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Pricing, it's high.
davidweaver
Registered Users Posts: 681 Major grins
This has to come up from time to time.
having worked for a former competitor of EZprints I know a bit about costs and pricing. I want to buffer these comments by adding that I fully appreciate that a profitable and financially stable Smugmug is in everyone's best interest.
I'm also a new Pro subscriber, and I think we should get better pricing.
The lab cost for a 4x6 is between 2 and 5 cents. If you run a Cyra (or 6) and keep running them (like Shutterfly does) then your cost per print is closer to 2 cents. On a Fuji Frontier it's closer to 4-5 cents. YMMV.
EZ charges 19 cents for a 4x6. This is a pretty good business. As a consumer customer I can find good deals on print prices. Dotphoto uses EZ and they sell them for 8 cents. Okay...you gotta buy a package and there is the profits from shipping and lack of redemption.
Certainly, Smugmug is getting good Business-to-Business pricing from EZ. EZ is a major mid-tier player in the industry and they have to compete with the likes of shutterfly, Kodak's B2B printing group (in the DFW area) and some others.
Why do I have to pay 29 cents plus a percentage of the sale price and my Pro fee. Why can't pro's get at least the same price as what EZ charges at retail if not a little bit less.
I don't offer anything over 11x14 from SM as my 'costs' are really far to high.
Again, I want SM to be profitable. I also want my work to be more profitable.
I wonder if more people would become Pro users if they had cheaper print prices. Hmmm...might not fit your biz model but it would be interesting to run the numbers.
Keep up the good work and lower my costs please.
David
having worked for a former competitor of EZprints I know a bit about costs and pricing. I want to buffer these comments by adding that I fully appreciate that a profitable and financially stable Smugmug is in everyone's best interest.
I'm also a new Pro subscriber, and I think we should get better pricing.
The lab cost for a 4x6 is between 2 and 5 cents. If you run a Cyra (or 6) and keep running them (like Shutterfly does) then your cost per print is closer to 2 cents. On a Fuji Frontier it's closer to 4-5 cents. YMMV.
EZ charges 19 cents for a 4x6. This is a pretty good business. As a consumer customer I can find good deals on print prices. Dotphoto uses EZ and they sell them for 8 cents. Okay...you gotta buy a package and there is the profits from shipping and lack of redemption.
Certainly, Smugmug is getting good Business-to-Business pricing from EZ. EZ is a major mid-tier player in the industry and they have to compete with the likes of shutterfly, Kodak's B2B printing group (in the DFW area) and some others.
Why do I have to pay 29 cents plus a percentage of the sale price and my Pro fee. Why can't pro's get at least the same price as what EZ charges at retail if not a little bit less.
I don't offer anything over 11x14 from SM as my 'costs' are really far to high.
Again, I want SM to be profitable. I also want my work to be more profitable.
I wonder if more people would become Pro users if they had cheaper print prices. Hmmm...might not fit your biz model but it would be interesting to run the numbers.
Keep up the good work and lower my costs please.
David
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http://www.knippixels.com
http://www.smugmug.com/prints/catalog.mg
Our price is .19 for gloss and matte. .21 for Lustre.
Don't know where you see .29 but that's inaccurate
We work really hard to keep the prices as low as possible while still allow us to make a profit and run a great business
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Okay my bad on the .29 price. Still...
Fuji is selling paper at a cost per Sq. Foot. Why is there any difference in prices bases upon finishes? I don't recall Fuji selling different finishes in rolls at different costs.
Lustre is the most popular finish in their papers too.
There was a big fuss a few years ago about selling paper to different vendors at different prices. Our Gov't got involved in it too. So now everyone pays the same per square-foot cost and then Fuji (or Kodak) provides rebates (cash-bask, whatever) which lowers the actual cost per sq-ft of the paper to the photo finisher.
I hope y'all know about that.
Cheers,
David
PS to ANDY:
Feel free to email or PM me about this. I'd be happy to share my knowledge of the time I worked at Club Photo where I managed all the B2B business. (ClubPhoto sinced bankrupted after being bought out last year) I see Dot is doing Kodak...did EZ change or did Dot change to Kodak's private label service?
Regards,
D
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David
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I think their prices are worth it. Smugmug offers GREAT features and awesome customer service. The fact that you can customize every last detail without paying extra to do it is cool.
To me, it's worth the annual fee and paying a few cents more per 4x6 to get such a well put together service. Sure, they make $12 million a year according to today's USAToday, that means they are doing something RIGHT. I notice the company you referenced went bankrupt, not exactly a business model I would want SM to follow. I'm perfectly happy with the SM team getting rich and keeping the company privately owned.
Certainly, I'm not opposed to lower prices, but I'm also not interested in a bare-bones photo hosting/sales service. If I had a slim markup on the photos, then it might be important to me to shave a few pennies per print, but I charge according to what I have to pay.
Keep up the good work SM!
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Unless EZ has become a Kodak shop then you won't see Kodak metallics soon. Kodak hates selling to Fuji-dominate labs and the reverse holds true. Want to see a lab lose lots of rebate dollars? Just get them to use both manufacturers' papers.
If SM offers more than one main vendor for fulfillment then SM has a BIG PROBLEM as they will have to split their car/ordering system to allow multiple vendor fulfillment. This IS NOT AN EASY JOB to do. SM probably did not design the order fulfillment, vendor and customer notification system around multiple fulfillment vendors. This is a basic systems architectural issue. I'll guess they have looked at it and decided to use resources in more valuable areas.
Now if EZ offered Kodak products via their relatiosnhip with a local Atlanta lab then the burden of work is on EZ to integrate suppliers.
Eventually SM will redesign their cart and the ability to add, change, move multiple vendors into a single customer order will happen.