What sells? Not what you charge

I know there are dozens, and dozens of threads about pricing, and even a few rants out there. So I am steering away from that.

I would like to take a different spin on it. I am not so concerned about what everyone prices, I would like to know what sells for most people. Given the particular event or sport, what prints sell the best? Is it single or multiple 4x6's, 5x7's, 8x10's or specialtiy items?

I shoot dog performance events, and it probably fits into fairly traditional "event photography". Off the top of my head, I'll say my distribution looks like 40% jpegs, 40% 4x6, 10% 5x7, 10% larger prints.

That ratio is somewhat skewed by my pricing, as I'd rather print 4x6's than 5x7's since they are typically a better aspect ratio for my shots.

Dave

Weddings - to customers I sell albums and enlargements. To their families I sell prints, mostly 6x4 and 5x7 (I price them the same) but some up to 10x15 as well.

7x5 print. Its not the smallest or cheapest product I offer but it outsells all the others put together 3 times over

Could we include what types of prints, as I would think that would make a difference. For example, I would imagine that fine art or landscapes would be more likely to be sold in larger sizes, wheras people shots of any activity would be more popular in smaller sizes.

There have been some great responses so far, thanks guys. I am curious about sizes sell the best for which event. If sporting for baseball, softball, soccer is it the 4x6's and 5x7's? I have also seen some threads where some people are opting not to do 4x6's so that they can upsell more? Thanks again.

I know I should of put this in the original post but I forgot, sorry.

As far as sports go, do you also see a trend in higher sales with a particular age of players? I was wondering if you tend to see higher sales with younger athletes as opposed to the older ones? My own thoughts would be that the parents would be more eager to make these types of purchases in the earlier athletic careers of their children as opposed to them doing it for several years and being 16, 17, or 18. Also the older they get, a lot of times parent participation drops off.

Any thoughts from anyone or what they have seen with this?

Thanks again everyone.

I sell 4x6's like it's nothing. I sell very few 8x10's and specialty items.

jpyeast wrote in post #5415453
I know I should of put this in the original post but I forgot, sorry.

As far as sports go, do you also see a trend in higher sales with a particular age of players? I was wondering if you tend to see higher sales with younger athletes as opposed to the older ones? My own thoughts would be that the parents would be more eager to make these types of purchases in the earlier athletic careers of their children as opposed to them doing it for several years and being 16, 17, or 18. Also the older they get, a lot of times parent participation drops off.

Any thoughts from anyone or what they have seen with this?

Thanks again everyone.

I sell more to HS seniors and the better the team does, the more they purchase. The parent clubs of the teams also purchase enlargements of the seniors on the team to present to them. Last football season was nice with 17 seniors. I had parents tell me that they include action shots in with college applications. I even received a call from someone who was paid by a parent to assist with college applications. It seems as if there is less interest in JV photos. At one school, the parents club for a team called me and want to order a print of each kid on the team and they want to do it for each year so the kids have a set of four shots in one frame, when they graduate. If they have less than 4 years to go, they want to purchase extra shots from a year so they still end up with 4 shots.

At events I sell only 5x7. It is easier for me to carry only one set of consumables for my HITI if consumers want something special we preorder and ship to them.

For youth sports, I have found the younger the better. I LOVE shooting T-ball, the games are only about an hour long and the parents and grand parents just eat up the pics of little Bobby hitting off the tee or playing in the dirt. As for print sizes, I'll sell you any size you want but 4 x 6 is by far the most popular.

I would say over 95% of photos sold this year are 4x6's.

Youth sports/performances mainly

85% 4x6
10% 5x7
5% 8x10/3x5/larger prints of various sizes

I am really surprised at how many sales are from 4x6's. I know a couple folks tried to remove 4x6 so that 5x7's were the smallest just for the up sale. Has anyone here tried that? Good or bad results?

4x6 and 5x7 are my best sellers... I wanted to remove 4x6 from the site, as they really look bad compared to the 5x7 when side-by-side (So small), but the demand is there, so they will remain!