Delivery to Europe

Alex53

Hi guys,

I am thinking of getting a pro account. I currently use a UK on-line printing service to sell event photos I take but their service is very limited.

I like the features smugmug has, but my main concern is the delivery times to clients, since they would mainly be based in Gibraltar (Europe). Courier delivery is a bit expensive, and the last time I used airmail from USA to Gibraltar it took 6 weeks. I'd like to know what options your pro users from Europe have. Is there by any chance an affiliate printing lab in the UK that you can use? That would be great!

Another question is, do the users have to go through some form of subscription to make an order? My feedback is that some people get put off by too many forms.

rainforest1155

Alex53 wrote:

Is there by any chance an affiliate printing lab in the UK that you can use? That would be great!

Another question is, do the users have to go through some form of subscription to make an order? My feedback is that some people get put off by too many forms.

Can't tell you much about delivery times as I ordered just once and the delivery came quickly even tough New Year's Eve was in between. On the other hand the reprint took some time as far as I remember. I guess you just have to give it a try.
I like the idea of having a European based lab and I think I already suggested it before. The main problem with this is just that it took SM a huge amount of time to find the perfect US based lab. Also the communication has to be very good, because of their printing satisfaction warranty etc.

Concerning your order question: No way they have to sign up for anything. It's just that they have to leave their address for delivery and their credit card data for payment. Apart from that I think even leaving an emailaddress for shipping notification is optional - as far as I remember from my last order about a year ago. No need to worry about any privacy issues!

Hope this helps,
Sebastian

Andy

Alex53 wrote:

Hi guys,

I am thinking of getting a pro account. I currently use a UK on-line printing service to sell event photos I take but their service is very limited.

I like the features smugmug has, but my main concern is the delivery times to clients, since they would mainly be based in Gibraltar (Europe). Courier delivery is a bit expensive, and the last time I used airmail from USA to Gibraltar it took 6 weeks. I'd like to know what options your pro users from Europe have. Is there by any chance an affiliate printing lab in the UK that you can use? That would be great!

Another question is, do the users have to go through some form of subscription to make an order? My feedback is that some people get put off by too many forms.

Hi Alex, thanks for posting, and thanks for considering SmugMug! Firstly - one of our basic principles is making it very easy for your customers to buy - therefore, they do *not* have to do any form-filling or registration whatsoever to view or buy from you. To purchase, they simply click "add to cart" and put in their address, credit card info (all SSL secure) and that's it.

As far as a printing lab in Europe, I'm sorry we don't have one. A while back, we underwent an extensive shootout in order to choose the lab we've got now. In order to keep quality control, and customer satisfaction high, we'll be sticking with US-based printing for the time being. If we can get to the point where we can replicate the service levels we've got, we'd consider an overseas lab.

As to European Shipping we have the options available in the link here.

I hope this helps, please let us know if we can answer any more questions.

All the best,

Alex53

Thanks for the reply. I'm just frustrated now that smugmug seems perfect yet I can't really use it without having customers complain a photo delivery is taking weeks. I buy a lot from USA stores, and I know regular mail is way too slow to Gibraltar, like 6 weeks, even 8. On the other hand only more expensive items justify the cost of courier, certainly not a few prints.

joffun

UK based - reluctant to use US based printers
I can't help - as I am in the same boat as you. I have a SM pro account (which I got because of all the other features it offers) & want to sell prints, but being based in the UK (& I suspect all my clients will be UK based) I am reluctant to have all my print prices listed in dollars & have them shipped from the US - I think that this will put off potential customers.

I have thought about simply having a link to Photobox.co.uk & letting them handle all my printing, but it means uploading all my photos twice, which will be time consuming and not as seamless as I would like (even though photobox offer a free pro gallery where I can set my own prices etc)

I was just wondering what others in the UK/Europe do and whether they find SM ok for print handling from the US. Ideally it would be great if SM linked up with someone like photobox - they could handle all UK printing, but I'm not sure how much demand there is from SM cutomers for this.

Alex53

joffun wrote:

I can't help - as I am in the same boat as you. I have a SM pro account (which I got because of all the other features it offers) & want to sell prints, but being based in the UK (& I suspect all my clients will be UK based) I am reluctant to have all my print prices listed in dollars & have them shipped from the US - I think that this will put off potential customers.

I have thought about simply having a link to Photobox.co.uk & letting them handle all my printing, but it means uploading all my photos twice, which will be time consuming and not as seamless as I would like (even though photobox offer a free pro gallery where I can set my own prices etc)

I was just wondering what others in the UK/Europe do and whether they find SM ok for print handling from the US. Ideally it would be great if SM linked up with someone like photobox - they could handle all UK printing, but I'm not sure how much demand there is from SM cutomers for this.

I use photobox too. It is the limitations of photobox that make me want to use smugmug though. On photobox the buyer has to subscribe, and you cant set different prices depending on the gallery, just one all round price for each size print (or product). They have a button you can put on your own site, but that costs a fee up front, and what I need is something that pays based on sales only, not setup/up front fees.

Alex53

I know its been a while, but since I have developed my printing process at home and thought of the problem discussed in this thread in a different way.

Could Smugmug actually accomodate photographers who produce and sell their own prints by offering the payment processing side of things only, and taking a reasonable commision for that?

I do realise the first thought that will come to your minds is what if you are selling rubbish prints, so maybe the answer is in identifying these photographers in the same way Amazon identifies when you are buying from a store that sells through their site rather than themselves, and a simple feedback mechanism whereby satisfied customers can leave a positive comment about the prints and unhappy customers can comment if the prints were not that good.

I think a lot of us Europeans would jump on that if its reasonably priced!

Stustaff

Having used smugmug and photobox I have to say even though im based in the UK i will be using smugmug!

I will just be very honest with my customers!

I have something along the lines of -

"I use a US printing servic called Smugmug because in my opinion they are the best Printing service available in terms of print quality and after sales service.
Part of this service is a guarentee that if you are not happy with a print Smugmug will arrange balah blah.
The current exchange rate also means that you get more for your £'s even with international postage taken into account."


Thats not my actual statement because still working on it but you get the idea.

Andy

Stustaff wrote:

Having used smugmug and photobox I have to say even though im based in the UK i will be using smugmug!

I will just be very honest with my customers!

I have something along the lines of -

"I use a US printing servic called Smugmug because in my opinion they are the best Printing service available in terms of print quality and after sales service.
Part of this service is a guarentee that if you are not happy with a print Smugmug will arrange balah blah.
The current exchange rate also means that you get more for your £'s even with international postage taken into account."


Thats not my actual statement because still working on it but you get the idea.

Nice, Stu - thanks!

And, congrats on the wedding!

ivar

For what it's worth, last time i ordered from SmugMug, it took 6 days for the delivery (to the Netherlands) with the cheapest delivery method.

Stustaff

Andy wrote:

Nice, Stu - thanks!

And, congrats on the wedding!

Thanks Andy.

Am busy enjoying the honeymoon and the trip around north america...Hey what am I doing on here?

cya