Scope of Professional Photographers in the era of E-Commerce and Online Retail

By Ruplekha Verma on July 8, 2014 7 Comments / 2251 views

Out of passion, experience and interest last year I started my photography company Costumier Studio in Bangalore (https://www.costumier.in).

With traditional marketing strategy and approach we acquired few regular customers in Manufacturing, Fashion Designing and Boutiques segment. We acquired few customers in mid-scale e-Commerce retail as well. But with a tremendous effort we are not able to find a decent scope for the venture.

I’m seeking answers to few questions.

1. With marketplace style adoption of lots of online retail platforms enabling individuals to sell their products online how can we approach them to take our services.

2. Is there any way we can collaborate with snapdeal, myntra etc. and other newly started e-comm. ventures for their photoshoot requirements though they must be having their existing tie-ups.

3. Photography being the most traditional business what sales/ marketing strategy a new venture like mine should adopt to reach to more number of business entities in need of such services.

4. Does Photography (only) service model should have some add-ons like branding, videography, graphic designing etc. to attain more traction

5. Being based in Bangalore how can I target thousands of apparel/ garment/ knitwear manufacturing industries in South India (Bangalore/ Tirupur/ Coimbatore/ Chennai) to adopt our services. (manufacturers always need photography but out of 100 potential leads we pitched only 3-5 converted).

6. Millions of professional photographers born everyday with each professional camera sold in the market hence the competition being very high, but keeping standards of quality and competitive price can my venture attain a sustainable stage.

I request Rodinhooders to shed some light on my points and help me out. I’ll also appreciate if you can connect me to potential leads who may need our service.

Comments

Ruplekha Verma

7 Comments

Omkar Nisal July 8, 2014, 8:21 am

Hey Ruplekha,

You might need to do something offbeat and dazzling like what Sandeep did . And since he has already done what you want to do, I suggest you to invest 4 hours and 22 minutes of your life in this video and you might learn a thing or two :

Video is 2 hours 11 mins. (watch it at least twice!)

Gooooood Luck! 🙂
Ruplekha Verma July 8, 2014, 9:03 am

Thanks Omkar for sharing this amazing video. These energy boosters have helped me a lot to keep the entrepreneurial spirit alive.
Already on a regular dose. 😛
asha chaudhry July 8, 2014, 9:37 am

hi ruplekha,

pls add the link of your company so ppl can check you guys out.

pls take a look at this question – you may want to answer it!

https://www.therodinhoods.com/forum/topics/wanted-insights-on-apparel-photo-shoots-for-ecom-websites

pls check out all of our posts in the e-com to connect to be able to connect to the right people.

i will ping rodinhooders like tanya rao of zepo and nameet potnis of sellmojo who might be able to guide you.

will also ping sugandha dubey of stockimagebank.com

paritosh sharma is with jabong. he could perhaps guide you as well…

answering your question #4 – i sincerely believe that photography itself has lots of specialisations. stick to photography – don’t get into branding etc – leave that to the branding experts 🙂
Indy Singh July 8, 2014, 5:11 pm

Hey Ruplekha,

I tried to do some searches for ‘Costumier Studio Bangalore’ and not really getting any results. If they can’t find you on the net… they can’t find you.

Do you have a website setup for your business already?

I would highly recommend looking into the .photography extension as it is new and still plenty of good names available. For example a domain like bangalore.photography would be memorable, geo defining, one word domain for your industry. This domain could be purchased for under $100. Be glad to help secure the domain as well as host and help setup the site.

Alternately a domain like costumier.photography can be had for under 20 bucks!

Best of luck with the venture!

@Omkar Niskal – thanks for the video – tuned in now
Ruplekha Verma July 11, 2014, 8:30 pm

Hello Asha,

Thanks for your suggestion on my question #4. We do share the same belief. 😉

Added the link of the website.

Connected with Mr. Amar Shah from the discussion you mentioned.

Awaiting response from Tanya, Nameet, Sugandha and Paritosh if you have pinged them already.

Thanks for your amazing support and encouragement. 🙂
Ruplekha Verma July 24, 2014, 2:58 pm

Hi omkar. We have got our website done and also doing social media management by professionals. Thanks
Omkar Nisal July 25, 2014, 1:10 am

Hope you enjoyed the video! 🙂