Save for purchase later

Hog Leg

I know that the " Event" gallery is out there but it does not work well for my site. I have had several people ask me lately about " Save for purchase later" or " Add to favorites". So my question is; does SmugMug have any plans, in the very near future, of adding this feature? I like the customization that SmugMug offers but if this feature or lack of, is costing me sales I may have to consider an alternate host. Does anyone have any insights?:dunno

mbonocore

Hog Leg wrote: »

I know that the " Event" gallery is out there but it does not work well for my site. I have had several people ask me lately about " Save for purchase later" or " Add to favorites". So my question is; does SmugMug have any plans, in the very near future, of adding this feature? I like the customization that SmugMug offers but if this feature or lack of, is costing me sales I may have to consider an alternate host. Does anyone have any insights?

Event clients do have the ability to save photos as "favorites". Have you taken a look at this help page?

http://news.smugmug.com/2011/03/23/smug-tip-of-the-week-events-and-favorites/

They can always come back later and view their favorites, and purchase whenever they are ready.

Please let me know if this helps solve the issue you are having.


Michael

Hog Leg

Save for purchase later
Thanks for the reply Michael but as I originally stated the "Event" option really doesn't work well for me. I shoot allot of High school sports and I never know who will be viewing my web site and purchasing photos, plus the "EVENT" is another process that I have to create. I'm not sure if you are familiar with ZENFOLIO but they have a very easy process of " Save for later purchase" . I was hoping that SmugMug would have something in the works similar to this? I've had several complaints from clients about loosing their order selections that they had taken to a basket and did not place, thinking that they could add to the basket at a later date. I also know that there is help for this, as a matter of fact, I added a "Help" menu item to my NavBar to help people with security and cookie settings on their computer to try to eliminate loosing a basket that they had taken hours to create. I guess my point is, if I'm having to explain to a potential client, how place an order, they may never place an order or if they keep loosing the photos they have selected, they may think "this is too much trouble" SmugMug may not be able to offer this feature because of the tremendous flexibility in customization that they offer (I hope they never loose that). The help that I have received from the pro's on this forum has been exceptional and I sure do not want to give that up so I'm hopeful that something is in the pipeline in the very near future. Again, thanks for your reply.

jasonscottphoto

+1 for the ability to save favorites for ANY gallery, not just those we've added to an event. Would be nice if anyone viewing any gallery could register to save favorites...

mbonocore

Thank you for your feedback Jason. While this is currently not designed for all galleries, if it is critical, you could add all of the albums necessary and have the customers select their favorites that way.

Michael

jasonscottphoto

mbonocore wrote: »

Thank you for your feedback Jason. While this is currently not designed for all galleries, if it is critical, you could add all of the albums necessary and have the customers select their favorites that way.

Michael

There is a big difference between somebody viewing an event (we have to send it to them, or someone has to share it with them) vs. somebody browsing our galleries or viewing a gallery of a friend/family member and being able to register and tag favorites easily WITHOUT having the event link.

Events are confusing. You have no idea how many times I see in my statcounter that customers are viewing their event using the guest link instead of their personal link, or re-registering themselves because they don't understand there is a separate personal link. Often the "sharing" email comes BEFORE the personal email. What a mess. I love that they can tag favorites, so I continue to use it. But I wish I could just send ONE link, the gallery link, and let anyone who views it tag their favorites...

Put the little heart under everything, and as soon as someone clicks it for the first time, prompt them to register.

mbonocore

jasonscottphoto wrote: »

Put the little heart under everything, and as soon as someone clicks it for the first time, prompt them to register.

Thanks Jason. Yes, the event workaround was simply a suggestion for a "Must Have" scenario, and I do realize the option to Favorite on any gallery is the requested behavior. I will keep you all posted on the status of this feature request.

Thanks!

Michael

pilotdave

mbonocore wrote: »

Thanks Jason. Yes, the event workaround was simply a suggestion for a "Must Have" scenario, and I do realize the option to Favorite on any gallery is the requested behavior. I will keep you all posted on the status of this feature request.

Thanks!

Michael

Just curious... Does smugmug actually intend for you to provide the status of anything? You've said it a bunch of times but I can't think of any specific status of any feature request ever being provided. Eh, it beats Andy's "stay tuned." Just seems like they hired you to say that they hired you to provide the status of feature requests.

Dave

mbonocore

pilotdave wrote: »

Just curious... Does smugmug actually intend for you to provide the status of anything? You've said it a bunch of times but I can't think of any specific status of any feature request ever being provided. Eh, it beats Andy's "stay tuned." Just seems like they hired you to say that they hired you to provide the status of feature requests.

Dave

Ha, I will try to avoid "Stay Tuned" as much as possible, but I did always want to be a late night talk show host, so it may be difficult.

I appreciate your candor. My main goal, especially in this forum, is to build a stronger bridge of communication between SmugMug and it's team of engineers, QA, Management, and Heros and you, our valued customer.

However, it does take time to get caught up on bugs, find and identify feature requests, review the product roadmap, etc.

The TWiP interview with Baldy was very good, and I think it gave a little insight into the Behind The Scenes world at SmugMug.

http://www.thisweekinphoto.com/2012/twip-286-an-evening-with-smugmug/

Michael

Pure Energy

mbonocore wrote: »

The TWiP interview with Baldy was very good, and I think it gave a little insight into the Behind The Scenes world at SmugMug.

http://www.thisweekinphoto.com/2012/twip-286-an-evening-with-smugmug/

Thanks for the video link. I only wish the sound levels were more even.

Here's a nice thing to hear in the interview:

"We've always had this mantra, nothing beats the truth" (31:45) -- Chris “Baldy” MacAskill (12-21-12)

Now, if we could just get Chris to believe more in "sharing is caring" regarding feature requests then SmugMug would be well on its way for the New Year.

BTW, I second the motion of the OP to allow any and all photos to be favorited, etc. without the need to corral them into "Events."

mbonocore

Pure Energy wrote: »

Thanks for the video link. I only wish the sound levels were more even.

Here's a nice thing to hear in the interview:

"We've always had this mantra, nothing beats the truth" (31:45) -- Chris “Baldy” MacAskill (12-21-12)

Now, if we could just get Chris to believe more in "sharing is caring" regarding feature requests then SmugMug would be well on its way for the New Year.

BTW, I second the motion of the OP to allow any and all photos to be favorited, etc. without the need to corral them into "Events."

While "Sharing Is Caring" is a great mantra, I think alot can be taken from Baldy's talk of the "Patent Trolls". While our teams excitement level is through the roof and we would love to show everyone all the cool stuff we are working on, but unfortunately, it simply isn't possible.

Michael

Hog Leg

Save for purchase later

mbonocore wrote: »

While "Sharing Is Caring" is a great mantra, I think alot can be taken from Baldy's talk of the "Patent Trolls". While our teams excitement level is through the roof and we would love to show everyone all the cool stuff we are working on, but unfortunately, it simply isn't possible.

Michael

Michael, I appreciate you sending the link. I watched and listened to the complete video and to be completely honest I only learned a couple of things so If this is all about pattens and the money that it is taken to combat the trolls I'm fine with that. Just say " we cannot do some of these requested changes at this time because we are trying too keep from infringing on pattens that are in place. We will continue to working on your request and will keep you updated on a monthly or quarterly basis" However if this is about something else, let say, selling the company, I would understand why no one is saying anything. I hope that is not the case, but it's starting to look like a duck to me, given some of the recent events. The mind is a very powerful thing, left idle, people draw up all kinds of conclusions. I just think we need a little more information and what is happening. A lot of us have a lot of time and money invested in SmugMug and I appreciate everything you (i'm speaking about everyone involve with SmugMug) have offered in the past and will in the future.

mbonocore

Hog Leg wrote: »

Michael, I appreciate you sending the link. I watched and listened to the complete video and to be completely honest I only learned a couple of things so If this is all about pattens and the money that it is taken to combat the trolls I'm fine with that. Just say " we cannot do some of these requested changes at this time because we are trying too keep from infringing on pattens that are in place. We will continue to working on your request and will keep you updated on a monthly or quarterly basis" However if this is about something else, let say, selling the company, I would understand why no one is saying anything. I hope that is not the case, but it's starting to look like a duck to me, given some of the recent events. The mind is a very powerful thing, left idle, people draw up all kinds of conclusions. I just think we need a little more information and what is happening. A lot of us have a lot of time and money invested in SmugMug and I appreciate everything you (i'm speaking about everyone involve with SmugMug) have offered in the past and will in the future.

Understood. I am actually working on a longer post with my "take" on joining SmugMug, the future of SmugMug, and some FAQS. It will be up in the Forum this week.

And I can tell you...we LOVE being independent.

flyingwolf

So here we are at the end of the year, any updates to the events pages? Currently they are pretty useless.