#1 Reason I lose Photo Sales

David Evertsen

During this past year or so I have spoken to a large group of potential customers at games and around the area I live finding out why they don't buy pictures. I have made it easier for my customers to find their athlete or dancers priced my photos in a spot that I can make money and not give them away and they LOVE my pictures. There is one thing I cannot control, the Shopping Cart. I have been told by at least 2 people a week each a different person that they will spend an hour choosing photos, I have a large set of images for several schools in the area, and they will click on another photo and their cart goes empty. I have heard this story over and over , folks don't have time to go back and pick again and the sales are lost. I have posted a notice about the browsers that cause problems based on Smugmug feedback.

Is this being addressed in the short term by Smugmug? With many new features coming (Whenever) The big Green Buy button was helpful to my customers to find the way to buy but it went away. I just wanted to get this out there it is killing me at times.

Do any other folks have this problem when their customers try to buy pictures?

Thanks

Philmar

Hi David,
I hear you and YES, I hear the same thing. I posted on Feb 2 a very similar post with some real good emails from frustrated customers and it got moved to the Bug reporting area, somebody I though hi up told me they would get me an answer and haven't heard anything since. I am looking at options

Phil

David Evertsen

Philmar wrote: »

Hi David,
I hear you and YES, I hear the same thing. I posted on Feb 2 a very similar post with some real good emails from frustrated customers and it got moved to the Bug reporting area, somebody I though hi up told me they would get me an answer and haven't heard anything since. I am looking at options

Phil

Wow Phil !! I would hope they would see this,, had a good friend of mine tell me this week that is why they never buy. Anyone else out there having this problem??

Allen

For every photo added to the cart a quantity has to be added before leaving the cart or all
photos with no qty will be lost. I complained about this many moons ago and suggested a
warning appear when leaving the cart that some photos with no quantity will be lost.

Probably need this message on the opening cart page in red.

David Evertsen

Allen wrote: »

For every photo added to the cart a quantity has to be added before leaving the cart or all
photos with no qty will be lost. I complained about this many moons ago and suggested a
warning appear when leaving the cart that some photos with no quantity will be lost.

Probably need this message on the opening cart page in red.

That still doesn't explain the completely empty part and going away.. Phil I looked up your post on Bugs and apparently feathers where ruffled but, not enough to fix it for you it was FEB 2 and nothing has been done I guess..

mbonocore

David Evertsen wrote: »

During this past year or so I have spoken to a large group of potential customers at games and around the area I live finding out why they don't buy pictures. I have made it easier for my customers to find their athlete or dancers priced my photos in a spot that I can make money and not give them away and they LOVE my pictures. There is one thing I cannot control, the Shopping Cart. I have been told by at least 2 people a week each a different person that they will spend an hour choosing photos, I have a large set of images for several schools in the area, and they will click on another photo and their cart goes empty. I have heard this story over and over , folks don't have time to go back and pick again and the sales are lost. I have posted a notice about the browsers that cause problems based on Smugmug feedback.

Is this being addressed in the short term by Smugmug? With many new features coming (Whenever) The big Green Buy button was helpful to my customers to find the way to buy but it went away. I just wanted to get this out there it is killing me at times.

Do any other folks have this problem when their customers try to buy pictures?

Thanks

Hi David,

If a user clicks on the size of the photo, but does not click the + arrow to add one to the cart, they may think they are adding the size to the cart (based on the updated cropping animation). It may not be browser specific as you state. I do think there is better ways we can address this, and I have started the discussion internally. I will keep you posted.

Michael

mbonocore

Philmar wrote: »

Hi David,
I hear you and YES, I hear the same thing. I posted on Feb 2 a very similar post with some real good emails from frustrated customers and it got moved to the Bug reporting area, somebody I though hi up told me they would get me an answer and haven't heard anything since. I am looking at options

Phil

Phil,

That was me that you had talked to. I apologize for dropping the ball and not reporting back my findings. I tested the shopping cart fully on IE 9 and 10, but never found any issues. I believe your customers may be having the same problem David describes, where simply clicking on the size leads the customer to believe they have added the product to the shopping cart.

Michael

David Evertsen

mbonocore wrote: »

Phil,

That was me that you had talked to. I apologize for dropping the ball and not reporting back my findings. I tested the shopping cart fully on IE 9 and 10, but never found any issues. I believe your customers may be having the same problem David describes, where simply clicking on the size leads the customer to believe they have added the product to the shopping cart.

Michael

Michael my customers entire cart disappears, they add the sizes they want and have them picked out but I have a large catalog of images and they will go back and the cart is empty. They don't purchase from just 1 gallery I have several games over several seasons... I hope this helps.

mbonocore

David Evertsen wrote: »

Michael my customers entire cart disappears, they add the sizes they want and have them picked out but I have a large catalog of images and they will go back and the cart is empty. They don't purchase from just 1 gallery I have several games over several seasons... I hope this helps.

David,

Do you know what browsers and Operating System your clients seem to be using the most?

Thanks!

Michael

David Evertsen

mbonocore wrote: »

David,

Do you know what browsers and Operating System your clients seem to be using the most?

Thanks!

Michael

Unfortunately I am not sure of the browsers they are using, Alot of the time they are not sure, I ask them to try again and let me know so I can get it solved but they never have time to worry about it, they don't think it is worth their time and I lose sales.

Allen

Again, the number one question you should be asking these buyers is "did they click to add a quantity to each photo?"
If they did not the zero qty photos will disappear from the cart.

David Evertsen

Allen wrote: »

Again, the number one question you should be asking these buyers is "did they click to add a quantity to each photo?"
If they did not the zero qty photos will disappear from the cart.

I will post another few lines in my disclaimer for shopping cart issues on my site and I will ask them as well when it comes up. I have had folks with photos from other galleries they have set to order go in another gallery and their entire cart disappears something is not right about that..

mrcoons

David Evertsen wrote: »

I will post another few lines in my disclaimer for shopping cart issues on my site and I will ask them as well when it comes up. I have had folks with photos from other galleries they have set to order go in another gallery and their entire cart disappears something is not right about that..

I have had customers tell me the same thing. It is very difficult to get them to tell me what browser and version they are using. Most don't answer nor try again.

David Evertsen

mrcoons wrote: »

I have had customers tell me the same thing. It is very difficult to get them to tell me what browser and version they are using. Most don't answer nor try again.

Thanks for posting hope they fix this problem...

mbonocore

Also, keep in mind that the viewer needs to have cookies enabled. This is most likely the cause for the people who report the cart disappears after changing galleries.

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93251-why-am-i-having-trouble-viewing-my-site-or-cart---browser-cookies

Michael

pilotdave

mbonocore wrote: »

Also, keep in mind that the viewer needs to have cookies enabled. This is most likely the cause for the people who report the cart disappears after changing galleries.

http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/93251-why-am-i-having-trouble-viewing-my-site-or-cart---browser-cookies

Michael

I don't order from my own site very often but the last time I did, the same thing happened to me. I found the entire ordering experience pretty disappointing. Especially when I had to start over in the middle. Hope the new design will cover all aspects of the buying process.

I use Firefox and have cookies enabled.

Dave

mbonocore

Shawn,

I never said anything wasn't going to change, or that everything is perfect. I was simply providing information that is useful and could help someone.

And I would have to disagree with the car in the shop analogy. When your car is in the shop, the shop has possession of your car, and you do not have a vehicle. We have not taken your car from you. You still have the vehicle of SmugMug at your disposal, and there is many excellent tools and features that do help you right now. I understand you want more. Everyone does, with anything they own. Nothing is perfect, and there will always be room for improvements, whether it be your cell phone, your photo hosting site, or your car...but you still have the vehicle you own in your possession.

Michael


Michael Bonocore
www.mb-photography-sf.com
www.facebook.com/mbonocore
plus.mb-photography-sf.com

Djm3006

David Evertsen wrote: »

Unfortunately I am not sure of the browsers they are using, Alot of the time they are not sure, I ask them to try again and let me know so I can get it solved but they never have time to worry about it, they don't think it is worth their time and I lose sales.

I'am using Quicklylics for the iphone and Google Analytics for this info, gives you good info on peoples browsers and systems great for testing etc etc

David Evertsen

Djm3006 wrote: »

I'am using Quicklylics for the iphone and Google Analytics for this info, gives you good info on peoples browsers and systems great for testing etc etc

I can neither tell the browsers from the purchasers using analytics, I can send the all the statistics don't see how it will help. I cannot even tell with the current shopping cart that has issues who has attempted to purchase anything...

David Evertsen

David Evertsen wrote: »

I can neither tell the browsers from the purchasers using analytics, I can send the all the statistics don't see how it will help. I cannot even tell with the current shopping cart that has issues who has attempted to purchase anything...

Any sort of update on what is going on with fixing the Shopping Cart? It seems to have been dropped well at least with no further updates on here from SM. There was a mention of another thread in here that had issues with it, the zero quantity problem with the cart as well. This is really important to my business..


Thanks,

Dreadnote

I suspect that this is the only near-term solution that you are likely to find though I'm not sure if it will work for your situation:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=116380&highlight=Paypal+shopping+cart

mbonocore

David Evertsen wrote: »

Any sort of update on what is going on with fixing the Shopping Cart? It seems to have been dropped well at least with no further updates on here from SM. There was a mention of another thread in here that had issues with it, the zero quantity problem with the cart as well. This is really important to my business..


Thanks,

David,

We have tried and tried and tried, but we can not identify any bugs regarding the shopping cart. Even in IE10, I am able to add items to the cart, continue browsing, and go into other galleries and add more prints to the cart. Without having an issue we can constantly recreate, there is nothing we can fix.

I will keep poking around, but I do believe the users are simply clicking on the photo and not adding a quantity to the cart.

Michael

David Evertsen

mbonocore wrote: »

David,

We have tried and tried and tried, but we can not identify any bugs regarding the shopping cart. Even in IE10, I am able to add items to the cart, continue browsing, and go into other galleries and add more prints to the cart. Without having an issue we can constantly recreate, there is nothing we can fix.

I will keep poking around, but I do believe the users are simply clicking on the photo and not adding a quantity to the cart.

Michael

Thanks for the update, I know for a fact I had a very good friend of mine with photos in the cart not clicking on and not adding quantity and they just disappeared. What sort of disclaimer can I put on my page that will help me with this issue?

Allen

Smugmug needs to automatically add a quantity of one to any photo added to the cart. Seems
logical to me, a no-brainer. I would also assume anyone then not wanting a photo would remove
it from their cart.

Doing this would probably fix close to 100% of these problems.

David Evertsen

Allen wrote: »

Smugmug needs to automatically add a quantity of one to any photo added to the cart. Seems
logical to me, a no-brainer. I would also assume anyone then not wanting a photo would remove
it from their cart.

Doing this would probably fix close to 100% of these problems.

Smugmug needs to help us out for sure Allen, How about a big disclaimer when ordering to place something in there or something. I am stuck between I can't make it break here at smugmug other than they aren't choosing a picture purchase quantity and my customers that have bought from me in the past saying it is happening/new customers saying it is happening. Like I stated not really being technical and won't contact me or smugmug with info. What am I supposed to do? I am stuck in the middle not selling pictures..

mbonocore

Hi David,

I fully agree that the shopping cart experience can be improved. While we can't identify any specific "bugs" in the current state, is it perfect? Nope. It isn't. But we do know the shortcomings, and will be doing everything possible to improve your customer's experience with the shopping cart. If you haven't yet, please read Baldy's post from yesterday to get a better understanding of where are resources are being allocated at the moment.

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=233530



Michael Bonocore
www.mb-photography-sf.com
www.facebook.com/mbonocore
plus.mb-photography-sf.com

Baldy

David Evertsen wrote: »

I have been told by at least 2 people a week each a different person that they will spend an hour choosing photos, I have a large set of images for several schools in the area, and they will click on another photo and their cart goes empty.

David, thanks for the ping today because this is a critical issue that sent me investigating what's going on. I will post a longer response tonight after I get out of a couple meetings I'm in, but if I understand the issue correctly, we had a bug when using IE on custom domains that caused this issue. This was fixed February 22 and it sounds like we really blew informing Michael Bonocore and you.

I think what Allen is describing is a separate issue, which also needs attention and we have a plan for that.

We spent a fair amount of time trying to reproduce this issue today on your site, David, and weren't able to replicate, so I'm wondering if our failure to inform you guys of the fix has you still wondering if there ever was fix. If you're still seeing it and we can figure out how to replicate, we'll be all over it. Any info anyone could give in that regard would be very helpful.

Thanks,
Baldy

David Evertsen

Baldy wrote: »

David, thanks for the ping today because this is a critical issue that sent me investigating what's going on. I will post a longer response tonight after I get out of a couple meetings I'm in, but if I understand the issue correctly, we had a bug when using IE on custom domains that caused this issue. This was fixed February 22 and it sounds like we really blew informing Michael Bonocore and you.

I think what Allen is describing is a separate issue, which also needs attention and we have a plan for that.

We spent a fair amount of time trying to reproduce this issue today on your site, David, and weren't able to replicate, so I'm wondering if our failure to inform you guys of the fix has you still wondering if there ever was fix. If you're still seeing it and we can figure out how to replicate, we'll be all over it. Any info anyone could give in that regard would be very helpful.

Thanks,
Baldy

Thank you, I am working on crafting something to include on my site if they have this issue.. I want to help get you information to fix it and get folks ordering my pictures..

Baldy

David Evertsen wrote: »

Thank you, I am working on crafting something to include on my site if they have this issue.. I want to help get you information to fix it and get folks ordering my pictures..

In the meantime, I just sent an email out to our heroes asking if any of them have heard this issue raised since February 22nd. I'll let you know what I find out.

Baldy

We don't have any reports that we can find after February 22nd, so hopefully we're golden.

David Evertsen

Baldy wrote: »

We don't have any reports that we can find after February 22nd, so hopefully we're golden.

Thanks so much!! I really appreciate it!!