April 21, 2005 — Target Corporation is jumping on the digital photo printing bandwagon in an alliance with Yahoo! Photos, the companies announced today. Currently, Target shoppers can upload digital images and have the prints sent to them, but cannot pick them up in stores. With the new union between Target and Yahoo, an online digital photo service emerges complete with prints, photo mugs, products and even in-store pick-up options.
This move comes a bit late as Target’s main competitor, Wal-Mart, has had an online photo service in place where customers can pick up prints in the store an hour later or have them sent. Other companies are catching on to the digital photo printing trend. Last week, HP completed its acquisition of Snapfish; last month, Yahoo purchased Flickr, another online photo sharing and printing site. Target’s connection to Yahoo will bring more traffic to Yahoo, which has a photo printing and sharing web site in place, and more customers to Target.
“Target Yahoo! Photos is part of our commitment to providing guests with the best in digital photofinishing and convenience,” said Steve Eastman, vice president of Target. “Yahoo! is one of the most innovative online companies and is known for providing cutting edge technology and services, which makes this a great partnership as we continue to look for ways to offer convenience and affordability to our guests.”
In-store pickup of prints will be available in the fall, but users can begin uploading and sharing images immediately at target.com/yahoophotos. New users must sign up for a Yahoo account in order to gain access to the Target Yahoo! Photos service. Signing up is free and users are granted unlimited storage space for their photos.
