ScanMyPhotos.com 
The leading provider of digital photo services saves $30,000 each month with Stamps.com and the USPS.
Innovating to stay alive
Successful businesses embrace change. No one knows this better than Mitch Goldstone, President and CEO of ScanMyPhotos.com, the leading provider of nationwide and international digital photo services. The company started as a boutique retail photo center and experienced significant growth until the mid 1990s, when the world’s shift from traditional film to digital photography threatened to put the company out of business.
In response, Mitch not only transitioned the company to the digital photo world, but he helped his customers do the same by offering a range of digital photo services. Now people around the globe send in their photos, slides, VHS tapes and even 8-millimeter film reels to be digitized, restored and preserved. With a successful new business model in place, Mitch’s next step was to ensure that ScanMyPhotos.com reinvented its shipping as well.
“When dramatic change happens, you ask yourself do you go out of business or reinvent?” said Mitch. “I chose to reinvent. It can be a challenge, but also very rewarding.”
Finding the right shipping solution
As a new small business, shipments were taken to the local Post Office™ where employees would wait in line, manually weigh each package, and obtain postage. When this shipping method proved to be a time liability, the company looked into something new.
Next the company opted for a postage meter, which required employees to replenish postage funds by taking the meter to the Post Office or placing a call to the meter provider. Over time, employees found that the postage meter was largely inefficient and lacked the robust tracking features the company needed to do business.
“People trust us with their most precious memories, their pictures,” said Mitch. “It was important to find a shipping solution with cutting-edge performance and top-notch tracking capabilities that would give our customers peace of mind.”
Stamps.com — The smart choice
One day, Mitch read a news article about Stamps.com’s Internet-based shipping solution and how it enabled customers to print postage and manage shipments with just a PC, printer and Internet connection. “It sounded so cutting edge and exponentially better than anything else, so I decided to try it,” said Mitch.
Seamless Integration
Within minutes, the software was easily installed and ScanMyPhotos.com employees were able to test the shipping solution and start printing postage. Employees were happy to find that virtually all shipping functions were automated, from shipment notification emails to inputting customer addresses. In the event of questions regarding the software, employees were able to call Stamps.com’s award-winning Customer Care team for immediate technical support. “Using Stamps.com is easier than using a stamp, and much friendlier,” said Mitch.
Cost Savings
Using Stamps.com software, ScanMyPhotos.com has instant online access to the prices and services of the USPS®. The company utilizes cost-effective Priority Mail® Flat Rate boxes in order to deliver photos quickly and offer free shipping on its most popular service plan. The company ships over 200 boxes a day, with each box holding as many as 2,000 photos.
“We use Stamps.com to process the shipment of 400,000 photos a day, and we save 40%–50% on each shipment using USPS Priority Mail Flat Rate boxes. As a result, we save approximately $30,000 in postage each month — that’s a huge amount of savings,” said Mitch.
Powerful Tracking
A shipper of people’s priceless and prized photos, ScanMyPhotos.com relies heavily on package tracking to provide customers with detailed shipping information. The company uses Stamps.com software to search for and view up-to-date tracking details, access USPS tracking numbers, and automatically generate shipment notification emails. All tracking features are available around the clock and can be accessed from any computer, giving ScanMyPhotos.com the flexibility to conduct business on and off-site.
“We have a great group of employees who take tremendous care of every single photo we receive,” said Mitch. “Each year we reward them with a memorable trip to Las Vegas, where they can easily toggle between fun activities and answering tracking-related customer questions using Stamps.com.”
A picture-perfect partnership
After over 21 years of business and recognition from world-renowned media including CNN, the online testimonial section of ScanMyPhotos.com is filled with customer reviews that describe the company’s services as “incredibly reliable, mind-blowing fast, affordable and flawlessly simple from start to finish.”
“Pictures are everything and ScanMyPhotos.com makes sure they last forever,” said Mitch. “We’ve been able to do so by partnering with Stamps.com and using their shipping solution. I’ve found that both companies have the same level of commitment to innovation — and that makes for good business.”
Read more about ScanMyPhotos.com using Stamps.com to process their orders.
