I've been at this for about 4 years now. I can NOT seem to convince customers that their shopping cart will follow them to ANY gallery on smugmug. I have lost count of how many multi-orders I've received, despite my attempts to explain that they can just place one order.

This is obviously not a problem I expect Smugmug to fix, other than maybe adding a blurb on the checkout page to REMIND people that they can submit orders from other galleries within the same order. I think SmugMug already makes it pretty clear that you can "KEEP BROWSING" during the checkout process... The only thing I can suggest would be to say "feel free to [continue browsing] ...you won't lose these photos in your shopping cart!" ...or something like that. Just a little bit right after the continue browsing link.

And I know my screenshots are from the old ordering system, I need to spend the time to update that, *sigh*...



I would at least like some input from fellow pros out there- Right now, I have my gallery info worded like so:

http://matthewsaville.smugmug.com/gallery/5491024_AR8tR


What might be a better way to say things on MY end? How can I make it more clear? How can I make sure they at least NOTICE my message?

Thanks and take care! I hope you are all having a great summer season, pros! (Drat, it looks like I won't even crack $500 this month; I didn't get these events online quick enough!)


=Matt=

Matt mention it will save them shipping charges if they place one order. Saving money generally gets peoples attention.

I've seen people place multiple consecutive orders myself, but as they never complained to me, I never thought much of it.

Maybe at some future time, SmugMug or the lab could work it out such that multiple orders like that will all ship together. I think Amazon does that. If you place an additional order while your previous one has not yet shipped, they'll try to combine the two to save on shipping.

Originally Posted by PeterLyons I've seen people place multiple consecutive orders myself, but as they never complained to me, I never thought much of it. Maybe at some future time, SmugMug or the lab could work it out such that multiple orders like that will all ship together. I think Amazon does that. If you place an additional order while your previous one has not yet shipped, they'll try to combine the two to save on shipping.

But Peter, that's the OBVIOUS solution! It's not allowed to be THAT simple...

And no, I've never had a customer be "upset" really, since they just assumed they *had* to submit multiple orders. It's just that every now and then I'll take it upon myself to email them and let them know, (if they submit three orders, for example, and shipping approaches $15-20) ...or they'll email me apologizing and wondering if their order got submitted correctly. When people find out they paid for shipping twice or three times, then of course they ask "well is there a way to combine the orders, or ship them in the same box?" And THAT is where I get embarrassed and turn the apology around on them...

In OTHER news- Speaking of CUSTOMER CONFUSION, I also get THIS on a regular basis: "how do I get the 25% discount? I'm in the shopping cart and I don't see it..."

(It is my bootleg business tactic to run a print sale right after I upload an event, to encourage sales since I CAN'T offer any REAL sales / packages etc. Of course to enact a % discount, I simply change the prices and TELL people there's a discount. No matter how I word THAT sentence, no matter how I try and explain that the prices THEY SEE are the sale prices, (and I even link to the "normal prices") ...I still get customers emailing 2-3 times a month asking for their discount. Again, *I'M* the one who feels embarrassed, because people have already submitted a rather large order usually, and they were of course NOT expecting to pay that much; they were assuming they'd get a discount off what they paid.

So again, ANY INPUT from other pros on how to handle this, how to word things so that people get the message(s), is very welcome. Or any little extra blurbs added to the shopping cart by Smugmug itself, I'm sure that would be a HUGE help...


=Matt=