and will continue to be impacted – by electronic image-sharing via social networking sites and the rise of mobile devices that combine camera and connectivity capabilities, Futuresource research shows that these technologies will also have some impact on the photobook market moving forward, particularly with the growth in the installed base of Tablet PCs that can facilitate image sharing on a larger and very portable screen.

Nevertheless, aided by improving consumer interfaces, expanding retail production capacity for photobooks and a wider range of choice in terms of style and size of photobook, USA consumer volumes will continue to increase. Looking further ahead, volumes are set to keep on growing through to 2015, albeit at a slowing rate.