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Digital Makeover!
Listed under: Trend Report
Published: Thursday, July 22, 2010
Ashley Hewson, sales director at Serif, speaks to Craft Business about the recent demand for all things digital
Have you noticed more of an interest in this medium over the past year?
There was a lot of noise about it, especially in the US, during 2008. Back then, people were generally intrigued to know what digital was all about and would try it, but not necessarily stick with it as a hobby and then often go back to traditional scrapbooking. This has definitely changed over the last 12 months as customers have become more educated about what it is and a much higher proportion of them are now showing an interest in making it their main pastime. This has also come about through the much higher-quality and realistic results now achievable on a computer compared to a few years ago.
How has the market for these products changed?
As crafters continue taking up digital scrapbooking as a hobby, there is a growing demand for not only the software products themselves, but also the new digital kits of embellishments, papers, alphabets and so forth. This is exactly the same as in the physical world, where fresh trends emerge as designers produce goods that customers want to collect and use in their latest pieces.
Who do they generally appeal to?
Our core demographic is very much the same as for traditional scrapbooking, comprising mostly of women with families who want to record their memories in a more creative way than simply through photographs – as home life, especially babies and children, are still the main themes people create projects for. That said, we do find that digital is opening the sector up to a much younger audience and as such, we are seeing a growing number of customers creating pieces with images of parties, music concerts and all kinds of things they do with their friends. It certainly makes for a more interesting way of sharing photos.
Are there any big trends in this area at the moment?
Digital has moved away from the clip art-looking pages customers were creating a few years ago and can now look almost as realistic as a photo of a physical scrapbook, which is generally what people are always trying to create. A big trend to have taken off this year is using digital applications to produce fantasy-like pages with the help of photo blending and other techniques that are impossible to achieve physically – something which has grown increasingly popular as crafters have become more comfortable working with their software.
Have you noticed a change in the types of things consumers are purchasing?
As customers have started viewing digital as more of a serious hobby, it has certainly driven a greater demand for everything required to maintain that. Sales of the additional digital kits, which I mentioned earlier, are the main one, but interest in larger printers, inks, papers, external hard drives – to store digital embellishments – and professional photobook printing services have also risen as a result.
What do you think is going to be the next big thing?
The level of creativity and advanced techniques being used by digital scrapbookers has yet to break into other crafts. However, I don’t see any reason why other pastimes like cardmaking cannot begin a wider transition to digital.
How has the market been doing over the past year?
As a business, we have seen a huge growth in the demand for our digital scrapbooking products. However, it is difficult to know whether this is due to the general interest in the medium as a whole or because we are relatively new to creating these types of items and quickly becoming better known.
Do you think the economic climate is likely to affect sales of these goods?
The amount of money households who do traditional scrapbooking spend each year is quite substantial and as digital is a much lower-costing way of achieving similar results, I think it is possible we may actually see demand grow.
How can businesses keep up with all the latest trends?
Online communities for scrapbooking, and crafting generally, are simply huge. Get involved and see what people are creating and talking about it – these individuals are our customers after all.
What are your top tips for beating the economic difficulties of the next year?
The main thing is to have the mindset that it might be like this for four to five years and think about how your business can operate long term, rather than only planning for the next six to 12 months. Assuming that each individual you have will start spending less with you, consider how you can widen your customer base – whether that be through better marketing, diversifying the products you offer, or via new routes to buyers, such as your own website or using eBay or Amazon to reach more people.
There was a lot of noise about it, especially in the US, during 2008. Back then, people were generally intrigued to know what digital was all about and would try it, but not necessarily stick with it as a hobby and then often go back to traditional scrapbooking. This has definitely changed over the last 12 months as customers have become more educated about what it is and a much higher proportion of them are now showing an interest in making it their main pastime. This has also come about through the much higher-quality and realistic results now achievable on a computer compared to a few years ago.
How has the market for these products changed?
As crafters continue taking up digital scrapbooking as a hobby, there is a growing demand for not only the software products themselves, but also the new digital kits of embellishments, papers, alphabets and so forth. This is exactly the same as in the physical world, where fresh trends emerge as designers produce goods that customers want to collect and use in their latest pieces.
Who do they generally appeal to?
Our core demographic is very much the same as for traditional scrapbooking, comprising mostly of women with families who want to record their memories in a more creative way than simply through photographs – as home life, especially babies and children, are still the main themes people create projects for. That said, we do find that digital is opening the sector up to a much younger audience and as such, we are seeing a growing number of customers creating pieces with images of parties, music concerts and all kinds of things they do with their friends. It certainly makes for a more interesting way of sharing photos.
Are there any big trends in this area at the moment?
Digital has moved away from the clip art-looking pages customers were creating a few years ago and can now look almost as realistic as a photo of a physical scrapbook, which is generally what people are always trying to create. A big trend to have taken off this year is using digital applications to produce fantasy-like pages with the help of photo blending and other techniques that are impossible to achieve physically – something which has grown increasingly popular as crafters have become more comfortable working with their software.
Have you noticed a change in the types of things consumers are purchasing?
As customers have started viewing digital as more of a serious hobby, it has certainly driven a greater demand for everything required to maintain that. Sales of the additional digital kits, which I mentioned earlier, are the main one, but interest in larger printers, inks, papers, external hard drives – to store digital embellishments – and professional photobook printing services have also risen as a result.
What do you think is going to be the next big thing?
The level of creativity and advanced techniques being used by digital scrapbookers has yet to break into other crafts. However, I don’t see any reason why other pastimes like cardmaking cannot begin a wider transition to digital.
How has the market been doing over the past year?
As a business, we have seen a huge growth in the demand for our digital scrapbooking products. However, it is difficult to know whether this is due to the general interest in the medium as a whole or because we are relatively new to creating these types of items and quickly becoming better known.
Do you think the economic climate is likely to affect sales of these goods?
The amount of money households who do traditional scrapbooking spend each year is quite substantial and as digital is a much lower-costing way of achieving similar results, I think it is possible we may actually see demand grow.
How can businesses keep up with all the latest trends?
Online communities for scrapbooking, and crafting generally, are simply huge. Get involved and see what people are creating and talking about it – these individuals are our customers after all.
What are your top tips for beating the economic difficulties of the next year?
The main thing is to have the mindset that it might be like this for four to five years and think about how your business can operate long term, rather than only planning for the next six to 12 months. Assuming that each individual you have will start spending less with you, consider how you can widen your customer base – whether that be through better marketing, diversifying the products you offer, or via new routes to buyers, such as your own website or using eBay or Amazon to reach more people.
