DEERFIELD, Ill. — At more than 3,000 stores nationwide, Walgreen Co. is offering same-day service for many popular photo products, including photo books, calendars, folded cards, holidays cards and other personalized items.
Walgreens said Tuesday that new photo technology and printing systems produce high-resolution, color-rich prints at speeds that enable its photo technicians to serve up some photo gifts, such as greeting cards and folded cards, in as little as an hour.
"With most online photo sites, people often have to wait a week or more to get custom photo gifts delivered to their homes," Jasbir Patel, senior director and general merchandise manager of photo and e-commerce at Walgreens, said in a statement. "Our new service allows customers to pick up these products in their neighborhood store the same day. For time-crunched holiday shoppers, this will be a valuable service."
The retailer noted that the same-day service separates Walgreens from other online photo gift retailers by allowing customers to avoid shipping costs.
Customers can create their gifts at touch-screen photo kiosks at Walgreens stores or from home at Walgreens.com/photo and pick them up within the same day at a nearby Walgreens location. Products now available with same-day store pickup include classic Photo books with a black linen or a black leather cover; wall calendars; posters, collage calendar posters and board prints; banners; and greeting cards and folded cards. Prices range from $1.99 each for folded cards to $19.99 and over for photo books.
Walgreens added that it will continue to offer hundreds of other photo gift options — such as coffee mugs, Christmas ornaments and mouse pads — at stores and online that can be available within days of being ordered.
The chain highlighted same-day pickup in a special holiday photo gift supplement in newspapers. The full-color, 20-page guide advertised $10 off any photo product order of $30 or more and presented consumers with a range of photo gift ideas, including staff picks.
Photo gifts are projected to increase in sales by almost 20% through 2014, according to an August 2010 InfoTrends study cited by Walgreens.
"Photos are making it beyond social media and smartphones as people seek more creative ways to share special moments with friends and family," Patel stated. "We believe greater convenience and a wide array of options for using photos — like we’re providing through our same-day pickup service — will help encourage people to use more images in unique, memorable ways."
Walgreens added that a new photo enhancement in its iPad mobile application, which was spotlighted in the photo gift supplement, that enables customers to create and order 5×7 holiday cards with a variety of designs and themes that can be picked up in stores in as soon as an hour. The retailer said it’s also providing photo gift ideas from professional photographers and photo customers via its new photo blog at snapsbywalgreens.com.
