Image clipping service companies are sprouting like wild mushrooms. Hardly any barrier to entry, low or hardly any investment needed for startups, relatively accessible training and educational requirements, and availability of jobs in the international market made this field lucrative for freelancers in the developing countries. However, sprouting like wild mushrooms is one thing and surviving in the wilderness is something else. How many of those service providers are actually getting decent amount of work is the question. Also, if you are a professional photographer or a serious eCommerce business, you need to watch out for whom you can work with.
Upward Trend in Image Clipping Service Business
There are only a handful of countries in the world that are widely offering image clipping services to international clients, mainly clients from USA, Canada, Europe and Australia. Among all the countries that are in this service business, Bangladesh is a leading destination in clipping path services.
Only ten years ago, there were only a handful of image clipping service companies in Bangladesh. Now you will find a clipping path company in practically every block in the major cities. No joke or no sarcasm. That’s how much the market has grown. Most of these companies don’t have the volume of business that is needed to call it a full-time business. Some are freelancers, some are so called companies with one man show. Few of these companies are pioneers, rest are just followers or imitators. They see the potential and easy entry and they decide to get in. New businesses are finding it extremely competitive and challenging to find new work. But the upward trend continues.
Which Company to Hire
Among all the image clipping service providers, a good question is to which company someone should hire.
Not all the companies are alike. Some are one man show and for obvious reason, they will not be able to keep up with the business volume. Everyone will be interested in getting the work and claim that they are the “leading” IT Company where in case the seed just sprouted only days ago with only ONE mand behind the “leading IT” company.
As an owner of a retouch studio, I myself get unsolicited emails all the time from people claiming to be owning the leading companies asking for work. If they were such leading companies, they would not be searching for small companies like mine asking for work.
As you can see, when hiring one of those retouch studios providing image clipping service or ghost mannequin service, it is extremely important to figure out which company actually is legit and which company has the manpower to handle your volume. In eCommerce industry, workflow is everything and you need a service provider for your ghost mannequin service that can accommodate your inhouse workflow.
To Hire or Not to Hire
If you are overwhelmed with the amount of service providers out there offering image clipping path service as well as ghost mannequin editing services, don’t be. Just follow a simple protocol to weed out the bottom feeders and identify the legitimate company to work with.
First thing to check is the communication skill. Make sure nothing gets lost in translation and the company in question is able to communicate to you withing reasonable timeframe. Second thing to check is the edit quality. Send a few samples ghost mannequin photography or product images for them to clip or retouch and see how the edit quality. Pricing is the last thing you worry because if the edit quality is not there and the communication is delayed or not adequate, low pricing doesn’t really mean anything.
And then at the end of the day, you get what you pay for. You are expected to pay fairly for quality service. If you pay for peanuts, you only get monkeys flying.
