1.1 Presentation and scope of the study

The online photo album market is a sub-segment of the photo album market. It refers to the various websites offering the possibility to create more or less standardized photo albums. Depending on the provider, the customer can choose the layout of the photos, the format of the photo album and the material used. The digital companies are then in charge of printing, binding and shipping the album to the customer.

The market is relatively fragmented and competition is relatively intense given the large number of players in the market. The market is made up of players specialising in this sector (such as Photosì), but the market has since been populated by larger players such as Amazon, Google or even historical players in the photography market.

Driven by the increased use of smartphones with ever higher quality cameras, Italians are taking an increasingly higher number of photos. According to a study by Nokia, Italians take an astonishing 50 photos per month, approximately. This trend has supported the growth of the market for online photo albums. Especially as a consequence of the quarantine during the Covid-19 pandemic, the demand has increased sharply, reaching 3 times the value of 2019.

However, the Italian market is still marginal compared to the global and Western Europeans markets. As a matter of fact, Italy is only 6th in terms of market size in Wester Europe, with Germany leading the European panorama.

Furthermore, the offer is diversifying, from the creation of simple standardized photo albums to customized ones for which customers can chose most of the features, add decorations and captions to give it a more DIY feel. Furthermore, many players offer customers the opportunity to choose the platform on which they will build their photo album, which include websites, apps or dedicated softwares.

1.2 A global market with high potential

The growth of online photo albums is largely due to the growth in online sales and the fact that this product is particularly suitable for this distribution. The freedom and flexibility that characterizes these products combined with the design potential, (***) are expected to stimulate market growth.

This graph shows the revenues ...

2.1 The Italian market lags behind other European countries

Consumer photo albums volume sales grew by *.*% to **.* million units in Western Europe * (***) in ****. The European market of photo albums value, which includes online photo albums, rose by *.*% to €*** million.

Western European market size for photo albums Western Europe, ****-****, in million € & units Source: ****

The Italian market for online photo albums ...

2.1 Smartphones are taking the place of cameras

Italians are increasingly shifting away from the use of cameras, substituting them with smartphones to capture significant moments. According to a research carried out by eDreams, **% of Italians prefers to use their smartphones to take photos. As a matter of fact, the functionality of a smartphone for photos is the third ...

2.2 Italians' online shopping habits

The B*c eCommerce sector in Italy has grown by **% in ****, reaching a value of **.* billion euros in online purchases. Of these, the e-commerce of products represents the largest share, with **,*% and **.* billion euros, thanks to approximately *** million online orders. Within the e-commerce of products, the largest share is represented by ...

2.3 Covid-19 boosted the rediscovery of printed photo albums

During the lockdown induced by the Covid-** pandemic, Italians rediscovered the passion for photography as a tool to keep alive the memory of beautiful moments shared with family and friends. At a time when affection was far away, a major trend that emerged was the increase in the creation of online ...

3.1 A fragmented market

The Ateco code **.**.** identifies laboratories for the development and printing of photos. This includes the more traditional businesses, which operate mostly offline and locally. Considering this broader market, it is According to Istat, in **** there were **** active companies, of which the large majority (***) were constituted by individual entrepreneurs, freelancers and self-employed ...

3.2 The importance of delivery services

A key part of the online photo album business is the delivery of the products to the end client. For this reason, analysing the different types of services offered by the couriers operating in Italy is fundamental to assess the profitability of the market. In Italy, one quarter of companies and ...

4.1 A diversified offer

Competition has led to a great diversity in supply. While album publishing software is often similar, the competition is in the form, printing method, number of pages, size and materials used. Furthermore, the photo album is available for different events (***), and it can be customized according to the customers' preferences.

The ...

4.2 Production process

The production process for photo albums consists of several steps:

Online orders: The customers can select the size, cover type and paper materials of the photo album online via website or app. They can then upload the photos, choose the desired layout and add decorative elements. After they've chosen all the ...

5.1 Regulations

The Italian law governing online business management is defined in a number of different regulations. Some of them are specific to online business, while others apply to all business activities. The main regulations are as follows:

The European Directive ****/**/EU consolidates existing consumer protection legislation, offering consumers a number of new ...