Thanks so much for keeping SmugMug always growing and responding to the needs of your customers. This is one of the things I appreciate the most about Smuggy! thumb
Big thumbs up for what happens when you check those boxes!! re: 'hide lustre' etc WOW!!
Yes, but... I think these buttons look rather strange... I personally can't tell which way is "on" and which way is "off" - wouldn't check boxes be easier to understand? Didn't they used to be check boxes?
Edit: also, I don't really "get" the one that says "hide products that cannot be purchased" - what does this do? Shouldn't the cart already show only those products that CAN be purchased? I thought this might make it so I could see what my customers can see, but it doesn't. I know this feature already existed before, but I have always wondered about it...
Possible, but not until after cart, and coupons ... and a few other things. I'd like a thank-you PRINT to be an option. They get a print, with your customized thank you message on it.
coupons.
I was wondering what we can expect with the "coupons"?
If we're are using them as a print credit for wedding couples, will there be a way that only they can see them and would we, the photographers, just pay ahead or how would that work?
Will the new cart allow us to set print pricing on a gallery to our default cost even if we are using Portfolio pricing?
I ran into this limitation a couple weeks ago, and couldn't figure out what was going on until I found the smugmug help page note about it. I set up a photo booth at my son's 9th grade school party. I donated the time and I am allowing the parents to download their kids photo from this one gallery for free. I was originally going to turn on print ordering at my cost and mention to them that they had the option to order quality prints at cost if they chose rather than downloading and taking in the photo themselves, but I had to abandon this idea and turn off print ordering because I could not set prices at cost.
I know that the standard answer to this is to just set it at a penny above, but there are two problems with this. First of all, I told them that I was not profiting off of these pictures, which is not true if I even make a penny, but the other problem is because I am in Washington state where we have a state sales tax. As soon as I make a profit off of the sale, even if it is a penny, I must charge sales tax on the delivered goods. This means that I would be losing money charging a penny above, and I would have to increase each print price by at least the sales tax just to break even, then track and submit this money to Caesar with the rest of my pro sales.
Thinking about it, it was also smugmug that lost out in this case because I was not able to send some print business their way...
If the printiing is being done by smugmug, then you are not collecting the money, smugmug is and that puts the need to worry about sales tax OFF your back...as they are an out of state company so no sales tax for you to report..........That penny is so minimal do not fret about it in the future and I serious doubt that a penny here and there will be a tax burden when Ceasar comes around every once a year...............:D
Andy, Baldy .. Asked a couple of times.. Can you help?
I posted this back on question 147 and 177. My memory is that when you used to "buy a photo" you didn't get all the sizing, paper, etc. options until check out. Is there anyway to have that as the default. My question below was posted as a concern based on customers who want to select multiple images first, then look them over, pick sizes, quantites, etc. The way it appears now, they are forced onto the dialog as soon as they choose to buy the photo. My original question is below...
Jay S.
_________________________________________
All,
I'll repeat a request from a few pages ago. Can a customer just add random photos to the cart without having to pick a size, paper, etc. I would like to have the customer add as many photos as they'd like and then make choices as to size, cropping, paper, quantity, etc. I don't see a way to do that. Pressing the cart icon immediately brings up the dialog box. I think that if people are ordering larger quantities of photos, that going to the dialog box with each photo might get tiresome.
0
Options
BaldyRegistered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,853moderator
I posted this back on question 147 and 177. My memory is that when you used to "buy a photo" you didn't get all the sizing, paper, etc. options until check out. Is there anyway to have that as the default. My question below was posted as a concern based on customers who want to select multiple images first, then look them over, pick sizes, quantites, etc. The way it appears now, they are forced onto the dialog as soon as they choose to buy the photo. My original question is below...
Jay S.
Hey Jay,
There are two buttons: Buy this photo and Buy multiple photos. If they select Buy multiple, it does what you seek.
Buy this photo used to work that way too, but we changed it about a year ago to the way it works now. I shared your concern when we released it and followed our print sales closely for a few weeks after until I was satisfied they went up, not down, and then I slept better.
There are two buttons: Buy this photo and Buy multiple photos. If they select Buy multiple, it does what you seek.
Buy this photo used to work that way too, but we changed it about a year ago to the way it works now. I shared your concern when we released it and followed our print sales closely for a few weeks after until I was satisfied they went up, not down, and then I slept better.
Hi Baldy,
Thanks for the reply on the cart... It sure doesn't seem that long ago that I bought some prints.. I know I got some at the time of the Kodak change and it wasn't that way then that I can recall. The bulk image selection isn't quite the same though, as you only looking at thumbnails. Again, my thought would be that customers would almost be drawn into picking a 4x6 rather than looking through all the options on multi-image ordering. Thanks again for replying.
Jay S.
0
Options
BaldyRegistered Users, Super ModeratorsPosts: 2,853moderator
We got quite excited about integrating with them last summer because we read a lot of good things on the net and I had some good luck with my own orders there. I visited their lab, hit it off with the owners, and was impressed with a number of things like shipping options.
We began to use them for some overflow orders & reprints but were seeing color issues that we couldn't get an explanation for. So we did a shootout among pro labs that included lots of repeat orders. We're currently using the prints for one-on-one taste tests among our customers. If you live near us around Mountain View, CA, we'd love to do a blind test with you.
Unfortunately, the repeat orders from Mpix were so inconsistent we did't know what prints to use for the test, so we included 3 versions in the test.
The killer thing, though, is we've heard from quite a lot of wedding and fine art photographers who tell us they won't take us seriously if we interface to a prosumer lab like Mpix that seems to be headed more consumer as time passes. Ugh. Back to the drawing board.
We're hearing things like, "I'm too busy shooting weddings to spend time in post adjusting color. I need to trust that the lab has wedding-quality color correction."
"I don't want my customers getting packages from an online lab they can easily identify, look up prices for prints, order prints themselves from."
"I want specific pro products my customers can't get themselves, so they get something special from me. I want special gift packaging."
We're seeing those things in our tests from whcc and Bay Photo. After Bay gave me the tour, I finally understand how they do the color correction and understand why the wedding photogs want it.
Maybe in the future we can offer more choices, but in the near term we feel we have to get the true pro lab base covered.
Yes, but... I think these buttons look rather strange... I personally can't tell which way is "on" and which way is "off" - wouldn't check boxes be easier to understand? Didn't they used to be check boxes?
Yes, and they will be again. The fix for that is already in test internally.
Edit: also, I don't really "get" the one that says "hide products that cannot be purchased" - what does this do? Shouldn't the cart already show only those products that CAN be purchased? I thought this might make it so I could see what my customers can see, but it doesn't. I know this feature already existed before, but I have always wondered about it...
It will filter out things that the current image just won't cut it for. Case in point you can play with... this adorable photo taken with a crummy cell phone. It's pathetic resolution is good for two things: web display and small prints. Hit the 'buy this photo' button and toggle that option on/off and you'll see that the large prints like 20x40 are disabled. I'd be willing to bet you don't have any photos that are so pixel deficient as to not be printable on pretty much everything in the cart.
To see what your customers see, hit the "vistor view" button on your homepage.
SmugMug Sorcerer - Engineering Team Champion for Commerce, Finance, Security, and Data Support http://wall-art.smugmug.com/
Major issue when no price put in pro pricing
I am really concerned about what I see is a glitch in the new shopping cart.
Previously there have been items that I have priced as $0.00 or left blank. In the old cart these sizes/items were not available to the customer.
Now they are showing up as the default cost price amongst the more expensive items I have priced for sale! This is bad! I do not want people buying items at cost price that I didn't have on offer. I have checked many of my galleries and it is the same issue everywhere. The only way I could change it was to go through and manually put in 0.00 on the ones I didn't want on offer. I can't do that with the thousands of photos I have on there!
I am really concerned and hope you can fix this immediately as it is a major problem!! I can't keep the site live if this doesn't change quickly!
Please advise!
Also when I click on the images to enlarge, they don't come up in a new window as before, they come up below (on firefox in Mac) and are hard to find and then when I click to change size etc, the window disappears, and sometimes I can't find it. Seems glitchy from my end.
I am really concerned about what I see is a glitch in the new shopping cart.
Previously there have been items that I have priced as $0.00 or left blank. In the old cart these sizes/items were not available to the customer.
Now they are showing up as the default cost price amongst the more expensive items I have priced for sale! This is bad! I do not want people buying items at cost price that I didn't have on offer. I have checked many of my galleries and it is the same issue everywhere. The only way I could change it was to go through and manually put in 0.00 on the ones I didn't want on offer. I can't do that with the thousands of photos I have on there!
I am really concerned and hope you can fix this immediately as it is a major problem!! I can't keep the site live if this doesn't change quickly!
I am pretty sure this is how it has always worked. Leaving it blank defaults to the default price (or your portfolio price if you have set that) and a 0.00 makes it unavailable.
That is exactly what I would like to see...client places order and order comes to the photographer instead of going directly to the lab! Any possibility of this happening? I live in a small town and like to keep the face-to-face contact as well as approve the print order before the client receives it.
Kat
Original reply to this message:
I have not read the entire thread, so i apologizers if this has been mentioned already.
I love everything you guys are trying to accomplish, big kudos.
1. What i personally would like to see is, an option for orders to be sent directly to a photographer. Ex.: Customer picked up shots, dropped into shopping card with desired products, sizes, whatnot, he/she clicks a button (perhaps a separate option?) to send order directly to the photographer, not to smugmug for order.
I hope you are understanding what i mean. Is there an event remote possibility to do this?
2. Does shopping cart must be "smugmug" color? Woudn't it be nice to have shopping area to match theme of your website?
Ok, i'm probably asking too much, but hey, you never know
Thanks for listening. Everything else looks great!
__________________
Marina
'Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, wine in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming WOO HOO, what a ride!'
I have not read the entire thread, so i apologizers if this has been mentioned already.
I love everything you guys are trying to accomplish, big kudos.
1. What i personally would like to see is, an option for orders to be sent directly to a photographer. Ex.: Customer picked up shots, dropped into shopping card with desired products, sizes, whatnot, he/she clicks a button (perhaps a separate option?) to send order directly to the photographer, not to smugmug for order.
I hope you are understanding what i mean. Is there an event remote possibility to do this?
2. Does shopping cart must be "smugmug" color? Woudn't it be nice to have shopping area to match theme of your website?
Ok, i'm probably asking too much, but hey, you never know
Thanks for listening. Everything else looks great!
__________________
Marina
Maybe Who's the lucky one is just as memorable but without the twinge.
We'll work on the wording. One thing we hear every day is how glad our customers are that we don't have forgettable corporate writing that gets lost in a sea of sameness.
Here are a couple of suggestions:
"Where the goods are going"
"Who's receiving the goods"
Digital Download improvements
I don't see a mention of improvements for digital downloads. I'd say 75% of my orders are now digital. It would be very nice to have a digital loupe so people could checkout the focus before purchasing.
Another improvement would be the ability to offer free digital downloads in the 1M and 4M sizes so one could show people what the sizes are. In addition, I'd want them to go through the same process as purchasing a digital image, just don't have to provide anything more than an email address. This gets them more comfortable with the purchasing process so they are more likely to actually purchase an image for real.
I don't see a mention of improvements for digital downloads. I'd say 75% of my orders are now digital. It would be very nice to have a digital loupe so people could checkout the focus before purchasing.
Another improvement would be the ability to offer free digital downloads in the 1M and 4M sizes so one could show people what the sizes are. In addition, I'd want them to go through the same process as purchasing a digital image, just don't have to provide anything more than an email address. This gets them more comfortable with the purchasing process so they are more likely to actually purchase an image for real.
hey guys, this all looks good. I'm wondering how much "work" we "pros" will need to do to get ready. I know that some of us have made (or borrowed from each other) help pages (like http://www.miltonpix.com/gallery/3371785) - will there be something similar to that provided by SM or should we get started building new ones? (or maybe you've got something that we should have been using instead and we've been making life harder for ourselves than we needed to.)
hey guys, this all looks good. I'm wondering how much "work" we "pros" will need to do to get ready.
You better hurry, it's been live since last Friday
I know that some of us have made (or borrowed from each other) help pages (like http://www.miltonpix.com/gallery/3371785) - will there be something similar to that provided by SM or should we get started building new ones? (or maybe you've got something that we should have been using instead and we've been making life harder for ourselves than we needed to.)
But I'd wait, as bulk-add to cart is changing this week, I hope
2 items:
1- any chance the "bulk options" will be optional via click on/off for pro accts?
2-any word on if/when the "prints&gifts" link in the shopping cart will be changed from "catalog.mg" (with prices) to the "catalog2.mg" link (without prices) this would be very easy since its only a link - it just seems counter productive and un-needed for ANY pro accts...
thanks for all the extra work on these great new features!!
rich56k
2-any word on if/when the "prints&gifts" link in the shopping cart will be changed from "catalog.mg" (with prices) to the "catalog2.mg" link (without prices) this would be very easy since its only a link - it just seems counter productive and un-needed for ANY pro accts...
thanks for all the extra work on these great new features!!
rich56k
Comments
Yes, but... I think these buttons look rather strange... I personally can't tell which way is "on" and which way is "off" - wouldn't check boxes be easier to understand? Didn't they used to be check boxes?
Edit: also, I don't really "get" the one that says "hide products that cannot be purchased" - what does this do? Shouldn't the cart already show only those products that CAN be purchased? I thought this might make it so I could see what my customers can see, but it doesn't. I know this feature already existed before, but I have always wondered about it...
Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
Ooooohhh, I love the sound of "thank you" prints!
http://www.ellaruephotography.com
http://deshack.com
I was wondering what we can expect with the "coupons"?
If we're are using them as a print credit for wedding couples, will there be a way that only they can see them and would we, the photographers, just pay ahead or how would that work?
http://www.ellaruephotography.com
http://deshack.com
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Thanks dude!
http://www.ellaruephotography.com
http://deshack.com
If the printiing is being done by smugmug, then you are not collecting the money, smugmug is and that puts the need to worry about sales tax OFF your back...as they are an out of state company so no sales tax for you to report..........That penny is so minimal do not fret about it in the future and I serious doubt that a penny here and there will be a tax burden when Ceasar comes around every once a year...............:D
I posted this back on question 147 and 177. My memory is that when you used to "buy a photo" you didn't get all the sizing, paper, etc. options until check out. Is there anyway to have that as the default. My question below was posted as a concern based on customers who want to select multiple images first, then look them over, pick sizes, quantites, etc. The way it appears now, they are forced onto the dialog as soon as they choose to buy the photo. My original question is below...
Jay S.
_________________________________________
All,
I'll repeat a request from a few pages ago. Can a customer just add random photos to the cart without having to pick a size, paper, etc. I would like to have the customer add as many photos as they'd like and then make choices as to size, cropping, paper, quantity, etc. I don't see a way to do that. Pressing the cart icon immediately brings up the dialog box. I think that if people are ordering larger quantities of photos, that going to the dialog box with each photo might get tiresome.
There are two buttons: Buy this photo and Buy multiple photos. If they select Buy multiple, it does what you seek.
Buy this photo used to work that way too, but we changed it about a year ago to the way it works now. I shared your concern when we released it and followed our print sales closely for a few weeks after until I was satisfied they went up, not down, and then I slept better.
Hi Baldy,
Thanks for the reply on the cart... It sure doesn't seem that long ago that I bought some prints.. I know I got some at the time of the Kodak change and it wasn't that way then that I can recall. The bulk image selection isn't quite the same though, as you only looking at thumbnails. Again, my thought would be that customers would almost be drawn into picking a 4x6 rather than looking through all the options on multi-image ordering. Thanks again for replying.
Jay S.
We began to use them for some overflow orders & reprints but were seeing color issues that we couldn't get an explanation for. So we did a shootout among pro labs that included lots of repeat orders. We're currently using the prints for one-on-one taste tests among our customers. If you live near us around Mountain View, CA, we'd love to do a blind test with you.
Unfortunately, the repeat orders from Mpix were so inconsistent we did't know what prints to use for the test, so we included 3 versions in the test.
The killer thing, though, is we've heard from quite a lot of wedding and fine art photographers who tell us they won't take us seriously if we interface to a prosumer lab like Mpix that seems to be headed more consumer as time passes. Ugh. Back to the drawing board.
We're hearing things like, "I'm too busy shooting weddings to spend time in post adjusting color. I need to trust that the lab has wedding-quality color correction."
"I don't want my customers getting packages from an online lab they can easily identify, look up prices for prints, order prints themselves from."
"I want specific pro products my customers can't get themselves, so they get something special from me. I want special gift packaging."
We're seeing those things in our tests from whcc and Bay Photo. After Bay gave me the tour, I finally understand how they do the color correction and understand why the wedding photogs want it.
Maybe in the future we can offer more choices, but in the near term we feel we have to get the true pro lab base covered.
Yes, and they will be again. The fix for that is already in test internally.
It will filter out things that the current image just won't cut it for. Case in point you can play with... this adorable photo taken with a crummy cell phone. It's pathetic resolution is good for two things: web display and small prints. Hit the 'buy this photo' button and toggle that option on/off and you'll see that the large prints like 20x40 are disabled. I'd be willing to bet you don't have any photos that are so pixel deficient as to not be printable on pretty much everything in the cart.
To see what your customers see, hit the "vistor view" button on your homepage.
http://wall-art.smugmug.com/
I am really concerned about what I see is a glitch in the new shopping cart.
Previously there have been items that I have priced as $0.00 or left blank. In the old cart these sizes/items were not available to the customer.
Now they are showing up as the default cost price amongst the more expensive items I have priced for sale! This is bad! I do not want people buying items at cost price that I didn't have on offer. I have checked many of my galleries and it is the same issue everywhere. The only way I could change it was to go through and manually put in 0.00 on the ones I didn't want on offer. I can't do that with the thousands of photos I have on there!
I am really concerned and hope you can fix this immediately as it is a major problem!! I can't keep the site live if this doesn't change quickly!
Please advise!
Also when I click on the images to enlarge, they don't come up in a new window as before, they come up below (on firefox in Mac) and are hard to find and then when I click to change size etc, the window disappears, and sometimes I can't find it. Seems glitchy from my end.
I am pretty sure this is how it has always worked. Leaving it blank defaults to the default price (or your portfolio price if you have set that) and a 0.00 makes it unavailable.
Jason Scott Photography | Blog | FB | Twitter | Google+ | Tumblr | Instagram | YouTube
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Original reply to this message:
I have not read the entire thread, so i apologizers if this has been mentioned already.
I love everything you guys are trying to accomplish, big kudos.
1. What i personally would like to see is, an option for orders to be sent directly to a photographer. Ex.: Customer picked up shots, dropped into shopping card with desired products, sizes, whatnot, he/she clicks a button (perhaps a separate option?) to send order directly to the photographer, not to smugmug for order.
I hope you are understanding what i mean. Is there an event remote possibility to do this?
2. Does shopping cart must be "smugmug" color? Woudn't it be nice to have shopping area to match theme of your website?
Ok, i'm probably asking too much, but hey, you never know
Thanks for listening. Everything else looks great!
__________________
Marina
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Here are a couple of suggestions:
"Where the goods are going"
"Who's receiving the goods"
But I'm glad you're changing the text around
I don't see a mention of improvements for digital downloads. I'd say 75% of my orders are now digital. It would be very nice to have a digital loupe so people could checkout the focus before purchasing.
Another improvement would be the ability to offer free digital downloads in the 1M and 4M sizes so one could show people what the sizes are. In addition, I'd want them to go through the same process as purchasing a digital image, just don't have to provide anything more than an email address. This gets them more comfortable with the purchasing process so they are more likely to actually purchase an image for real.
Russ
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
my words, my "pro"pictures, my "fun" pictures, my videos.
http://www.smugmug.com/help/digital-prints
and related pages....
But I'd wait, as bulk-add to cart is changing this week, I hope
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
thanks for the quick and helpful reply as always, Andy.
my words, my "pro"pictures, my "fun" pictures, my videos.
2 items:
1- any chance the "bulk options" will be optional via click on/off for pro accts?
2-any word on if/when the "prints&gifts" link in the shopping cart will be changed from "catalog.mg" (with prices) to the "catalog2.mg" link (without prices) this would be very easy since its only a link - it just seems counter productive and un-needed for ANY pro accts...
thanks for all the extra work on these great new features!!
rich56k
Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Thanks Andy
(I'll keep my fingers crossed!)
Member: ASMP; EP; NPPA; CPS
my words, my "pro"pictures, my "fun" pictures, my videos.
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter