Simplify cart options

Chris_S

the feedback I've been getting by potential customers is that the CART is too difficult. They click buy but are presented with too many options and they giving up.

Ideally I would like to make the following ticked by default

• Simplify this page and

• Hide products that need to be cropped

• Hide products that cannot be purchased

• Hide matte and glossy.

The pricelist feature is too difficult to cover all aspect ratios. Not all my photos are 3:2 aspects.


The new smugmug redesign is brilliant however the shopping cart is causing lost sales.


Is the above possible and if not when will it be addressed?


Thanks

OffTopic

One of my biggest wish list items is a "smart" shopping cart that would automatically offer only the sizes in the correct aspect ratios. I agree completely that the current shopping cart is much to complicated as is and the only current workaround is to create galleries that are specific to aspect ratio to keep 4:5 and 2:3 separate and create gallery-specific pricelists.

I have no problem with specific galleries for my 1:1 and panos, but this is really an issue with 4:5 and 2:3.

spider-t

I'll throw my hat in to this discussion as well. I completely agree the complexity of the smugmug shopping cart has been a barrier to sales.

This year I switched my biggest selling event from backprint.com (with crappy service and crappy prints but AWESOMELY SIMPLE SHOPPING CART) to smugmug.com (with great service, beautiful prints and a complicated shopping cart interface). I made a third fewer sales than I have in any of the past 4 years. Which for this event comes close to a full month of expenses.

I would ask that smugmug at least list the prices near the products they are showing my customers who are trying to shop. If they are diligent enough to figure out how to change the product from the default 4x6 print product, they should be rewarded with the answer "how much do all these other products cost?". I'd also like to know why there is a default print product. And who got to decide the default print product is the 4x6 print?

I'm including a screenshot of where I think smugmug should include prices. And also a couple of screenshots from the backprint shopping cart I used to use that no one ever had trouble finding packages or how much products cost.
(larger more readable version of screenshot: http://trishtunney.smugmug.com/photos/i-8QhsMLQ/0/X3/i-8QhsMLQ-X3.jpg)

Ideas?

I'd hate to go back to selling my customers crappy prints just because they seem to buy more of them.

thanks!
Trish

OffTopic wrote: »

One of my biggest wish list items is a "smart" shopping cart that would automatically offer only the sizes in the correct aspect ratios. I agree completely that the current shopping cart is much to complicated as is and the only current workaround is to create galleries that are specific to aspect ratio to keep 4:5 and 2:3 separate and create gallery-specific pricelists.

I have no problem with specific galleries for my 1:1 and panos, but this is really an issue with 4:5 and 2:3.

sueseas

Agree!
I concur with what people are saying here! I particularly wish there were a way to link to a page for each image, like the one in spider-t's final screenshot, that shows a relatively large picture listed along with all the sizes and prices the photographer has made available. As it is, a "buy" link goes to a *tiny* image and prices. It does not show off the product or encourage people to buy at all. I end up sending people to a photo in a gallery, then suggesting two additional steps they need to take to even see prices: click "Add to Cart" and then "This Photo." I think it's rather obvious that a seller should make buying as easy and as attractive as possible, in order to make more sales, and the current interface does not do this.

Perhaps this should go in a different/additional discussion: the interface for buying cards is far worse than that for buying prints. The default buying options send the user to a screen saying there's nothing to buy (because there aren't prints to buy.) I have to give people a bunch of instructions on how to buy my cards, or it looks like they can't be bought. Most people won't come back asking for more instructions if they miss a step. They'll just give up and keep their money. Or, they won't even try.

Motorsports

Just today I have again customers who are confused about the cart. These are the questions I got;

1) when I click 'add to cart' I am prompted to select a currency (my default for the pricelist is GBP) yet if I change the currency from USD to Euro etc the amount shown stays the same!

2) The gallery is only offering downloads - why do I see options to choose 'lustre, glossy' etc which must relate to prints?

This second one is confusing a lot people and each time I double check the pricelist applied and find that indeed there are no print products in it.

Also, I have found several times that if I apply a price from the pricelists screen after editing it and applying to the gallery although I see the gallery or image counter increase if I log out and go to the gallery only the default prices are shown. I have to always correct this from the customise option 'set prices' for it to reliably work.

The 'change product' button is not clear to customers either; if there are only 2 things in the product list there must be a better way than this!

I'm using new smugmug and by now love everything about it and find it very fast to use and reliable EXCEPT for the shopping experience. It is now very hard work selling this way and almost every order brings a call from someone asking questions. Sometimes I give up and burn CD's!