Okay, I'm in. Now....

seanmpuckett

I've paid for my Pro membership, and I'm fairly pleased with most areas of the service. Customizability is very good, organization is okay, and general navigation and responsiveness are reasonable.

As a pro, though, who expects to make money with this thing, I feel there are issues with the cart system that need to be addressed. These are issues raised by my customers -- the ones good enough to comment -- the ones who didn't just say "the hell with it" after they got turned off.

1. It is very offputting to be asked for credit card information before a total is displayed. Every one of my customers and potential customers has commented on this. For me, personally, it is a dealbreaker, especially when dealing with a new Internet vendor. I will not give a credit card number if I do not see the final amount that will be charged first.

Solution 1: Allow the user to enter a country and/or zipcode at any point in the shopping cart process so the Shipping and Tax fields can be correct at time of checkout.

Solution 2: Remove credit card data entry from the first cart page and just collect billing/shipping addresses. Ask for credit card info on the next page when totals are shown. This should be easy, and is a bare minimum required change.

2. It is difficult to find informaition about shipping fees. While I managed to find it by googling, it should be available from any point in the cart system, and updated in real time.

Solution 1: Provide an obvious SHIPPING FEES link on the cart pages and in the help system under "ordering prints."

3. My customers don't like the "javascript" in the cart system. The U-CROP-IT feature is nice for geeks like me, but confusing to computer beginners, and doesn't work well in all browsers (this is based on actual customer reports). The last thing I want is confused customers. Confused customers don't buy prints.

Solution: A simpler shopping cart system with no javascript perhaps as a Pro account option, with an "advanced" cart available for those who choose it. All I really want to see in my shopping cart system is a single drop list of print sizes and finish options.

4. The print size options in the cart system are horribly convoluted. Three different sub menus of prints in various proportions with gloss/matte/lustre intermingled? Disastrously difficult to understand, even for me. Even if I preselect print sizes for a print, the sizes are still difficult to manage.

Solution: One drop list for size, with "closest match" aspect ratios highlighted and shown at the top of the list, a second drop list for finish quality. Put the "gifts" at the bottom of the size list.

5. Cart themes. White on black text is nasty, especially when my customers are coming from my subdued gallery pages. I don't care so much about full reskinnability, I just want consistent background and foreground text colours so my eyes don't go "WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?" This also helps reinforce the idea that SmugMug and I are partners.

Solution: At the very least allow me to enter background/foreground colours for the cart system as a Pro option.


I like SmugMug, even as a developer/designer of a competing service, which is why just today I removed my colocated server from the rack host. I like you guys enough to trust you with my customers and my images.

Please make some of these changes a high priority. I consider them very important and in some cases essential, and if I were developing a competitor (as I was not too long ago), I would make sure these items were addressed very quickly.

Thank you.

ballentphoto

seanmpuckett wrote:

I've paid for my Pro membership, and I'm fairly pleased with most areas of the service. Customizability is very good, organization is okay, and general navigation and responsiveness are reasonable.

As a pro, though, who expects to make money with this thing, I feel there are issues with the cart system that need to be addressed. These are issues raised by my customers -- the ones good enough to comment -- the ones who didn't just say "the hell with it" after they got turned off.

1. It is very offputting to be asked for credit card information before a total is displayed. Every one of my customers and potential customers has commented on this. For me, personally, it is a dealbreaker, especially when dealing with a new Internet vendor. I will not give a credit card number if I do not see the final amount that will be charged first.

Solution 1: Allow the user to enter a country and/or zipcode at any point in the shopping cart process so the Shipping and Tax fields can be correct at time of checkout.

Solution 2: Remove credit card data entry from the first cart page and just collect billing/shipping addresses. Ask for credit card info on the next page when totals are shown. This should be easy, and is a bare minimum required change.

2. It is difficult to find informaition about shipping fees. While I managed to find it by googling, it should be available from any point in the cart system, and updated in real time.

Solution 1: Provide an obvious SHIPPING FEES link on the cart pages and in the help system under "ordering prints."

3. My customers don't like the "javascript" in the cart system. The U-CROP-IT feature is nice for geeks like me, but confusing to computer beginners, and doesn't work well in all browsers (this is based on actual customer reports). The last thing I want is confused customers. Confused customers don't buy prints.

Solution: A simpler shopping cart system with no javascript perhaps as a Pro account option, with an "advanced" cart available for those who choose it. All I really want to see in my shopping cart system is a single drop list of print sizes and finish options.

4. The print size options in the cart system are horribly convoluted. Three different sub menus of prints in various proportions with gloss/matte/lustre intermingled? Disastrously difficult to understand, even for me. Even if I preselect print sizes for a print, the sizes are still difficult to manage.

Solution: One drop list for size, with "closest match" aspect ratios highlighted and shown at the top of the list, a second drop list for finish quality. Put the "gifts" at the bottom of the size list.

5. Cart themes. White on black text is nasty, especially when my customers are coming from my subdued gallery pages. I don't care so much about full reskinnability, I just want consistent background and foreground text colours so my eyes don't go "WHAT THE HECK HAPPENED?" This also helps reinforce the idea that SmugMug and I are partners.

Solution: At the very least allow me to enter background/foreground colours for the cart system as a Pro option.


I like SmugMug, even as a developer/designer of a competing service, which is why just today I removed my colocated server from the rack host. I like you guys enough to trust you with my customers and my images.

Please make some of these changes a high priority. I consider them very important and in some cases essential, and if I were developing a competitor (as I was not too long ago), I would make sure these items were addressed very quickly.

Thank you.

The cart really seems to intimidate a lot of people and all the options that are available for people could drive some people away. Especially if you have a lot of size options. Some people do not even realize that they can get a coffee cup or digital downloads since they are buried in drop down lists that may not even get clicked. I do not know how to make it easier, but I am sure that it can be done. It really is interesting to see someone use my site for the very first time... A lot do not even realize that they can even buy the pictures. It takes time to tweak it to maximize sales.

seanmpuckett

ballentphoto wrote:

It really is interesting to see someone use my site for the very first time... A lot do not even realize that they can even buy the pictures.

Interesting = ARGH! I don't want an interesting site. I want a very boring one that everyone already knows how to use without thinking.

Another point I forgot to make above was that I don't see a way of creating custom HTML to put things into the shopping cart, so I can't code around its clumsiness. For most of my images, I would be happy to have a drop list with maybe five sizes in it (the ones that fit the best) and an add-to-cart button right on the single image view page. No javascript, just pick a size, click add-to-cart, and move on.

Andy

Hi Sean,

Many thanks for the thoughtful, useful posting. We really appreciate you telling us like it is. I'll be sure that our team sees this, especially our Product Manager, Ben, and our Web Superhero, JT!

One comment: re the cart customizing. We'd love to do this, to allow basic choices, and some mild branding (like a small logo). I want it too. If there's a way to allow it, securely, I'd love us to do it. I can't say if / when though.

claudermilk

Hey, good to see you here Sean.

Very good points about the cart. At the very least, allowing it to maintain our carefully pieced-together site style would be a huge improvement.

seanmpuckett

Andy,

Your response makes me more confident I made the right choice. A great product is 80% of a successful business... customer support is the other 80%. As a programmer for more years than most of the girls who appear in Playboy these days have been alive, I know that software miracles don't happen right away, and that good features need time to evolve. But, I also know what it takes to make them happen!

-s