pro-pricing: discount rates?

HighLightPhotos

Hi,
I know this has been brought up before, since you guys are making improvements constantly (thanks!) I'm not sure if this one is in the works:
Will it be possible to apply a tiered pricing policy for prints? eg. one 5x7 at $8, two for $6 each... etc

Thanks!

HighLightPhotos

sorry about the bump
Is there any thoughts on this?

grannyrobin

PerfectPixel wrote:

Is there any thoughts on this?

There was a similar thread about a month ago. http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=13042&highlight=print+packages

Here's a quote from onethumb. "There are so many landmines with packages & coupons that they're both very unlikely in the near future."

So... it looks to me like lots of thoughts. Not the thoughts you would have wished for, though.
-Robin

HighLightPhotos

ah... print packages.. should have searched on that. what landmines i wonder....

Too bad. It would make life easier. How have others handled this situation? any creative solutions?

Cindy

Print Packages - Yes Again - Please
I've been searching desperatly HARD to find a possible solution other than taking & filling the orders myself via phone or e-mail.

My customers want to buy 10-12 different prints of their kids... but expect a discount when purchasing more than 1. So I take their orders and usually print them myself with my R1800... but all the while I'm thinking gee it sure would be nice if we could offer packages on smugmug.

Couldn't you at least add in the cart another dropdown besides specailty, standard, etc... make it Packages. Pro's could set the price... the price would override all other costs pre-set on the photos. The customer once they've choosen the package could add the desired photos to their package choice whether that be all the same or all different... makes no difference to me (okay maybe a little) but it would sure make offering orders so much faster, easier, and be beneficail to all parties involved.

Smugmug Please, please move print packages to high priority for us event photographers, please. I know it's hard... but it's certainly very possible and would increase your profit considerably. At present we event photographers get to pocket what would have otherwise been your %... but we'd rather just let you handle the printing end of it so we can shoot more pictures.

Thanks,
Cindy

tmanchester

Ditto

Cindy wrote:

I've been searching desperatly HARD to find a possible solution other than taking & filling the orders myself via phone or e-mail.

My customers want to buy 10-12 different prints of their kids... but expect a discount when purchasing more than 1. So I take their orders and usually print them myself with my R1800... but all the while I'm thinking gee it sure would be nice if we could offer packages on smugmug.

Couldn't you at least add in the cart another dropdown besides specailty, standard, etc... make it Packages. Pro's could set the price... the price would override all other costs pre-set on the photos. The customer once they've choosen the package could add the desired photos to their package choice whether that be all the same or all different... makes no difference to me (okay maybe a little) but it would sure make offering orders so much faster, easier, and be beneficail to all parties involved.

Smugmug Please, please move print packages to high priority for us event photographers, please. I know it's hard... but it's certainly very possible and would increase your profit considerably. At present we event photographers get to pocket what would have otherwise been your %... but we'd rather just let you handle the printing end of it so we can shoot more pictures.

Thanks,
Cindy

Couldn't agree more.

Andy

hi guys - thanks for the suggestions and input. we really appreciate it!

Cindy

andy wrote:

hi guys - thanks for the suggestions and input. we really appreciate it!

So Andy... any chance this could be seen implemented??? Soon??? And if so would Smugmug want to find out from us what the most requested package options would be in a drop down list (if these would be shopping cart options that is)?

Andy

Cindy wrote:

So Andy... any chance this could be seen implemented??? Soon??? And if so would Smugmug want to find out from us what the most requested package options would be in a drop down list (if these would be shopping cart options that is)?

as grannyrobin said above, onethumb said on june 9th, "unlikely in the near future." so while we very much appreciate everyone's input on this, i want to caution you that we're still in "the near future" time frame... wish i had a better answer for you ...

coach-al

Discounts - how about a coupon

andy wrote:

as grannyrobin said above, onethumb said on june 9th, "unlikely in the near future." so while we very much appreciate everyone's input on this, i want to caution you that we're still in "the near future" time frame... wish i had a better answer for you ...

As my sales have increased (thank you Smugmug) I have found more and more need for some sort of discount mechanism. How about some sort of coupon where we could set it up as a certain % off for a certain time period? Then the customer just enters it at checkout and they automatically get the discount.

Right now I have to go to the actual photos and change the prices. A royal pain in the ... for both me and the customer.

Thanks, Al

tmanchester

Coupons

coach-al wrote:

As my sales have increased (thank you Smugmug) I have found more and more need for some sort of discount mechanism. How about some sort of coupon where we could set it up as a certain % off for a certain time period?

Coupons shouldn't be that hard to implement (or so says a friend of mine who is an ecommerce expert). That would scratch a variety of itches in one stroke.

Can we get some feedback on this from the admins?

Thanks

JimM

I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in and say I think multiple photo purchases would be great. I would even be okay with it if it were only 2 or more of the same picture (same size and everything). Obviously mom, dad, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, etc, would also like this print!

Cameron

tmanchester wrote:

Coupons shouldn't be that hard to implement (or so says a friend of mine who is an ecommerce expert). That would scratch a variety of itches in one stroke.

Can we get some feedback on this from the admins?

Thanks

I think part of the complexity of such a feature is that people can fill their shopping cart with items from many galleries. So does the coupon work on your purchase or only for certain galleries? How is that made clear in the cart? I think they'll get around to features like that, but the implimentation isn't as easy as it seems on the surface.

Andy

CSwinton wrote:

I think part of the complexity of such a feature is that people can fill their shopping cart with items from many galleries. So does the coupon work on your purchase or only for certain galleries? How is that made clear in the cart? I think they'll get around to features like that, but the implimentation isn't as easy as it seems on the surface.

exactly. try it and see, you can add stuff to your cart from many smugmug galleries - and then we have the issue of how to apply the coupon/discount/etc. and the accounting. it's definitely not as "simple" as it seems.

thanks for the suggestions though, everyone - please keep them coming

tmanchester

andy wrote:

exactly. try it and see, you can add stuff to your cart from many smugmug galleries - and then we have the issue of how to apply the coupon/discount/etc. and the accounting. it's definitely not as "simple" as it seems.

thanks for the suggestions though, everyone - please keep them coming

Wouldn't a "one size fits all" solution be better than none?

Not arguing, just asking. There are other features of SmugMug that alot of people want enhanced (for example, galleries can only be nested so far, sales aren't reported by gallery, etc), but we would rather have what is there than no solution at all.

Has that been considered?

If I'm hungry, it doesn't have to be filet.

Thanks.

Cindy

CSwinton wrote:

I think part of the complexity of such a feature is that people can fill their shopping cart with items from many galleries. So does the coupon work on your purchase or only for certain galleries? How is that made clear in the cart? I think they'll get around to features like that, but the implimentation isn't as easy as it seems on the surface.

Yes but each photo is somehow tagged so that even if someone buys pictures from 10 different websites each website owner gets paid accordingly. Discounts, packages &/or coupons could be tagged according to the website owner just like the photos are and would apply only matching tagged photos.

Not trying to be a pest about this (okay maybe a little :-) but neither do I want to let this need be sunk to the depths of no priority (which is why I added my current #1 feature request to be included in all my signatures. As my own to to keep reminding without being a bother.

Thanks,
Cindy

coach-al

coupons becoming more and more important
Time for me to put another 2 cents in.

I am doing pretty well with print sales, but I KNOW I could do much better if I had some sort of mechanism to get my customers off their *** and make their orders. In the last few months I've had MANY, MANY customers tell me that they were going to buy some pictures, a some do, but a lot I'm still waiting for. A coupon would work to get them to move, I know it would.

I've been experimenting with just sending an email to a potential customer that had shown some interest and offer a discount for a certain time. It's worked EVERY TIME! But it is a royal pain in the butt to implement it. I spend so much time it's eating up all my profit on the sale. Doesn't make any sense.

So Smugmug, how about it? You are losing sales and I'm losing sales. I like your service a lot but I've got to tell you not having any way to easily have a "sale" is really bothersome to the point where I owe it to myself to look around again.

What do you other photographers do when you want to have a sale?

thanks, Al

Andy

coach-al wrote:

Time for me to put another 2 cents in.

I am doing pretty well with print sales, but I KNOW I could do much better if I had some sort of mechanism to get my customers off their *** and make their orders. In the last few months I've had MANY, MANY customers tell me that they were going to buy some pictures, a some do, but a lot I'm still waiting for. A coupon would work to get them to move, I know it would.

I've been experimenting with just sending an email to a potential customer that had shown some interest and offer a discount for a certain time. It's worked EVERY TIME! But it is a royal pain in the butt to implement it. I spend so much time it's eating up all my profit on the sale. Doesn't make any sense.

So Smugmug, how about it? You are losing sales and I'm losing sales. I like your service a lot but I've got to tell you not having any way to easily have a "sale" is really bothersome to the point where I owe it to myself to look around again.

What do you other photographers do when you want to have a sale?

thanks, Al

Coupons are hard - for reasons stated best by onethumb.

But what about the ability for you to set pricing for a gallery, and for you to have the option of ticking a button that says "email me a reminder to change pricing for (gallery url) in X days"

coach-al

Worth a try!

Andy wrote:

Coupons are hard - for reasons stated best by onethumb.

But what about the ability for you to set pricing for a gallery, and for you to have the option of ticking a button that says "email me a reminder to change pricing for (gallery url) in X days"

Thank you Andy, I'm going to give that a try.:)))

Allen

coach-al wrote:

Time for me to put another 2 cents in.
I am doing pretty well with print sales, but I KNOW I could do much better if I had some sort of mechanism to get my customers off their *** and make their orders. In the last few months I've had MANY, MANY customers tell me that they were going to buy some pictures, a some do, but a lot I'm still waiting for. A coupon would work to get them to move, I know it would.

I've been experimenting with just sending an email to a potential customer that had shown some interest and offer a discount for a certain time. It's worked EVERY TIME! But it is a royal pain in the butt to implement it. I spend so much time it's eating up all my profit on the sale. Doesn't make any sense.

So Smugmug, how about it? You are losing sales and I'm losing sales. I like your service a lot but I've got to tell you not having any way to easily have a "sale" is really bothersome to the point where I owe it to myself to look around again.

What do you other photographers do when you want to have a sale?

thanks, Al

Why not create one gallery that has the reduced/special prices and set a password. Email these
potential customers with the password and tell them it expires in xxx days/hours. Might get
them moving.
another AL

bham

Allen wrote:

Why not create one gallery that has the reduced/special prices and set a password. Email these
potential customers with the password and tell them it expires in xxx days/hours. Might get
them moving.
another AL

A couple ideas on both topics.

Instead of coupons, discount multiple picture order, etc. (sounds like it just can't happen) why not send some customers a refund from you. I know this isn't exactly what you want but it may work in the short run. Or if you buy 5 8x10's email me and request a 6th at no cost. Then you print and send to them. Just an idea since it sounds like the others just aren't going to happen. I tell customers that if they are going to order more than 20 prints them can email me and I will print them and basically take the order, money, etc directly. But for larger orders it is worth it. I can justify taking the time for them, otherwise I feel my prices are fair and don't see the need to discount anything.

In response of how to get the customers off their butts to order, I suggest x price until y date, then the price increases. Simply explain that why, to financially encourage people not to procrastinate with their order. You could say one month at x price then all prices increase by $1. The amount should vary by average size of your orders and your customers. If most only order 3 or 4 pics maybe increase more, if orders are usually 20 or more maybe less. I have tried this with some success. I am implenting it as I move forward. The key is to be fair, mention it upfront, put the date, etc info in the gallery description and stick to it. This is mainly for events since the more time passes from the event the less likely people are to buy the pics.

Hope these ideas help with some creative solutions to issues you face.

Andy what do you think? Have you heard of these things, tried any, have any input on what you do?

Andy

bham wrote:

Andy what do you think? Have you heard of these things, tried any, have any input on what you do?

They are some great ideas. I'd love it if you post them in the pro tips thread, in MYOB forum.

I really do think one of the best is the time motivators - buy NOW, this WEEK, becuase next week the price will be higher. Put that on your business cards, too, as you hand out at events....

coach-al

Thanks for the suggestions
I just went to my galleries to take a look and think about what to do. I have about TWO HUNDRED galleries with almost 20,000 pictures! Changing the price by gallery is very cumbersome, not a big deal when you only have a few, but I've got a lot.

I like the idea of implementing price increases after a certain time period. I think that's a worth a try but I think I need to do this going forward after I publicize it. And again, with a lot of galleries this is cumbersome under the current system.

Being able to change a gallery's price by category or sub-category would be very useful. Is there a way to do that now? I don't see it if there is.

One thing I've found is that the more I divide up my event by gallery the better it is (for my customers). For example, I might do a track meet and take 700 pictures. I'll divide that up by event and sometimes by men and women depending how big the galleries are. I'm shooting for under 100 photos in a gallery. It adds up to more work for me but I figure if I don't make it easy for my customers I'm going to lose out in the end.

The suggestion that I create a "discount" gallery might be good for some but my volume would make that unworkable. To create that gallery would take a lot of time, and it wouldn't be one gallery, it would have to be many.

Bottom line I guess is that I'm feeling some strains in the system because I'm getting bigger. I'm assuming that Smugmug makes the most money from the big volume sellers so even if it is "difficult", making life easier for the bigger sellers should be a high priority. I sure hope so.

later, Al

bham

Well implementing it will take time but then as you shoot and upload say a month later you just have to change that one gallery prices and once you change one you can change others by copying the prices set on another gallery with one click. Not that much time compared to what it took to upload. Now I wouldn't suggest increasing every month, week, etc unless you really want to keep up with it. Have a reduced price for a certain time, then increases and stays. Maybe after x time it either increases or you hide the gallery and put a note to contact you for pics from the past. Then you can make the gallery public again, with a price increase.

You gotta do what is feasible and works for you depending on your volume, time, etc. You may experiment with it and find what works for your customers.

bham

coach-al wrote:

Time for me to put another 2 cents in.

I am doing pretty well with print sales, but I KNOW I could do much better if I had some sort of mechanism to get my customers off their *** and make their orders. In the last few months I've had MANY, MANY customers tell me that they were going to buy some pictures, a some do, but a lot I'm still waiting for. A coupon would work to get them to move, I know it would.

I've been experimenting with just sending an email to a potential customer that had shown some interest and offer a discount for a certain time. It's worked EVERY TIME! But it is a royal pain in the butt to implement it. I spend so much time it's eating up all my profit on the sale. Doesn't make any sense.

So Smugmug, how about it? You are losing sales and I'm losing sales. I like your service a lot but I've got to tell you not having any way to easily have a "sale" is really bothersome to the point where I owe it to myself to look around again.

What do you other photographers do when you want to have a sale?

thanks, Al

Another idea you could have two galleries, one with the discount public and the regular price one private, then when the time comes switch it. This would probably be more hassle then changing the prices though, it would be for me.

I tend to have the same price structures for different categories to ease with price changes, one click it copies prices set for another gallery.

Doug Munn - JLM PHOTO

Discounts and Coupons
First off, I LOVE YOUR SERVICE!!

You folks are very responsive and down to earth.

In comparing sites and services, I've been taking a long hard look at Photoreflect, specifically for flexibility package pricing, discounts and coupons. I say "long and hard" because I have been very satisfied with our site on Smugmug.

I know that their client base is more narrowly focused than yours, hence their feature set is different. However, the discount and coupon features are attractive, as well as the ability to have a choice of fullfilment options (their lab or our own fullfilment). I also don't know the specific ins and outs of how they do the discount/package/coupon features, either.

We concentrate on event photography of many types. As we continue to evaluate our offerings, we may find that we have two use both hosting services to meet the needs of our different product offerings.

If you see that it would fit your model, to add such features as discounts, package flexibility, coupons, etc., that would be AWSOME!!! Also, the choice of fullfilment would be great, too. We can then keep our eggs in one nice basket.

Doug

Andy

Doug Munn - JLM PHOTO wrote:

First off, I LOVE YOUR SERVICE!!

You folks are very responsive and down to earth.

In comparing sites and services, I've been taking a long hard look at Photoreflect, specifically for flexibility package pricing, discounts and coupons. I say "long and hard" because I have been very satisfied with our site on Smugmug.

I know that their client base is more narrowly focused than yours, hence their feature set is different. However, the discount and coupon features are attractive, as well as the ability to have a choice of fullfilment options (their lab or our own fullfilment). I also don't know the specific ins and outs of how they do the discount/package/coupon features, either.

We concentrate on event photography of many types. As we continue to evaluate our offerings, we may find that we have two use both hosting services to meet the needs of our different product offerings.

If you see that it would fit your model, to add such features as discounts, package flexibility, coupons, etc., that would be AWSOME!!! Also, the choice of fullfilment would be great, too. We can then keep our eggs in one nice basket.

Doug

Hi Doug, thanks for writing, and thanks for the kind words!

I recently tried out PhotoReflect. There's some cool features. But there are, IMO, some considerations, too. Take customer service. Any service issue is between the pro and the lab - PhotoReflect won't do anything, to help you or your client. They wil, after the fact, "liase" between you and the lab, for credits, etc but they won't do anything NOW, when the pros client is having an issue.

We routinely handle all sorts of pro's customer requests on a daily basis. Anything from "I ordered the wrong size" to "Ack - I put the wrong address in!" to "hey, the post office mangled my 8x10!" to "erem.... can you tell me why the color is off?" Most pros love the fact that we handle this stuff for their clients (and we feel that this one reason why you share 15% with us!). As an example, sometimes even pros don't get the color right for our lab - the client writes us, complaining - we happily, and speedily (usually the same day) color correct the files (if the pro won't or can't do it) and issue a no-charge reprint for that customer. All of this adds up to our pros having more time to shoot more, and sell more, and gain more clients.

We'd love to have packages and discounts and we're talking about it all the time. No promises on if/when but stay tuned to Dgrin, and also to our release notes blog (you can subscribe via RSS), you'll know as soon as new features are released!

Thanks again for being our customer, and for your time and valuable input.

All the best,

mercphoto

coach-al wrote:

Being able to change a gallery's price by category or sub-category would be very useful. Is there a way to do that now? I don't see it if there is.

There is not, but would be useful indeed. In the custom pro pricing page there are currently options for image, gallery and portfolio. What you are suggesting is image, gallery, sub-category, category and portfolio.

One thing I've found is that the more I divide up my event by gallery the better it is (for my customers). For example, I might do a track meet and take 700 pictures. I'll divide that up by event and sometimes by men and women depending how big the galleries are. I'm shooting for under 100 photos in a gallery. It adds up to more work for me but I figure if I don't make it easy for my customers I'm going to lose out in the end.

You should consider putting all the photos for an event into one gallery and then use keywords to sort for the customers. One gallery for you, but multiple faces for your customers. The track meet probably has numbers on the competitors. Put in a keyword for the number, another for the person's sex, another for the event name or date, etc.

See: http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/854362
That is from the Austin Grand Prix and is over 1600 images. Notice all the links in the gallery description. Every racing image on my site is keyworded with at least three keywords. One for the number, one for the track, and one for the date.

Andy

mercphoto wrote:

See: http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/854362
That is from the Austin Grand Prix and is over 1600 images. Notice all the links in the gallery description. Every racing image on my site is keyworded with at least three keywords. One for the number, one for the track, and one for the date.

Bill, this is awesome.

I've linked this technique into my Pro Tips thread

Thanks

coach-al

Oh my god!
See: http://mercphoto.smugmug.com/gallery/854362
That is from the Austin Grand Prix and is over 1600 images. Notice all the links in the gallery description. Every racing image on my site is keyworded with at least three keywords. One for the number, one for the track, and one for the date.[/QUOTE]

---

I took a look at your gallery and love the organization. But, please tell me there is an easy way to keyword groups of images, or do you (UGH!) do each image individually?

thanks, Al

mercphoto

coach-al wrote:

I took a look at your gallery and love the organization. But, please tell me there is an easy way to keyword groups of images, or do you (UGH!) do each image individually?

Individually. Currently I use Photoshop's File Browser to do this but there must be a better way. I'm updating to CS2 soon, so maybe the Bridge is better at this. Or maybe I need to buy iVMP instead. Dunno. Bear in mind the only thing I need to do individually is the number itself. I can bulk-keyword the track name and the event date easily enough with CS. I do the keywording at the same time I sort through the photos decide what to keep and what to pitch, so its not as bad as it sounds.