Ok, let’s be honest now folks;
How many of your most prized pictures live solely on your mobile phones and tablets?
Over the years, our online obsessions with the digital era appear to have gradually led us astray from more traditionalist practices surrounding the showcasing of our images, embellishing the ethos of how we present ourselves to the world through pictures.
When last did you print a handful of those gripping, authentic, memorable moments in time in physical form to frame for the decorative delight of your home, to organise in a photo album, or to even present as gifts to friends, colleagues, and loved ones?
Let’s face it, we live on our digital devices, and thanks to free photo print services, we can revisit moments in time when our memories count the most through our printed photos.
This might lead one to wonder what keeps the UK’s FreePrints e-commerce machine thriving and how this uniquely profitable business model makes its money in a time when technology trumps tradition.
Let’s explore this further, shall we?
Free Prints App Explained
Managing to keep our fingers firmly tapping away at our mobile &/or tablet screens, as we do, FreePrints is a popular app that allows you to print photos for free before having them delivered directly to your door for a small fee.
Luckily, there’s no catch for snapshot-seekers rejoicing at the prospect that ‘gone are the days of paying to print pictures in a shop’.
A Deep Dive into the Free Photo Prints Business Model
Designed for direct delivery straight to your doorstep in just a matter of days, FreePrints is conceptualized on the cornerstone of cost-cutting customer convenience.
Through the fast, free, and user-friendly nature of the app, FreePrints allows its users to select from the photos they want to be printed from their phones as well as via Facebook or Instagram.
Get this: The FreePrints app also lets you select varying quantities for printing on your choice of deluxe glossy or premium matt paper to ensure high-quality, long-lasting prints that resist fading for generations!
Given that the expense of printing a large number of images tends to get nonsensically exorbitant for most overtime, FreePrints can help you financially fix this in more ways than one.
The Benefits & Value of Free Prints to UK Consumers
- Printed at a professional photo lab in the UK, FreePrints’ state-of-the-art custom technology provides decades of experience in photo finishing and printing of both colour and b/w photographs, providing the best quality images, vivid colour reproduction, and more natural skin tones, exceptional sharpness, and unsurpassed colour stability.
- Opting for FreePrints in contrast to printing from home cuts the pricey costs of printer ink and photo paper – not to mention dispels any anxiety over the iffy output quality of your photos.
- Although users of the FreePrints app are charged a postage fee, which usually starts at £1.49 and is never more than £3.99, the overall affordability of the service offers its customers outstanding value for money no matter how many prints they order.
- Photos delivered via the FreePrints app service are printed in 4×6 inches, which comply with standard picture formats and dimensions in the UK.
- The FreePrints app uses ‘best-of-breed’ security solutions to ensure that your photos are always protected.
- By inviting your friends or family to use the app and sharing app deeds on your socials, you can earn up to 17 ‘bonus prints’ per month.
- Just when you think the ‘goodie train’ has come to a halt, you soon come to realise that, with FreePrints, your destination has left you standing at the frontier of a freebie frenzy:
There’s no denying that this business model offers cheaper, more convenient ways to turn iPhone or iPad snapshots into actual prints, but what makes FreePrints successful in meeting its monetary quota?
5 Creative Ways Free Prints Make Money in the UK
Based on a ‘freemium’ business model, here are five creative cost-cutting measures that the FreePrints app has adopted to monetise its modern-day marketing strategy.
- In keeping with the ‘freemium’ concept, FreePrints earns its money by upselling inside the app. This essentially means that when buyers pay for prints above their free allocation, the benefit generated by the additional revenue compensates for the shortfall incurred by the free printing.
- Due to its massive appeal, FreePrints has amassed an expansive user base of loyal customers, most of whom wish to use the app’s premium services, making it helpfully accessible for those who only choose to use its free features.
- If a limited percentage of consumers use the app’s premium paid options, the ‘freemium’ model makes it cost-effective to offer free prints to the rest.
- By printing in bulk – a common practice for FreePrints – costs are substantially reduced, making the production of photos easy. As such, packaging and distribution of pictures don’t require overwhelming manpower.
- FreePrints also generates revenue through ads and promotions to boost its business numbers and enhance the application.
With an unmatched competitive pricing structure coupled with unlimited freebies and its convenient customer-centric system set in stone, the FreePrints application comes second to none.
However, it’s worth noting that other equally handy photo print app alternatives are following not far behind the FreePrints legacy.
Below are but a few of the Top Picks for 2022:
5 Photo Printing App Alternatives
Available on both Android and iPhone, Mixtiles is considered one of the best photo printing apps for Instagram enthusiasts. For an easy uploading process, the application allows its users to link their IG accounts directly. Those without Instagram accounts needn’t despair, as Mixtiles will let users upload images from their computers. What’s unique about Mixtiles is that the app only prints square shapes to mimic tiles, meaning the printing service is far more partial to multiple collections of photographs, essentially leveling up our visual aesthetic for eventing and general decor. Photos from Mixtiles also come framed with a new age ‘no-nails’ method of hanging.
Also made available to Android and Apple users, Shutterfly is the ‘go-to’ photo printing app for personalized gifting. With Shutterfly, the possibilities are limitless. Through the app, users can order cards, photo books, prints, and calendars. Shutterfly also has a photo collage builder for users to tap into their authentic eye for creativity. Printing via the Shutterfly app simply doesn’t cease with photos. Items ordered through Shutterfly can be used to decorate homes with ornaments for special events and festive occasions like anniversaries, housewarmings, birthdays, and Christmas gatherings. This especially comes in handy when looking to print photos on different kinds of canvases, including blankets! From effortlessly personalizing wedding photos to creating free online storage for every user profile, there’s next to nothing Shutterfly can’t do.
Only available via the iPhone App Store, Printastic brings memories back to life through polished printed photo books for users who enjoy telling stories through imagery by adding text. Select a photo, choose a layout, sit back, relax and await the prompt delivery of your personalized parcel of pictures – it’s just that simple. Also offering worldwide shipping, Printastic is available in nine languages.
Compatible with any smartphone or tablet, the Polaroid Zip application lets its users edit, print, and share their favorite images easily from their portable devices. Much like with FreePrints, users of the app can connect via their social media accounts as well. What’s distinguishable with Polaroid Zip, however, is that the app also provides users with various filters and border templates, giving the app a customisable edge.
Social Print Studio: With a company motto like “Print Your Heart Out”, Prints Studio means business! Although located in California, the Print Studio app service delivers worldwide. With four print sizes to choose from, including classical frames, Print Studio customers get to enjoy the splendour of high-quality images and photo books printed quickly and in large formats. Also providing a personalized appeal, Print Studio users can choose from greeting cards, stickers, magnets, tearaway calendars, and even holiday ornaments to light-heartedly liven up their lives. Unfortunately for Android users, this service is only available for Apple iPhones.
You can also Make Money with Free Prints
Now that you’ve discovered how these free prints businesses work and which options there are, you could use them for your own advantage to start earning money by selling free prints. You may need to be a bit creative and certainly understand the legalities before getting started, but that should not stop you from learning more about this often rewarding side hustle.
Conclusion
In an age where the mobile digisphere reigns supreme, we find ourselves taking and sharing more pictures than ever before – a contemporary shift leading to the mainstream modernisation and monetisation of traditional forms of business through mobile e-commerce mechanisms.
Swiftly adapting to the changing times, we tussle with the idea of letting go of traditional habits. Thanks to creative online businesses like FreePrints, the gap has been bridged, gifting us with the freedom of harvesting picture memorabilia in physical form at inconceivably affordable prices, enabling us to be much more creative with prints.
Although FreePrints doesn’t technically qualify as ‘free’, it does offer a level of convenience that’s hard to beat, making the application appealing to the interests of online consumers, be it standard or premium users, who wish to keep the sentimentality of lasting memories alive with the simple lift of a finger or who take a step further and earn with prints.
Now that’s the kind of service that keeps customers coming and revenue flowing!
