Shutterfly
- Company typePrivate
- Founded1999
- HeadquartersRedwood City, United States
- Headcount5,001–10,000
- GTM typeB2C
- OfferingHardware or Manufacturing
Shutterfly firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Shutterfly
- Legal name
- Shutterfly, Inc.
- Website
- https://shutterfly.com
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 1999
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 5,001–10,000 employees
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Shutterfly industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Personalized Photo Products and Printing
- NAICS
- Photofinishing (81292)
- SIC
- Services-Mailing, Reproduction, Commercial Art & Photography (7330)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Photo Printing & Imaging Supplies Retail (Printers, Paper, Ink, Darkroom) (CRACAHAJ)
Keywords
Where Shutterfly is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Redwood City
- HQ country
- United States
- HQ region
- North America
Offices1 record
Markets served
Shutterfly business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2C
- Offering type
- Hardware or Manufacturing
- Cost components
- Supply Chain, Operations, Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Photo Products Sales: Direct sales of personalized photo products including photo books, cards, prints, wall art, and gifts through the Shutterfly.com e-commerce platform. Revenue is generated through individual transactions with customers purchasing customized products.
- Cloud Photo Storage Services: Photo storage and management services with cloud-based access, transitioning from free storage to paid storage models as the industry shifts away from unlimited free offerings.
- Retail Pickup Services: In-store pickup options at CVS and Walgreens locations for 4x6 prints within one hour, generating revenue through retail partnerships.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Graduation Cards - Starting at $1.74 per card with current promotional pricing around $1.04 |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Wedding Stationery - Starting at $1.37 for wedding invitations |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Photo Books - Variable pricing based on size and page count |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Photo Prints - Starting prices available for various sizes |
| Unit Pricing | Pay-as-you-go | Personalized Gifts - Variable pricing by product type |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels8 records
Shutterfly product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Shutterfly manufactures and sells personalized photo products directly to consumers, including photo books, greeting cards and stationery (via the Tinyprints brand), wall art, photo prints, calendars, and personalized gifts such as blankets, mugs, and phone cases. Customers upload digital photos through Shutterfly's website or mobile apps and use design tools, professional templates, the AI assistant "Ask Paige," or a free 24-hour designer service to create customized merchandise. Orders are produced at US-based facilities running 35 HP Indigo 120K digital presses and fulfilled via direct shipping or same-day pickup at CVS and Walgreens locations.
Product overview
Shutterfly is a comprehensive personalized photo products platform offering a unified consumer experience across photo books, cards & stationery (including the Tinyprints premium brand), gifts, wall art, prints, and calendars. The core offering centers on customizable photo-based merchandise for life's occasions—weddings, graduations, holidays, and everyday memories—with complementary sub-brands including Lifetouch (school photography) and Snapfish (sister consumer brand), plus Shutterfly Business Solutions for B2B bulk orders. The platform features an AI-powered design assistant (Ask Paige), free designer services, and retail fulfillment partnerships with CVS and Walgreens for same-day print pickup.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Brands
- Tinyprints: Premium personalized stationery and cards brand offering birth announcements, birthday invitations, and photo cards
- Lifetouch
- Snapfish
- Ask Paige
Products and services
- Photo Books
Quantifiable outcome
- 35 HP Indigo 120K digital presses installed as part of fleet-wide upgrade
Companies that use Shutterfly
Customer profileNamed customers1 record
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Shutterfly technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed No
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
AI capability2 records
Feature3 records
Shutterfly partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Five partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- HP IndigocoreHP Indigo is Shutterfly's primary industrial printing equipment partner. The companies announced a multi-year agreement for 35 HP Indigo 120K digital presses, representing one of the most significant fleet-wide digital production investments. The deal includes software, services, consumables, and HP PrintOS platform integration. The two companies have maintained a 25-year partnership, with HP Indigo holding 70% global market share in digital printing.
- Little SleepiesminorShutterfly and Little Sleepies launched a collaborative holiday collection featuring matching pajamas, holiday cards, and ornaments. Shutterfly donated $50,000 to Baby2Baby nonprofit organization with the partnership, and the companies aimed to raise an additional $20,000 through customer social challenges.
- Baby2BabyminorBaby2Baby is a nonprofit organization that received a $50,000 donation from Shutterfly as part of the Little Sleepies holiday collection collaboration. The partnership aims to support children in need through the holiday gift-giving campaign.
- CVS PharmacycoreCVS Pharmacy locations serve as retail pickup points for Shutterfly 4x6 photo prints, allowing customers to receive their orders within one hour without shipping costs.
- WalgreenscoreWalgreens locations serve as retail pickup points for Shutterfly 4x6 photo prints, providing convenient same-day print retrieval alongside CVS for broad retail coverage.
Scale indicators7 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights4 records
Shutterfly competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Chatbooks: Subscription-based photo book service focused on automated, recurring family photo books printed from smartphone photos. Overlaps with Shutterfly's photo book business but differentiates on automation and subscription cadence rather than custom design.
- Artifact: Premium photo print and photo book brand emphasizing minimalist design, archival quality, and gifting use cases. Sits squarely in the upscale segment of the personalized photo products category where Shutterfly also competes via premium paper and layflat offerings.
Broad incumbents
- Amazon Photos / Amazon Print: Amazon's cloud photo storage and print-on-demand service bundled into Prime, offering prints, photo books, and wall art. Operates as a broad incumbent leveraging Prime distribution and brand trust, putting structural pricing pressure on standalone personalized photo platforms.
- Walmart Photo: Mass-market photo printing service operated by Walmart, the largest U.S. retailer, offering prints, photo books, cards, and gifts. Competes aggressively on price and convenience (in-store pickup) and represents the low-cost incumbent pressure on Shutterfly's promotional positioning.
- Hallmark Cards: Dominant U.S. greeting card and stationery brand with seasonal occasion focus. While not a photo-print specialist, Hallmark competes with Shutterfly/Tinyprints in personalized greeting cards and stationery for life events - the same occasion-driven purchase occasions.
Direct peers
- Snapfish: Direct photo-printing and personalized products consumer brand focused on prints, photo books, cards, and gifts. Snapfish is now a Shutterfly sister brand but historically competed head-to-head with Shutterfly and remains the most comparable peer in product, customer, and business model.
- Nations Photo Lab: Online professional photo lab offering prints, photo books, metal prints, and wall art directly to consumers and through professional photographers. Shares Shutterfly's premium photo-product positioning and digital print production technology stack.
- Blurb: Self-service photo book and magazine printing platform with strong professional photographer and creative-prosumer overlap. Competes most directly with Shutterfly in the customizable photo book category and shares the digital print-on-demand production model.
- Printique (formerly AdoramaPix): Premium photo printing service spun from Adorama focused on archival-quality prints, photo books, and wedding albums. Targets the same occasion-based, quality-conscious photo consumer that Shutterfly serves with its premium layflat and Luxe product lines.
- Mpix: Professional-grade photo printing service offering prints, photo books, and cards targeted at photographers and photo enthusiasts. Operates the same digital-print-on-demand model with comparable premium positioning to Shutterfly and addresses overlapping life-event and portrait use cases.
Market position
Strengths4 records
Weaknesses4 records
Competitive moat4 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights6 records
Customer concentration
Shutterfly social profiles
Digital presenceShutterfly financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Shutterfly leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles9 records
Shutterfly subsidiaries and ownership
Company hierarchySubsidiaries4 records
Shutterfly funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds6 records
Investors7 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Shutterfly M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A14 records
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Shutterfly
What does Shutterfly do?
Shutterfly manufactures and sells personalized photo products directly to consumers, including photo books, greeting cards and stationery (via the Tinyprints brand), wall art, photo prints, calendars, and personalized gifts such as blankets, mugs, and phone cases. Customers upload digital photos through Shutterfly's website or mobile apps and use design tools, professional templates, the AI assistant "Ask Paige," or a free 24-hour designer service to create customized merchandise. Orders are produced at US-based facilities running 35 HP Indigo 120K digital presses and fulfilled via direct shipping or same-day pickup at CVS and Walgreens locations.
Is Shutterfly a public or private company?
Shutterfly is a private company. It is classified as private equity controlled and is currently operating.
When was Shutterfly founded?
Shutterfly was founded in 1999. It employs 5,001 to 10,000 people.
Where is Shutterfly based?
Shutterfly is headquartered in Redwood City, United States, in the North America region.
How does Shutterfly make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Photo Products Sales are the primary driver. The others are cloud Photo Storage Services and retail Pickup Services.
Who are Shutterfly's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Chatbooks and Artifact. Broad incumbents are Amazon Photos / Amazon Print, Walmart Photo and Hallmark Cards. Direct peers are Snapfish, Nations Photo Lab, Blurb, Printique (formerly AdoramaPix) and Mpix.
Does Shutterfly have an API?
No public API is recorded for Shutterfly.
What industry is Shutterfly in?
Shutterfly's product category is Personalized Photo Products and Printing. Its primary akta.pro industry code is CRACAHAJ, Photo Printing & Imaging Supplies Retail (Printers, Paper, Ink, Darkroom). Its NAICS code is 81292 and its SIC code is 7330.