Concept Store Photo: a PrestaShop choice in support of an omnichannel strategy
Based in Vannes, Rennes, and Nantes, active on Amazon, and equipped with an ecommerce site, Concept Store Photo has supported photography enthusiasts and imaging professionals for nearly 50 years. To showcase its three stores, regain control of its direct sales, and reduce its dependence on marketplaces, the retailer rebuilt its platform with PrestaShop. Today, that migration has turned digital into a lever serving both its stores and its customers.
A retailer dedicated to photography enthusiasts
It all began in 1977, when photographer André Percepied opened his first photo studio in Vannes. Three decades later, the business shifted toward the sale of equipment, lenses, and accessories, while strengthening its lab services: photo printing, album design, and photographic work. The company expanded gradually: a second store opened in Nantes, followed by a third in Rennes.
Today, the stores are true spaces for exchange and expert advice, led by specialist sales teams able to support both beginners and experienced photographers. The retailer generates total revenue of €13 million.
In 2016, Concept Store Photo began building its online presence with a first showcase website built on WordPress, later adding WooCommerce to enable online equipment sales.
But the setup quickly reached its limits: slow performance, imperfect mobile display, and technical constraints that held back further development. The architecture could no longer keep pace with the company’s ambitions.
Adapting to a demanding environment
After reviewing the different solutions on the market, Concept Store Photo chose PrestaShop and worked with Dream me up, an agency specialized in website creation, webmarketing, and communications, to rethink its ecommerce platform. Several strategic challenges shaped the project.
The first was to reconnect the website with the physical store network. Brigitte Percepied, the company’s leader, wanted to showcase the stores and create real bridges between the two channels. The new site now offers a click and collect service: customers buy online, pick up their equipment in store from the teams, and benefit from their expertise in the process.
The second challenge concerned integration with the retailer’s business systems. Concept Store Photo uses AICM, a POS software designed for the photography sector, which manages in-store sales, inventory, and lab operations. The site also needed to connect to the Inbox service, which allows customers to create albums and order prints online.
“PrestaShop allows us to build specific developments, particularly to interface with business tools. This applies to many existing retailers that operate with POS systems adapted to their activities, for which no standard module exists on the market.” Guillaume Hautbois, founder of Dream me up
These custom developments also made it possible to address another specific feature of the retailer: secondhand products. Concept Store Photo’s business is not limited to selling new equipment. In this consignment model, part of the catalog is made up of unique items, available as single units. This specific management model requires strict inventory synchronization, especially since some products may be listed simultaneously in store, on the website, or on FNAC. This is exactly what the specific developments built around PrestaShop make possible, limiting the risk of overselling and ensuring reliable product availability information across each of these channels.
Regaining control from Amazon
Distribution raises another kind of challenge, this time commercial. Over the years, Amazon has become a major sales channel for Concept Store Photo, representing nearly one-third of revenue. A considerable volume, but one that comes at a cost.
“The goal of this redesign is clear: reduce our dependence on marketplaces and grow our own sales with stronger customer service.” Quentin Pérou, ecommerce manager at Concept Store Photo
To strengthen the direct channel and gain visibility, the site redesign was supported by an SEO and SEA strategy, also entrusted to Dream me up.
Very encouraging early results
“Migrating to a new platform without losing SEO rankings or customer history is often an invisible challenge, but one that is decisive for the success of an ecommerce project.” Guillaume Hautbois, founder of Dream me up
For Concept Store Photo, the first results have been particularly encouraging.
The technical redesign, led by the agency, was paired with ongoing work on organic search and Google Ads campaigns. In a highly competitive sector dominated by players such as Fnac, Digit-Photo, and Amazon, the visibility gains are a positive indicator.
Traffic from SEO increased by 126%, rising from around 40 daily visits at the end of July to nearly 95 at the beginning of the year. When including the optimizations made to Google Ads campaigns, overall traffic increased by 134%.
Ranking data confirms this momentum: 1,972 keywords ranked in July 2025, compared with 5,611 in January 2026. Over the same period, keywords in the top 3 rose to 168, compared with 32, while positions between fourth and tenth place reached 458, compared with 72.
During the same period, impressions increased by 380% and clicks by 146%.
This rise in visibility is beginning to translate into sales. It is an early signal that confirms the relevance of the strategy deployed to develop the retailer’s direct channel.
Tomorrow’s projects
The momentum now opens the door to several projects. A product comparison module is already in place. This is a valuable feature in a market where buyers often take time to compare options before investing. A favorites list is also under consideration.
On the distribution side, the retailer is working on its presence on Idealo, a platform widely used for high-tech and photography products, to capture an additional audience, especially during promotional and sales periods.
Even more strategically, the company is exploring the possibility of online appointment booking for in-store advice. In a field where choosing a camera body or lens can represent several hundred euros, support from specialists remains a strong differentiator.
Beyond the website, social media is also a development priority. The retailer knows that some competitors are currently more active on these channels and wants to strengthen its presence to build a community around photography and create a new acquisition channel, alongside the SEO and SEA strategy already in place.
And what about AI?
Artificial intelligence is increasingly becoming part of the company’s daily operations, helping enrich product pages and write certain news articles for the site. This represents a valuable time saving for internal teams managing several thousand references.
AI also opens up interesting opportunities for the production of expert content: buying guides, comparisons, and in-depth articles. These are high-value content formats for SEO, but also for GEO.
Notably, the first orders have already come through ChatGPT, a still modest indicator, but one that points to the rapid evolution of buying journeys.
With PrestaShop as its technical foundation, Concept Store Photo now has the tools to regain control of its distribution, enrich the customer experience, and bring online what has made its stores strong since the beginning: proximity, expert advice, and a passion for photography.
Thanks to:
- Quentin Pérou, ecommerce manager at Concept Store Photo
- Guillaume Hautbois, founder of the agency Dream me up
