Speed is everything when it comes to trade and commerce. You might have the best ice cream sundae in the world, but if it takes you an hour to make it and another hour to deliver it, you've lost a lot of potential customers.
In our field of editorial stock photography, the same holds true. Independent stock photographers have historically been the David attempting to battle with the Goliath. The advent of large conglomerates in our industry (I can think of five of them) has sent a chill through the world of stock photo photographers.
"Will I be shouldered out into the cold?" many independents ask.
The answer might have been "Yes" if the question were asked fifteen years ago. Back then the technology to compete would have cost the average independent photography business $150,000 to $300,000. "Out of the question," you would have said then.
Today, it's very different. We are seeing the cost of hardware and software, and related services, dropping dramatically. The equivalent technology today is in the range of $4,000 to $10,000.
A small business today, armed with the correct hardware and software, can effectively compete with the stock agency conglomerates.
YOUR ADVANTAGE
You have two areas to your advantage: speed and price.
Any traditional conglomerate is bogged down with costly dinosaur-like administration. And paradoxically, this administration adds to the price of their product. In contrast, when photobuyers deal with you, they deal directly. No middleman is involved, further reducing the per-photo fee to the buyer.
If the aggregate stock photo collections of independent individual photographers totals more than 450,000,000 photos, why don't more photobuyers today use independent photographers rather than the large stock agencies?
Because we're not quite there yet. Not enough photographers are knowledgeable about what's called "eCommerce." Photobuyers are not ready to abandon traditional shopping behavior. And without a built-in network to jump aboard, independents find themselves floating aimlessly in cyberspace.
Such a network is taking shape, however, on the Internet. Daily, more and more photo researchers are finding that by using the Web, they can eliminate costly hours of searching for "just-right" images. They can also save money by buying directly from the source (you).
HAPPY CUSTOMERS
Using Amazon.com, the cyber bookseller, as an example, we can draw a parallel to this situation. Amazon.com is not a book publisher, (not yet, at least) but a go-between for booksellers and people who shop via the Internet. Amazon.com fulfills orders and receives a percentage of the revenue for its work.
But Amazon.com, given the present state of the Internet, key34 does nothing different than what book publishers could also do themselves -- thus reducing delivery time and eliminating commissions to Amazon.com. This would make customers happy.
Search systems on the Internet now allow customers to find what they're looking for in a matter of seconds. Common sense tells us, for example, there's no need to go through a middleman to find a book, if you can find it on the Web directly through the publisher. This eliminates both the sales unit and the distributor entirely.
No doubt in the near future, publishers will set up their own cyber mall Internet service and supply customers with their products directly. The technology is there.
Can you see the parallel here?
In the near future, savvy photo researchers will not need the handholding from one of the conglomerates to find their photos. Using the increasing power of the Internet, the researchers will go swiftly to the source of the image (the photographer) and deal directly with the source (you) for delivery of the product.
Mitch Kezar, a Minneapolis-based photographer with a specialty in outdoors, especially hunting dogs, fishing, and winter sports, is one of the pioneers who are proving that this way of doing business is about to explode on the scene. He is already successful at it with a number of his clients. He's currently busy expanding, scanning 12,000 hunting/fishing/outdoor images to put up for sale on the Internet.
"Our site uses a keyword searchable data base to guide buyers through. First they can review thumbnail-size images, then by clicking on them they can see a 5x7 image they can drag to a shopping basket. Which, then, of course, can be emailed or called in to my office. We then ship the buyer the slide they want FedEx, or if they want a digitized image we scan the photo at a high res and digitally fulfill the request, or send straight digital images.
"We've polled about 200 customers, who have shown great interest in being able to call up exactly what they're looking for, from someone who knows the difference between a flushing dog and a retrieving dog, or a slip sinker from spinning bait.
"Our clients have lamented to us about experiences with calling large photo agencies for such niche-market images, only to find themselves wading through 300 pulled images, all of them wrong content."
Such efficiency as what Mitch offers will appeal to everyone in the photo buying community. And individual stock photographers will find themselves sought after.
E-commerce touches all major aspects of economic life and presents a series of complex issues. It involves the integration of many elements of technology, infrastructure, business operation and public policy. All these elements need to operate together as smoothly as possible to yield the maximum benefits to its users. Most importantly, e-commerce requires new skills and forms of industrial organization; it therefore also needs to be looked at from social and political angles.
The transition of the global economy from an industrial focus to one based on knowledge and information presents numerous opportunities and challenges. This new paradigm has a significant impact on the way people lead their lives. It is enabled by the use of Information and Communications Technologies which have led to the compression of time and space.
The increasing pace of technological innovations, such as the rapid integration of the Internet and other telecommunications based activities into nearly every sphere of business has given rise to new ways of communicating, learning and conducting business. The Internet has facilitated the establishment of a "border-less" environment for communications and the electronic delivery of certain services.
Enter electronic commerce also known as e-commerce. Convergence of technologies is the major driving factor that contributes to the exponential growth of electronic commerce. Convergence goes beyond the use of technology to develop new products and services and is seen as a vehicle to improve the quality of life of society. Convergence will open new opportunities for all as everyone gains equal access to information and the global markets. Small business will be able to compete on an equal footing with big business.
But what is e-commerce?
Electronic commerce can be defined broadly as:
"The use of electronic networks to exchange information, products, services and payments for commercial and communication purposes between individuals (consumers) and businesses, between businesses themselves, between individuals themselves, within government or between the public and government and, last, between business and government "
This definition encompasses the many kinds of business activities that are being conducted electronically, and conveys the notion that electronic commerce is much more comprehensive than simply the purchasing of goods and services electronically.
What are the benefits of e-commerce?
E-commerce is transforming the global marketplace and its impact is being felt across the full range of business. E-commerce requires an open, predictable and transparent trading environment, which operates across territorial borders and jurisdictions. To foster such an environment and to realize its full economic potential necessitates international co-operation, which will be instrumental in developing the enabling conditions for its growth.
Countries have to work together to remove barriers to the free flow of electronic products and services across jurisdictions and by resolving problems that may arise due to its borderless character.
The main benefits of e-commerce are demonstrable by the following achievements:
Improved response time: Quick and cost efficient way through which to communicate and update information.
Improved competitive positioning: Electronic commerce has a potential to level the playing field for small and large entities throughout the world. Small and Medium Enterprises and public sector customers reap the benefits of e-commerce.
Ease of concluding deals and financial transactions: Click-and-pay technology is gaining popularity as a means through which to transact. Published information, communicating, buying, selling, paying and checking orders occurs 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Extended markets reach and thus increased revenue potential: Geographic barriers or boundaries are removed. There is an increased number of Internet users to market products and services at lower cost and much faster.
Increased consumer convenience and choice: Consumers can easily locate hard to find goods and services, and also have a wide choice from which to make a purchase anytime, anywhere.
Reduced prices: Increased competition forces organizations to produce better quality products at reduced cost.
Improved customer service: Information is shared more quickly through the use of an electronic medium.
E-commerce