Shutterfly and HP expand strategic relationship to accelerate personalised gift & photo printing

HP Inc and Shutterfly, one of the world’s leading online retailers of personalised products, have announced a landmark expansion of their strategic relationship to deliver next-level productivity to supply the growing ecommerce market of photo gifts and photo products. Shutterfly is investing in more than 60 new high-performance HP Indigo Digital Presses to drive higher productivity for its range of high-quality, photo-based and personalised products including photo gifts, photo books, school portraits, holiday cards, and home decor.

The agreement with Shutterfly, the leading US supplier of HP Indigo digital print, is the largest single customer order to date for the HP Graphics business. Now underway, the rollout includes next-generation, high-productivity B2 sized HP Indigo 100K digital presses, high versatility HP Indigo 12000 digital presses, as well as significant investment in web-fed photo presses to transform photo portrait printing to digital.

Dwayne Black, Chief Operating Officer of Shutterfly Inc, said, “Over our 20+ year legacy, we have committed to investing in the best and most innovative technology to fuel our business, delivering high-quality products to our customers, hosts and partners.” He added that this latest upgrade of the company’s HP Indigo fleet continues that investment in quality, productivity and innovation, with significant advancements in speed and automation that help them deliver even higher quality products to their customers, even faster at a time when sharing tangible memories is more important than ever.

“Today more than ever before, tangible, personalized experiences are becoming more precious. Consumers are looking for quick turnaround, alongside real-to-life photo quality. We at HP Indigo are proud to be Shutterfly’s provider of choice in making this a reality,” said Haim Levit, General Manager, HP Indigo.

In this latest wave of installations, Shutterfly is investing across three HP Indigo press generations and formats. Shutterfly was one of the first customer beta sites for the new 29-inch format HP Indigo 100K, engineered for high productivity and nonstop printing while delivering Indigo’s renowned digital offset look and feel. Shutterfly’s new HP Indigo 12000 presses loaded with a value pack will deliver higher end prints using a wider range of inks and materials up to 24 pt, including synthetic, metalized and canvas applications.

The presses will be installed across four manufacturing facilities in Shakopee, Minnesota; Fort Mill, South Carolina; Tempe, Arizona; and Plano, Texas over the next 18 months. To keep production at the highest level, Shutterfly takes advantage of HP PrintOS, the cloud-based PSP management solution, to monitor productivity of presses in real-time to keep press uptime to a maximum.

The annual global photo printing and merchandise market is expected to reach a value of $3.1 billion by the end of 2026, with a CAGR of 8.1 percent during 2021-2026, compared with USD 1.8 billion in 2019.