Welcome to the Photo Boutique

Being like Starbucks may be every storeowner's fantasy. The dream may not be of having a successful store on every corner--but enticing customers to both stay a little longer and spend a little more is probably a universal goal among specialty retailers.

While there are several facets

to what makes Starbucks a place where consumers hang around and pay three or four times as much for a cup of coffee as they would elsewhere, one significant factor is the relaxing environment. People spend their time and money at Starbucks in part because it feels good to be there.

Creating a comfortable space is an idea some photo retailers are using to attract more customers and earn more business from existing customers. Kiosk users have a home-away-from-home at Cafe Click, a section of Elm City Photo Service, Waterville, Maine (www.elmcityphoto.com), where customers use the store's Lucidiom APM and Fuji Aladdin kiosks.

John Goodine, president, says he came up with the idea of creating Cafe Click in August 2004, as a way to differentiate his two stores from big box retailers. Cafe Click opened at Goodine's main store in Waterville the following October, and at his Augusta location on Jan. 1.

"People often bring in their [media cards] with 300 images on them. That's a lot like having a shoebox full of prints that have to be sorted. To stand at the counter and do that is impossible," Goodine says. "My competition puts their machine in an aisle, where there is no privacy and there are people walking behind you as you use it. But if you were at home sorting through a shoebox full of photos to put into an album, you wouldn't stand at your kitchen counter with your neighbor standing behind you. You would get comfortable. You might hunker down on the living room carpet or on your couch in front of your coffee table. We have attempted to recreate that comfortable atmosphere."

Making the space

The first step in creating Card Click was finding the space.

"The Cafe Click area in our Waterville store is about 200 square feet," Goodine says. "Lots of stores aren't willing to lose that much floor space. But when you build a cafe, you're freeing up a lot of counter space, because you're not putting the machines on the counter. Those counters can be eliminated. When you eliminate a counter, you also eliminate the walking space behind it, so you've freed up that amount of space.

"We have a staff member who does digital retouching and file manipulation. We moved her workstation into the cafe as well. That serves a dual purpose: it gave us more space for the cafe, and gave us an attendant in there all the time to answer questions and assist customers," he adds.

Goodine constructed walls and used glass dividers around the space to set it off from the rest of the store, without making it feel like being in a box.

What makes Cafe Click so comfortable is its design, created by Goodine's daughter, Lauren.

"We wanted a woman to design it with the things women like, because women are the primary users," Goodine notes. "We put in hardwood floors and isolation glass so you can see you're in the store, but you can't hear the noise. We bought living room furniture from Pier 1 and Target, and we put in indirect lighting and soothing colors. I have a children's play area with toys, puzzles, and a little rocking horse. We play soft music and serve complimentary coffee and tea, and sometimes we bake cookies and bring them in. We have a private work area and--something that's very important--a clean restroom."

Getting the desired response

Customers have responded to Cafe Click just as Goodine hoped they would.

"I have a loyal following, because people feel so comfortable here. One customer recently brought her baby in with her. After she did her photos, she sat down on the couch and nursed the baby while she waited for her prints. She felt that comfortable in this atmosphere. We have a degree of privacy, so people feel at home," Goodine states. "We've had people come in and print 800 photos at one session. They would not do that at a big box store."

Customers who used to make a handful of prints now come in with a sack lunch to eat while they sit and work on their images.

"Sales have taken off like a rocket," Goodine says. The difference is unbelievable. We knew it would work, but we didn't know how well. It's been beyond our expectations."

In fact, Goodine says, if it weren't for Cafe Click, the Waterville store would be struggling right now.

"I have to say, this is the driving force in our success," he says.

Building a new identity

Scott Taylor, president of Town & Country Photography and Photofinishing, Lancaster, Pa. (formerly known as Foto-1), is betting on his store's fresh, stylish design and new identity to reach higher levels of success as well.

Rather than building a separate cafe-type section of his store, Taylor is giving the entire establishment, which is both a retail lab and a custom lab, as well as a portrait studio, a boutique feel.

"We are one of the highest-priced specialty photo retailers in town in terms of our photofinishing, and we have a CVS in our parking lot. They sell photos for half what we do," Taylor says. "Rather than lowering prices, since nobody makes money that way, we decided we would try to improve the appearance of the store. We're in a very affluent area, so we knew we had a market here for that kind of trendy boutique atmosphere. We have seen our customers responding to that approach at other businesses in the area, so we decided to do it ourselves."

Taylor began the redesign in April 2004. "The first thing we did was repaint the store in more customer-friendly tones. It used to be this awful bright orange, but now it's taupe. We got rid of our slat wall and retail POP kiosks that used to display frames and albums. We also furnished the lobby with two lounge chairs, a nice coffee table, a padded bench, and some large plants," Taylor explains. "We added a table and chairs that allow us to sit down with our customers to go over their portrait orders. They're also welcome to sit there and look at their pictures. It gives them a workspace, so they don't have to stand at the counter. Our digital kiosk area now has a nice table and chair, so customers don't have to stand."

In designing the new look, Taylor considered what he would want in a fancy boutique store.

"I wanted something that felt warm and comfortable. We picked warm wood tones, a neutral palette. We focused a lot on the studio, because we wanted the retail environment to promote it more; and we also solved some traffic problems that occurred when customers stood at the counter looking at their photos prior to leaving the store," he says.

The store redesign is a work in progress. The store is still using some slat wall to display its smaller, more selective stock of merchandise, but Taylor says the store will soon utilize a more stylish presentation.

"The slat wall is unsightly, so we're going to have built-in bookcases with interior lighting to highlight the merchandise and portraits, along with cabinets for concealed storage," he says. "I think it will be very nice."

A lesson learned

Customers have been impressed with the changes already, and have offered many compliments about the store's comfort and appearance. Unfortunately, the new look hasn't translated into big sales increases yet.

"Looking back, I see the critical component we failed to do was advertising. I regret that, and I consider it a learning mistake," Taylor says. "We didn't lose customers, but we didn't gain many new customers; and we didn't see an increase in sales."

A new radio ad campaign, however, may turn that around. "The new radio spots will say our name has changed, our look is new, and our prices have dropped, but the one thing that hasn't changed is our commitment to quality and service," Taylor states.

"I think people are willing to pay more for a quality product, but there is a limit to how much they will pay. I have no intention of competing on price with the discount stores; but I do need to increase my share, so we're doing a 15 percent price decrease in conjunction with the other changes," Taylor says. "I'm hoping the new store name and the new design will create a buzz, and the new pricing will keep people here once they come in.

"We're hoping the people who have tried us before and thought, 'Yes, they're good--but they're still too expensive,' will hear our prices have dropped. We're hoping the people who didn't know we were here at all, and the people who have bad recollections of problems with this store from before I purchased it, will realize we're not the same store," he continues. "The new appearance, I hope, will increase the perception of people's value of my product."

With a little luck, Taylor will soon share an experience Goodine has enjoyed since opening Cafe Click: hearing customers say they'd never go anywhere else.

RELATED ARTICLE: Elm City Photo Cafe Click draws media attention.

In addition to the positive feedback from customers and the great increase in sales generated at the new Cafe Click at Elm City Photo, Waterville, Maine, the in-store boutique has attracted attention from the local newspaper and television stations.

"There were two articles done on us in the business section of the Sunday paper," says owner John Goodine. "They took pictures of the cafes at both our stores and gave us a full page spread. I sent the newspapers some information, and they came over and did an article on us because they thought it was a very unique idea."

The local television news did a two-minute segment on the cafes, which was broadcast three times.

"It was a community interest story. A lot of local photographers who work for the media come here, and they have been taken by Cafe Click," Goodine says. "They contacted us, and off we went."

RELATED ARTICLE: Want a cafe of your own?

Although Cafe Click is a trademarked name, Goodine is happy to share the concept with other retailers and help them develop a similar area. In fact, he does this on a consultant basis for a small fee.