Product & Preference
Beneath the headline numbers sits a clear set of preferences about the product itself: print versus digital, which sizes and backgrounds families gravitate to, and how much a digital file is really worth to them. This chapter is about what parents would choose if you simply asked.
Families no longer choose between print and digital
But a digital copy is still seen as worth less than a print
Wanting digital is not the same as valuing it: half of parents think a digital photo is worth less than a print, and only a small minority would pay more for it. Digital reads as an add-on to the physical keepsake, not a premium product in its own right, and that is a key constraint on digital-only pricing.
Price digital as an add-on, not a premium. A digital-only flagship will struggle on perceived worth; attach the file to a print package instead of selling it alone at a high price.
On backgrounds, simple still wins
Given free rein over backgrounds, families reach for restraint: basic colours and subtle textures together account for the bulk of choices, well ahead of themed, 3D or patriotic options. The appetite for novelty is real but narrow. The safe, classic backdrop remains the default taste.
Keep your default backdrops simple and classic. Offer novelty styles as paid upgrades, but don't make them the headline; most families will pick the safe option.
Quality satisfaction is solid, if not universal
Just under three-quarters of parents are happy with the quality of the photos they receive, steady across recent waves. It's a healthy baseline, but the quarter who aren't satisfied is large enough to matter, especially given quality is the single thing parents say they weigh most when buying.
Quality is your baseline, and the unhappy quarter clusters around retakes that are hard to get. An easy, visible retake path is the cheapest way to convert your most vocal detractors.
Next year's wishlist: build-your-own, with digital second
Asked which bundle or digital products they would like to purchase next, build-your-own bundles lead (25.8% of selections), digital images come second (22.7%) and specialty items third (19.6%). The premade package, the industry's historical default, sits fourth. Families are describing a configurator with a download button, not a take-it-or-leave-it sheet.
If your order form cannot compose a custom bundle with a digital copy inside, it is selling against the two most-wanted products in the wave.
Two print sizes carry almost the whole market
Asked for their single preferred print size, parents concentrate on two answers: 5x7 (40.5%) and 8x10 (37.4%). Together that is nearly four in five parents; no other size reaches eight percent. Large-format prints barely register as the preferred choice. The classic portrait sizes are not nostalgia, they are the market.
Inventory and pricing can lean hard on 5x7 and 8x10. Offer the rest, but let these two anchor packages, pricing tiers and lab throughput.
More from the 2026 wave
the supporting questions, chartedTracked since 2021. Every chart on this page exists for the 2021 and 2023 waves too; members toggle each one by year and see the validated shift rankings.
See the movementThis theme goes deeper for SPOA members.
- Every preference chart toggled across the three waves
- What non-buyers would want on the sheet before they'd buy
- Chapter 03 · the print-plus-digital shift, told in full
- Digital worth and the product mix, 2021 to 2026
- AI insight callouts on the product data
Where earlier waves forced a choice, the largest group in 2026 wants both formats together, a meaningful shift from the print-or-digital binary of years past. Print still edges out digital-only, but 'both' is now the modal answer. The product families want is a bundle of the physical and the downloadable.
Stop treating print and digital as either/or. A bundled print + digital offer matches the most common preference, protects print revenue, and meets digital demand in one SKU.