HP has announced that Walmart is rolling out the HP "Prints in Minutes" retail publishing service in 3,600 of its stores across the United States.
According to a company release, by the end of the summer, U.S. customers of the world's largest retailer will be able to take advantage of a fast, high-quality photo print service as well as a broad array of personalized printed merchandise, such as calendars and greetings cards, and access to images from brands such as Nickelodeon, Warner Bros. and Live Nation.
This rollout in Walmart stores, along with incremental growth in other retailers' stores, marks a more than 300 percent growth of HP's global retail publishing presence in 2010. Over the last year, HP has expanded its customer portfolio through agreements with leading retailers such as Tesco, Rossmann, Duane Reade and Kmart Australia.
HP's front-of-counter "Prints in Minutes" service enables customers to order 4 x 6-, 5 x 7- and 8 x 10-inch photo prints, collage prints, calendar pages and greeting cards. The retailer selected HP to grow its photo business following a successful pilot of this service, which resulted in improved customer satisfaction and the ability to better address high-volume photo orders.
The "Prints in Minutes" service features the HP Instant Print Solution, a self-service, front-of-counter system that lets consumers pick up orders for prints and creative products within minutes of ordering or at a later time by using a secure order storage and release feature. The unattended system allows retailers like Walmart to increase photo center traffic and revenue from high-margin products without dedicated labor. The system is powered by the compact and efficient HP Photosmart PM2000e Microlab printer for lab-quality photo output.
The service also includes HP's patented photo book technology, which delivers a "pinch-book" assembly feature rather than a glue system. This eliminates the need for additional finishing equipment and provides the customer with the flexibility to change or add pages to their photo book at any time. Other products include flat photo cards, year-on-a-page calendars and photo CDs.
Walmart customers also can order photo prints in a range of sizes and photo cards from the comfort of home using Snapfish by HP, for pickup at participating Walmart stores across the country.
