Daily News
From Home Furnishing Business
Whalen Utilizes New Photography Platform to Expedite E-Commerce
October 3,
2022 by HFBusiness Staff in Business Strategy, Industry 
Headquartered in San Diego, Calif., with a permanent showroom in High Point, N.C., Whalen has been utilizing the Aperture Platform at its High Point showroom to expedite product sample imagery for customers more cost effectively.
Whalen Furniture, which was founded in 1991, is a manufacturer of residential and commercial furniture. The company’s customers include Sam’s Club, Walmart, Target, and Costco, in addition to other national retailers.
Due to Whalen’s extensive SKU count, it’s focused on getting new and existing products photographed and posted on its website quickly for buyers to view.
“We’re market leaders and volume leaders when it comes to the number of SKUs that we’re putting out into the marketplace,” said Kurt Berlin, Vice President of Design and Marketing for Whalen Furniture.
“We’re transitioning our business from more of a retail scope to an e-commerce, omnichannel play, which is why Outward’s Aperture Platform seemed like a perfect fit for us. It allows us to provide our retail customers with high-quality images quickly and efficiently.”
Berlin said the company was spending about $8,000 a day on traditional photography, while the Aperture Platform costs them less than $70 a day – improving efficiency and cost effectiveness by as much as one-third when all is said and done.
“The Aperture Platform allows us to create images days quicker when compared to CGI imagery and weeks quicker when it comes to traditional photography, greatly reducing touch ups and editing,” he added.
Whalen has been utilizing the Aperture Platform for about a year, with four employees from different divisions of the company readily using the system. “The Aperture Platform is very user friendly and intuitive. The ability to capture images quickly and be able to send them to the retailer is going to be the biggest advantage when it comes down to e-commerce in the furniture industry,” Berlin said.