Exciting news from Shutterstock today! The leading stock photo agency just announced they bought PicMonkey, a user-friendly online graphic design, and image editing platform.
Plans are to integrate PicMonkey’s suite into Shutterstock to create complete creative workflow solutions for non-designers, and a one-stop shop to create top-notch visual content using first-class stock imagery. Very similar to what Canva does for its customers. PicMonkey has some interesting FAQs on their website about the upcoming changes.
PicMonkey Visual Content Creation Features
What Shutterstock will now offer through the integration of PicMonkey, in terms of customer experience and workflow solutions, goes far beyond what they have so far. PicMonkey has features for:
- Photo editing
- Touch-ups
- Effects
- Animations
- Templates
- Graphics
- Brand kit
- Cloud storage video
- Tutorials
And more, making it ideal for solopreneurs, social marketers, marketing pros, casual designers, and anyone wanting to create visual content without requiring design skills.
These tools are an all-around solution for digital marketing, advertising, and social media presence, in a user-friendly and beginner-level way accessible for all.
Shutterstock Expanding Service for Small Businesses and Creatives
Per the agency’s announcement, this acquisition –which cost them $110 Million– and further integration is part of their strategy to bring in more value for small businesses and single creatives in their customer base, who need to produce professional visual content within reduced budgets, and don’t have specific design skills nor the time to learn them.
What started with the simple Shutterstock Editor to perform quick image edits, will now be a full-blown design service where you can combine Shutterstock stock images and easy-to-use design software to create sophisticated and effective visual content faster, easier, and cheaper.
This way, the company expects to add 200,000 new subscribers and to tap on the $8 Billion market opportunity that is in creative software and design tools. Meanwhile, they will also be taking on Canva’s so-far unique offer that is so popular among beginner creators, new entrepreneurs, and small businesses. In our full overview of the stock photo market, we analyze the depth of this industry pivot from stock media providers towards complete visual design suites.
It’s sure exciting to see the upcoming Shutterstock design tools come to life!
