Zenfolio has announced what it calls Smart Pricing, an “advanced data-driven technology” that uses pooled historical transactions to help photographers competitively price their prints and photo products.
Zenfolio allows photographers to share and sell photos online. Format was recently purchased by the company, and it is expanding its business analytics capabilities.
The photography platform says it is the first to produce a data-driven pricing recommendation system. Smart Pricing is based upon hundreds of thousands transactions and the type of photography as well as the geographic area in which the photographer sells.
“Smart Pricing is a Big Data solution based on historical transactions collected and analyzed over a rolling 12-month period across all Zenfolio platforms,” the company tells PetaPixel.
The algorithm determines the product type and prices at which they were sold. It also considers business zip codes and photo genre. The Zenfolio partner fees are also included. This ensures that the price suggested accounts for different products and costs .”
The company says that Smart Pricing will help photographers who it says often struggle with balancing competitive pricing and profitability.
Pricing products and services can often be one of the most difficult business challenges that a photographer has to face, regardless of whether they’re aspiring or experienced. “Photographers tend to be focused on the creative aspects of their business and do not have the resources to do the extensive research required to ensure they charge competitively.”
Despite being what Zenfolio describes as a “big business” solution, the data-driven analytics here are narrowed to best help small, local businesses.
The Zenfolio Smart pricing tool is a time-saver for photographers. It saves them hours researching prices in local markets, setting margins, and worrying about how to set the right price ranges that will maximize earnings. Photographers have full control with the ability to create multiple price lists for various client types or genres of photography, and adjust prices anytime to fit their needs,” the company claims.
Smart Pricing is being added at no extra cost to the Zenfolio PortfolioPlus and ProSuite plans that include e-commerce starting today.
