Running an e-commerce business requires many specialized skills and resources to succeed. There are many processes behind the making of an e-commerce business, such as :
Website design and development : The base platform that is versatile enough with changes, new releases, trends, categories, and promotions
Search engine marketing : Optimizing searches and pay-per-click campaigns
Content marketing : Content development for website, blogs, products, taglines, etc
Product Photography : Product images for display
Post Production : Application of finishing touches, edits, revisions, and image specifications
Social media marketing : Content management through social media platforms to further engage with market and clients
Customer care : Customer management, order issues, phone orders, return issues, and other inquiries
Human resources : Staff management, training, recruitment
Information technology : Computers, networks, and other devices management
Accounting : Financial management as a whole, from cash flow, budgets, tax reports, accounts etc
Operations : Stock & Inventory management
Supply chain : Product & vendor management
As your business grows from a one or two-person management, very soon you will see the needs to expand your business opportunities. There are, after all, only 24 hours in a day to manage all those processes that we’ve already mentioned above. Even if you have the time, it is unlikely for an individual to possess the exact skills or expertise to handle the work scope in every details.
Delegating tasks is the best solution. This will allow you, as the owner, to focus on what you do best, while outsource the mountain of other work to others who are professionals and have the right skills to begin with.
There are many aspects that you can delegate, but in this particular article, we’ll highlight on the post production part. What are the pros and cons to outsourcing compared to an internal post production team?
Pros of Outsourcing Post Production Work
Having a team of expert photo editors who are professionally driven people. They understand the job details and can get to work in the instant. With Dropicts, our engagement with clients begin right after the work details are agreed.
You’ll be saving many resources such as time, money, and effort from building your own in house post production team.
Commitment-free. Outsourcing your work with Dropicts is based on the agreed time frame, which means you are free of long time commitment such as salary, bonus, pension, healthcare, etc.
Read also: Why is Photography Post Production Important?
Cons of Outsourcing Post Production Work
It can be difficult to outsource certain talents, such as customer care or graphic designers, because their work style may not always suit your preference.
With a Post Production work however, there is already a clear set of skills stated in written contract with your outsourced Post Production such as Dropicts, that it’ll be hard to ever go wrongly.
Some image editing service providers may be quite busy and hard to reach, but at Dropicts we maintain to grow our business by providing more talents, and not cutting clients. This is to say that we prioritize on existing clients and strive not to shift focus to move on with newer ones.
Another equally important con that is a main concern in outsourcing post production is finding an affordable and high quality service image editing provider. This can be very time consuming. Many offers low cost for post production service for image editing but deliver a rather poor quality of work or failures in meeting deadlines. The cost of working with those agencies would have been too high combined with the stress and time wasted. Consequently, the post production work will negatively affect product presentations.
The best solution is to secure a reliable image editing service provider that is not just well experience but also able to commit to deadline. Dropicts is one of the best post production solutions that have worked with various clients all over the world. We’ve helped leverage many business outcomes, including providing the service of product photography and excellent product presentation.
There is a notion that outsourcing a post production team is more expensive, but again, in Dropicts case it is the exact opposite. We charge with low rates but the same consistent results. In fact, we also offer bulk discount which makes it all the more profitable.
Read also: Improving Product Photography for e-Commerce Business
Benefits of Internal Team of Post Production Work
One of the best things about having your own graphic department team is you control it fully to your preference, time, and need. But certainly, this great advantage comes at a cost, sometimes so big that it’s not actually feasible unless you are running a big scale e-commerce company.
Cons of Internal Team of Post Production Work
Like what we’ve stated before, unless you are a large e-commerce company with a secure bulk of projects and work, having your own in house team of post production work can be very costly. It starts right at the moment of your idea, such as utility, office space, recruitment, and other fixed to non fixed expenses. This is not yet taking into the account of time you’ll be needing to spend on training, system alignments, and other necessities.
Getting the Best of Both Worlds
There is also a clever solution that is applied by a lot of e-commerce companies, which is the combination of both in house and outsource of post production work. This is also called a hybrid model. The owner may maintain a small or medium scale of in house graphic department team, while periodically adjust the company’s needs by hiring or outsourcing the post production work.
Conclusion
Depending on what type of work-outsourcing you are looking to do, the pros of outsourcing post production team far outweigh the con, which is in Dropicts case, is no disadvantage at all. For other aspects of your e-Commerce business, there are several things that you surely cannot delegate. But for post production work, the best solution for product image editing services is Dropicts your answer