You haven't yet finished your Christmas presents and would like to offer a photo book or a personalized calendar? Don't panic! If the countdown to Christmas is well underway, you still have a few days left to create and order your personalized photo gift. 20 Minutes reveals to you what the deadlines are so that the present is indeed under the tree on December 25.
48 hours minimum lead time
These are sites or applications that many French people use: Cewe, Cheerz, Photoweb, Pixum, Lalalab, FlexiLivre, Snapfish, WhiteWall… In their printing and shipping centers, there is currently excitement. “We have two laboratories in France. For the holidays, we recruited a hundred additional people to increase our production capacities,” explains 20 Minutes Laurence Courtinat-Vernon, president France and Spain of Cewe, one of the heavyweights in the sector.
“Faced with demand, it’s almost too much. But we make it a point of honor to be the fastest. We print and deliver within 48 hours, this is due to the small size of our company,” boasts Mathieu Cloute, manager of FlexiLivre, which has existed since 2013.
A third of the annual turnover
If photo labs play zealous Christmas elves, it is first and foremost to satisfy their customers. But also for their business. In almost two months, all will achieve a third of their annual turnover, a global market which would be worth 500 million euros in France. In November and December Cewe will print 175,000 photo books, more than 180,000 calendars and 20 million prints in France.
“Consumers understand that to preserve, share and transmit, as long as it is not printed, it is illusory,” analyzes Laurence Courtinat-Vernon. “And then,” she laughs, “when you give a photo book at Christmas, you know that your gift will not be found on Bon Coin on December 26”!
The most ordered A4 book in format
If printed calendars are popular with the public, the photo book remains the gift of choice at the end of the year. The one in A4 format (Portrait or Landscape) wins all the votes. To compose yourself from an application or a computer, there are countless models.
If it takes several hours to carefully lay out a beautiful book from your computer, you can also spend significantly less time by activating “automatic filling”: the publisher's software arranges the photos on the pages to be printed. A solution that is even more practical if you create your book from your smartphone, in transport for example. “The photos are already in the phone, immediately accessible and you can either opt for a book created with “autofill” or manually. But in the first case, our customers do not spend more than two hours there,” notes Ana Sculy-Logotheti, CEO of Cheerz which targets a fairly young female clientele.
At Cewe, which also has a dedicated application, the average automatic creation time was estimated at 27 minutes by Laurence Courtinat-Vernon, president of the lab for France and Spain, “but for small format books, with fewer pages,” specifies. she said.
AI to create your book faster
Please note, not all photo labs allow you to start creating a photo book on the way to work, then finish it on your computer once home. This is a point to check.
“Five years ago, it’s true that it was sometimes a bit tricky and time-consuming to create a photo book. But the process have become much simpler and AI helps automatic creation,” explains Mathieu Cloute of FlexiLivre whose software allows continuity of creation between smartphone and computer. A few months ago, this lab even launched its Magic Album. Once downloaded, the photos that you wish to print in a book, the AI identifies the main characters, detects key moments, deletes duplicates, analyzes emotions… Result: photos of a wedding, for example, can be sorted, ordered, laid out automatically, from the exchange of consents to the piece put together at the end of the evening.
Beware of tempting promotions
So, as the clock ticks, what tips can you quickly create the unique gift with which you hope to spoil one of your loved ones? “First, pre-select your photos without delay in a folder on your smartphone or computer,” recommends Ana Sculy-Logotheti. Then take a look at different sites to choose the one that suits you. Everyone works on big promotions, which attracts customers. Simply compare the price to the printed page. “These promotions often concern a particular product, with certain options,” warns Laurence Courtinat-Vernon of Cewe.
Then opt for automatic filling, even if some sites tend to artificially increase the number of pages in the album (and therefore its price). This will not prevent you from making changes.
Finally, place your order without delay. Photobox, the number one, recommends, depending on its products, orders before December 13, 15 or 16 “for delivery before Christmas”. “We will push until the 18th on certain books, and perhaps scratch one day until the 19th. Others will have to be ordered before the 16th to be at the foot of the tree,” warns Laurence Courtinat-Vernon.
“At Cheerz, it will be good until December 17 for standard delivery and until the 18th for express delivery,” indicates the CEO of Cheerz. “Orders for certain products, such as books with flat openings that are more complicated to shape, stop on the 16th if you want to be delivered for Christmas. Otherwise, it will be until the 19th with express delivery,” also specifies Mathieu Cloute, manager of FlexiLivre. Express delivery involves additional costs.
Budget-wise, count between 30 and 70 euros for a good-looking book. Definitely no time? You will still have the option of offering, after the holidays, a “Year Book 2024”, a book including all your photos from the past year. Including those of Christmas and New Year's Day.
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