Why no Smugmug discounts?

jmphotocraft

I'm seeing coupons or getting weekly emails from Shutterfly, Imagekind, Nations Photo Lab, Tinyprints, even EZPrints, for deals like 20% to 40% off and/or free shipping. And their retail prices are about the same as Smug's or less. I don't know if I've ever gotten or seen a coupon from Smugmug. What's the scoop? I'm happy to pay full price if there is a feel-good story behind it. I know SM is a relatively small Mom-n-Pop business, but what else am I missing?

Sheaf

The complex answer involves handling print discounts with Pro pricing. If a Pro sells a $1.00 print for $3.00 and we offer a 50% off on that print for a week, what do we do to the Pro's price? Does it become lower to maintain consistent profit for the Pro while still passing on the discount to the customer? If a Pro sets their price at $3.00, is it okay to change that whenever a sale is happening? Do we keep it at $3.00 and just pass along more profit to the Pro?

Thankfully, we think that Pricelists helps solve that problem. We're hoping to work out a solution within the Pricelist framework that pleases just about everyone.

Demian

Coupons are essentially marketing. The companies you listed all sell prints directly, and are in constant competition with each other; Thus the necessity to undercut price.

Smugmug customers are likely to buy from Smug anyways, either because they have their photos hosted and it's easier, or because they're a third party buying from a pro (and thus required to purchase from Smug). So any coupons would be slashing their margin with little benefit... They need to grow by getting new accounts, and that's how they'll likely spend their marketing budget.

jmphotocraft

Both make sense, thanks. But what about just sending out coupons to SM members? I would think you could do this and not adjust any pro pricing.