Apple Industries Unveils Personalized-Product Fulfillment Program For Face Place Photobooths

GREENVALE, NY -- Apple Industries has announced a program that will enable photobooth patrons to purchase merchandise imprinted with the images of their choice.

The merchandise option will be enabled by a free software upgrade for Apple Face Place photobooths that run on Apple's Smile 2.0 operating system. It will debut early in 2016, and will enable operators to generate an additional stream of revenue when customers take their photos, then order products emblazoned with those images. Coffee mugs, keychains, thermos bottles, tote bags, iPhone cases and picture frames are among the items that can be personalized and ordered at photobooths.

Customers who pay the standard vend price for their print photos can then decide to take advantage of one or all "upsells," including enlargements or additional prints; instant electronic posting to social media such as Facebook, Twitter and now Instagram; and -- with the addition of this new upgrade -- products customized with their own photos, taken and ordered immediately right in the booth.

Suggested vend prices for photo-customized products are in the $20 and up range, giving operators significant profit margins on $5 to $7 wholesale costs per item.

"If just 10% of Face Place customers order a photo-customized product, it can double the profitability of that photobooth," said Mel LaForce, Apple vice-president of U.S. sales and marketing. "This is one more exciting way that Apple is working to ensure that every Face Place photobooth is an asset whose value continues to appreciate year after year."

Apple reported that its product fulfillment service is designed to be right in step with today's "gotta-have-it-now" culture. All Apple photo-customized products will be created and shipped on the same day they're ordered. Customers will be able to select their desired shipping speed, including overnight service at extra cost.

The new product fulfillment service will be supported by an email marketing program. On key occasions, like Christmas season and other holidays, Face Place customers will receive reminders that photo-customized products make great gifts.