Water Street Antiques & Interiors, a family-run business specializing in bespoke wood furnishings since 1972, faced a significant challenge: creating high-quality product images to showcase their unique products. Kevin O’Neil, the Vice President of Sales and Marketing, sought an efficient solution to capture and process images across multiple locations. By adopting PyxMagic, Water Street Antiques significantly streamlined their merchandising process, closed photography gaps, and enhanced the online shopping experience.

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Introduction 

Nestled in Northern California, Water Street Antiques & Interiors is renowned for bespoke, high-quality wood furnishings. Their collection ranges from custom designs and global antiques to newly crafted furniture made from sustainably sourced or reclaimed wood from around the world. They specialize in unique, premium pieces that blend timeless design with exceptional craftsmanship. Their mission is to bring enduring quality and artistry into every home.

The distinctiveness of their offering has made merchandising a complex challenge. With their website and social media channels playing a crucial role in driving foot traffic, high-quality product photography is essential. However, the time and effort required to properly merchandise their products have remained a constant hurdle.

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The Problem 

Water Street Antiques faced significant challenges in managing product photography for their bespoke furnishings and antique collections. Images provided by their overseas manufacturers were often low-quality, requiring extensive editing and post-processing to create usable, polished visuals. For locally crafted pieces, they were solely responsible for photography, frequently relying on cluttered warehouse shots or customers to provide photos after the items had been sold. This practice caused substantial delays between the availability of products and their ability to market them effectively. With a diverse and extensive catalog, capturing high-quality product images became a complicated task due to several factors:

• Dispersed Inventory: Operating across overseas manufacturers, local warehouses, a showroom, and a custom woodshop made it difficult to consistently and efficiently photograph products. 
• Product Variations: The unique nature of globally sourced antique products means that often, no two products are exactly the same. The team needed the ability to ensure the images online accurately reflected the in-store products.
• Limited Resources: With a small, multitasking team, roles often overlapped. The sales manager, while assisting customers on the floor, also handled product photography to keep the website up to date. Meanwhile, Kevin is responsible for promotions across social media and Google. The team needed a photography solution that was both simple and efficient. 
• Brand Consistency: Water Street required imagery that not only showcased their products but also resonated with their unique style and customer base. 

“Our business attracts customers from all across the SF Bay Area, with many traveling hours just to browse our warehouse inventory,” explains Kevin O’Neil, VP of Sales & Marketing. “Given our heavy reliance on foot traffic, it’s essential that our marketing channels accurately reflect what customers can expect to find in-store.”

To meet these demands, Water Street Antiques sought easy to use product photography solutions that fit into their operations, would be practical to use in a warehouse and showroom, and would scale alongside their expanding inventory.

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The Solution 

Water Street Antiques selected PyxMagic to bring their photography in-house. PyxMagic includes a mobile application, providing a user-friendly interface for capturing and processing professional-grade product images directly from their showroom and warehouse locations. 

Key Features for Water Street:

• Mobile Flexibility: The PyxMagic mobile app empowered the Water Street Team to capture high-quality images directly on-site. 
• Dynamic Multi-Angle Shots: Using the PyxMagic app, the team easily captured diverse angles and intricate details of their bespoke furnishings, elevating product presentations on their website.
• Effortless Editing: PyxMagic’s advanced auto-masking technology and QA Sweeps eliminated the need to outsource clipping and post-production. This allowed the in-house team to focus on creating imagery with minimal editing.
• Elevated Visuals: Water Street Antiques was able to generate lifestyle images tailored to their brand’s aesthetic, enhancing their marketing appeal.

“Our wood furnishings demand photography that captures both the intricate craftsmanship of our pieces and the aspirational lifestyle they represent,” says Kevin. “With PyxMagic, we gain complete control over our product photography, enabling us to create high-quality images that connect with our customers.”

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Results 

The impact of PyxMagic on Water Street Antiques’ operations was immediate and measurable:

• Faster Merchandising for New Products: With the ability to photograph and promote products upon their arrival at the warehouse, the time-to-market has been significantly reduced. As Kevin put it, “Capturing products directly from in-stock inventory has allowed us to streamline the process, enabling us to market new arrivals more efficiently and effectively.”
• Closing Photography Gaps with Efficiency: Water Street is not only focused on adding new products to its online store but also working through a backlog to create a complete and visually cohesive inventory. “PyxMagic has truly inspired us to enhance our online photography,” says Kevin. “In the past, we relied on cluttered warehouse photos, but PyxMagic’s ability to isolate products and present them cleanly has motivated us to feature more items online.”
• Social Media Engagement: With PyxMagic, Water Street Antiques has been able to place their products in lifestyle images that appeal to their customers and reflect the aesthetic of their brand. Kevin noted the shift in engagement, “We’ve seen a particularly strong ROI in our social media engagement. There is a significant uptick in response when we use lifestyle imagery.”

Conclusion 

PyxMagic has transformed the merchandising process for Water Street Antiques, ensuring their exceptional furniture is showcased in the best possible way. By solving the challenges of onsite product photography, PyxMagic has enhanced their ability to connect with and serve customers. As their partnership evolves, the benefits continue to grow.

Kevin shares, “We’re in the process of transitioning all our product photos to PyxMagic-enhanced backgrounds. The goal is to help customers better envision how these pieces can fit seamlessly into a finished space.”

This collaboration underscores the power of innovative technology to tackle retail challenges, improving efficiency while strengthening customer engagement.