(6 February 2008 2:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Bangalore-based photo printing and photography equipment retailer GK Vale has appointed Percept Knorigin, the digital arm of Percept, as its online agency.

The site www.gkvale.com offers a simple interface on the web, to click upload print, apart from customised photo gifting and photography-related goods.

The partnership with Percept Knorigin will help position GK Vale online, as a one-stop-shop for all printing and gifting, across India, with a delivery time of 48 hours.

This will be the first online photo printing and photo gifting site to come from a photography expert with over 100 years of repute. This will also be the first move by a brick-and-mortar player to venture online and offer services in a space, internationally occupied by online players.

Percept Knorigin MD Viraj Malik says, “Percept Knorigin will be working on a communication strategy for GK Vale which would involve not only working on promotional campaign but also on CRM and usability aspects of this application.

"We are excited with the prospects of online photo printing industry in India and this market is all set to boom in the coming months. We strongly believe that offline photographic leaders like GK Vale will be able to deliver much better quality and service to customers with the support of online services.

GK Vale CEO Anand Sukumar says, "The online photo printing market in India is booming and we believe that we have very tangible differentiators from pure online players. We are leveraging our experience and presence on ground to provide quality services to our clients.

"A lot of regular customers are already using online interface to order prints, with GK Vale online store fronts and we are now looking at expanding across India."