About GK Vale
GK Vale has been in the business of photography and cameras for more than 110 years and has earned a stellar reputation for excellence in photography over the years. The business adapted and started offering photo-centric printed products in order to fulfil the needs of the market. Today GK Vale have 30+ stores across South India and are constantly investing in the latest photo printing technology in order to provide their customers with the best quality products. GK Vale are a known forerunner and trendsetter in the photographic printing industry in India.
Executive Summary
Having built a reputation over the last 110 years as the one stop shop for all photography and photographic printing needs in India, GK Vale recognised a need for an e-commerce presence in 2016. The executive team at GK Vale knew that in order to achieve their goal of becoming India’s No. 1 destination for online photo products, they needed to partner with a company that were experienced in the area and could support their team.
When asked why GK Vale decided to choose Taopix, Shashidhar Venkatesh, Project Manager replied: “Taopix is a robust and proven solution with many customers across the world, their unique dedicated user journeys and buying paths along with the simplicity of managing products is what convinced us they were the best solution for us.”
Challenges
GK Vale’s clients wanted to create and print their personalised photo products, but there were no easy-to- use solutions available to do this from the comfort of their homes. The need was greater than simply uploading photos to a website and placing an order. This challenge is not a unique problem; users’ dependence on the internet has brought about change across the industry and it’s important for any business to innovate through changes and stay relevant. For GK Vale, staying relevant has been their strength through the 110+ years they have been in operation, and this was one more challenge for their business on the road to growth.
Customers in this day and age, are increasingly keen to exercise their own design ideas while creating personalised products. It was important for GK Vale to be able to serve both customers who wanted a simple online design tool with simple drag and drop features, as well as customers who are very detail oriented and are looking for advanced design flexibility while designing their photo products.
How Taopix Helped Solve The Problem
The adaptation to online e-commerce platforms is only going to increase in India in the future. In the past, customers needed to visit a physical store, share the photos, and have their photo products designed by the GK Vale team. Taopix has enabled GK Vale to take the services offered in their physical stores directly to the customer’s home. With Taopix, GK Vale is now able to offer customers the ability to design their own photo products like Albums, Canvases, Calendars using the Taopix Online designer, from their desk (or mobile device) at home, place an order online, and get it delivered wherever they are. The dedicated buyer journeys and ease of use meant that regardless of a customer’s technical skills, they are easily able to complete their orders.
Results
GK Vale’s project team worked closely with the Taopix team to implement the online designer and make the necessary adjustments to their website to improve the customer experience and navigation. They made various products available using the Taopix Launch products as well as their own customised designs and products. After launching, GK Vale have seen a 60% growth in revenue from month to month consistently. Their online customer base has grown exponentially with customers returning regularly for further purchases.
What’s next for GK Vale
GK Vale’s goal is to be India’s No 1 destination for online photo print products says Anand Sukumar, Managing Partner at GK Vale. With the exponential growth of the internet adoption and with the imminent roll out of 5G across India, GK Vale believe that more and more people will go online to buy customised photo products. With Taopix as a front-end Designer Tool and GK Vale’s vast array of customisable products, the team at GK Vale believe they will continue to see exponential growth.
Want to know more?
As the world’s number one personalisation and photo commerce platform, Taopix understands what it takes to be successful in the photo gifting & personalisation space. If you’d like to know more about how we can help your business grow, get in touch