The debut of 7 stores in 5 cities marks the beginning of a new era in customer choice and service in photo retail

May 4, 2010: Zoomin.com, India’s #1 Photo Sharing, Printing and Custom Gifting service, today unveiled its retail strategy with the simultaneous opening of 6 ZoomIn Studios throughout the country. These stores are located as “shop-in-shop” within the Crossword Bookstores in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Bangalore and Kolkata.

A Photo Studio for Today’s Generation
The chic new ZoomIn Studio format is a significant step in empowering the “memory keepers” of the family and giving them the tools to express, create and preserve their ‘moments of magic’ through photos. Unlike any traditional photo retail store experience available today, the design and execution of each Studio has focused on creating a collaborative experience zone for customers to touch and feel stunningly beautiful and evocative photo gifts, get inspired and work with expert designers on the spot to tell their own story through photos. With a wide selection of products and services on display, such as traditional photo prints, giant enlargements, prints on canvas, “coffee-table book” style hardcover photo books and a vast line of personalized stationery, note cards and invites. The stores are equipped with state of the art touchscreen displays to create a fun and exciting way for everyone to create magic with their photos. All a customer needs to do is walk in with their photographs in print or digital format, then let their imagination and the ZoomIn team take over.

A One Stop Photo Studio: While the ZoomIn Studio has introduced an exciting array of innovations in celebrating life through photos such as the Photo book, canvas print, custom 100% cotton tee; the traditional and essential needs of a photo taking professional, enthusiast or family member have not been ignored. Professional quality photo prints from wallet to giant wall sized enlargements are available in multiple finishes such as matte, glossy, lustre and metallic. These professional prints are available for next day pickup at the studio, delivery to the home or worldwide through ZoomIn’s network of delivery partners. Also launching with the Studios is the ZoomIn Passport Photo Pack. A single click by a trained professional at the ZoomIn Studio is probably the last time you will need to get a passport photo taken. Instant reorders of your passport prints will be available online and at any ZoomIn Studio location nationwide through an SMS.

Commenting on the launch, Sunny Balijepalli, Co-Founder and CEO, Zoomin.com said, “Our goal both online and now through the launch of retail stores has been consistent – we want to allow everyone in the family experience first-hand the magic possible through the exciting new developments in digital photography and on-demand personalization and printing. We’re especially thrilled to have partnered with Crossword Bookstores to launch our first wave of stores around the country. As a service that aims to preserve a family’s favourite moments, ZoomIn’s offerings fit particularly well with the store demographics. We see this partnership as a great opportunity to strengthen our distribution network and to take ZoomIn’s photo and personalization services closer to its target audience. We are excited about our growth plans to reach out to a wider audience across the country and aim to expand the number of ZoomIn Studios to 25 by end of this year, in a variety of formats and locations.”

According to industry reports, the Indian digital printing industry is growing at a whopping CAGR of 85%. Camera enabled handset sales are also expected to boost digital photography over the next few years. “We’re seeing very encouraging growth in the area of personalization as there is a plethora of readily available digital content and consumers are looking at innovative ways to celebrate them. ZoomIn Studio is a service built for India, serving a Diaspora that is connected through memories and their celebration through photos”, added Sunny.

ZoomIn had successfully launched its first exclusive franchise store in Mumbai in September 2009.

The Exciting Launch Offer: The ZoomIn Studio is excited to celebrate its launch with a free gift to all its customers. For a limited time, every walk-in customer to the ZoomIn Studio will be eligible to receive a set of 25 free Photo Prints or a free Photo Book with their first purchase at the ZoomIn Studio.

About ZoomIn Zoomin.com is a leading online service that enables customers to store, share, and print their digital photos – easily and affordably. ZoomIn allows customers around the world to upload unlimited photos and securely share them for free, with friends and family. They can order photo prints or personalize gifts with their favourite photos, a theme and message – delivered to any doorstep in India, the US, UK and Canada. ZoomIn’s photo prints and gifts are of the highest professional quality, using world class technology and infrastructure. Zoomin.com was voted India’s # 1 photo service by PC World magazine and Online Photo Sharing and Printing category winner of the Digit web awards.

Just a quick note to let you know that: 16”x20″, 20”x24” and 20”x30” print sizes are now back on the site.  We had to disable them temporarily due to a production issue.  These prints are available in all three finishes – matte, glossy and metallic.

As of Sunday, all ZoomIn operations at our processing centers and offices have resumed.  We did experience some delivery related issues on Saturday, but these have now been resolved.

Again, we thank our entire family of customers for their support.  Please do write in to us if you have any questions at all.

Thank you for the many messages of concern over the past few hours.  Our offices are in fact steps from Metro theatre, one of the sites of the terror attack.  Many staff members were forced to stay inside the office overnight, but we are now happy to report that the entire ZoomIn family is safe and now at home.  Unfortunately many, many in our city have been not been so fortunate and our thoughts and prayers are with them and their families at this time.

We have temporarily suspended operations at our processing center and offices until the situation here is under control and safe.  All our online systems are working normally.  We know we can count on your support and understanding during this difficult time.   I will post an update here soon.

We are very excited with our amazing tie-up with Sony. Starting about 2 weeks ago if you bought a new Cyber-shot from Sony, you may have noticed a sticker on the box. Inside, in addition to the ultra-cool camera, you will find a set of offers from ZoomIn. We have included coupons for 50 free prints and two coupons for 25% off on gifts. Also included are a set of tips to get the most from your new camera.

Start uploading some pictures and we will immediately recognize your new camera. If you have one of these  new Cyber-shots, we will give you tips and other helpful links on your new camera – all while you upload.

If you are in the market for a new camera, take a look at the new Sony Cyber-shot. They are superbly designed and take great photos.

Today we opened Zoom.in to a small group of friends to try out. Our USA and India service is just about ready and we thought it is time to get some feedback from our closest friends.

Our team spread across many time zones has worked incredibly hard over the past few months trying to get this right. We will be launching several new features over the next few weeks so please continue to check in here for updates. Remember all your photos will remain safe and be available even after we go public. So go ahead and upload and tag all you want. If you are sharing with friends, give them your invite code as they will need it to get into the site. And finally go ahead and place orders. We really need everyone to try all aspects of the site.

Please do let us know what you think and thanks for your support while we build something we all can be proud of.

The Zoom.in Team