“Getting people to pay has always been a problem, so they’ve got to find a hook.”Īndrew Wright, the chief executive of Smilebox, believes he has found at least one hook into a bigger market, thanks to an alliance with Hallmark. “This looks to me like a niche business,” said Christopher Chute, an analyst with IDC, a technology consultancy. Building a successful business of any significant size, though, may be asking too much. Should Smilebox gain enough acceptance with consumers before the free photo services offer up competing features, analysts said, it may well build a successful business. Smilebox then delivers e-mail messages to the user’s friends and family, inviting them to view the book. Rather, since users download the template, they need only drag images to the desired locations on the template, then upload the entire file to the Web site. Unlike many other photo-sharing services, Smilebox does not require users to upload photos to the Web site and edit them there. (Smilebox also offers a free version that includes advertisements and fewer music and template choices.) Next, users can choose from among 700 musical selections to accompany the photo book, and decide on other visual flourishes, like animated transitions between pages. Those with dozens of holiday photos might choose to collect them in a virtual photo album with holiday themed artwork on the borders, for instance. users pay $1 or $2 to choose from among 350 graphic templates for their digital photos, or pay for a $5 monthly subscription for unlimited access to the templates. The kicker is that, in a market cluttered with free services that have struggled to produce profits, Smilebox is actually attracting paying customers. Now, a start-up based in Redmond, Wash., is offering customers the opportunity to build online scrapbooks with animation, music and artwork. The new premises (this time a proper warehouse!) is setting the stage for the next phase of growth, which includes more products (now that there's the space to store them) and also looking at international growth into Australia and beyond.FOR years, Internet users have treated online photo services like a batch of holiday snapshots - checking them out for a while, then letting them collect dust on the shelf as soon as something new comes along. In early 2022 (less than a year after moving into their first commercial space), Hannah & Tom had no choice but to move Smile Box into bigger premises, as they had simply outgrown the existing space! It was a big year!Ģ021 also saw the launch of Smile Box's Raise a Smile charitable fund - raising money to help charitable causes & organisations around the country. Within months, the team tripled in size and Smile Boxes were being sent thick and fast around NZ and beyond. They were now working on the business full-time, alongside the rest of the amazing Smile Box team. They made the big decision to leave the security of their day jobs and moved the business out of home and into dedicated commercial premises in Wānaka. With the arrival of their son, Lochie, in late 2020, along with Lucy, their crazy-energetic border-collie, Hannah & Tom knew that things had to change.In early 2021, Hannah & Tom decided it was time to give Smile Box a proper 'push' and to try make the business more than just "something on the side". The business was at this time still very much a side-gig with both Hannah and Tom still working their separate day jobs. After starting Smilebox in their one bedroom flat in 2017, Hannah & Tom opted in early 2018 for a life-style change and made the big shift to the other end of the country to base themselves amongst the lakes and snow-capped mountains of Lake Hāwea (near Wānaka).ĭuring 2018 to 2020, Smile Box operated from a spare bedroom within their home in Lake Hāwea, with team members coming into the house to fulfil orders and the posties picking up sometimes hundreds of packages a day from their front door.
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