Need to allow customers to prepay for packages and coupons

jmphotocraft · September 27, 2010

I did a brief search for prepay and pre-sell, and found little.

I am loving the coupons but I really think there needs to be a way to pre-sell them. I don't think this is nit-picking a small or odd-ball case, I think this would benefit every pro on SM.

Even though the coupons and packages were a tremendous step in the right direction, the overall business model of photography on SmugMug is still shoot-process-upload-email-pray-for-sales. This seems to work less and less these days.

I've tried coupons that expire after several months, coupons that expire in 1 week, coupons that I reduce after 2 days and then expire after 1 week, and sending email reminders for each deadline. I really think people are too inundated with email now. Email is becoming all too forgettable.

I also know that many people see the photos online, share the link with their family/friends, and that satisfies them. There is much less need to purchase after that point. Or they put it on their to-do list that never gets done. I know this is true because I've received countless raving compliments from parents who never buy anything. Lifetouch makes me prepay for my kids' school portraits, because they know that model works better!

I shoot youth sports. I would really like a way to pre-sell coupons so I can only shoot the players who pay, and send parents the message: if you're not buying, I'm not shooting!

For example, I would sell a $25-off coupon for $20. However I really don't want to do this because 1, SmugMug doesn't have the mechanism in place, and 2, handling the up-front sale outside of SM doesn't appeal to me. The customer has to enter their CC info into SM eventually anyway, and asking for a check in the mail can be a turn-off for customers.

Please tell me this is in the works.....?

If you agree, please vote for my uservoice topic here:
http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug/suggestions/1091801-create-prepay-coupons

SteveM · September 27, 2010

jmphotocraft wrote: »

For example, I would sell a $25-off coupon for $20. However I really don't want to do this because 1, SmugMug doesn't have the mechanism in place, and 2, handling the up-front sale outside of SM doesn't appeal to me. The customer has to enter their CC info into SM eventually anyway, and asking for a check in the mail can be a turn-off for customers.

Please tell me this is in the works.....?

If you agree, please vote for my uservoice topic here:
http://feedback.smugmug.com/forums/17723-smugmug/suggestions/1091801-create-prepay-coupons

Hi Jack,

We'd love to hear more about this. I'm not sure I'm fully understanding the workflow and order progression here, so if you could give more info, we'd love to hear it.

If I'm understanding correctly, you like Print Credit coupons, so you can have customers order $25 worth of products without being charged, but you're not keen on selling those prepaid coupons yourself, handling the sale/transaction in person, etc?

There's been lots of talk and discussion at SmugMug about a means for collecting things like booking/sitting fees, and we're still noodling on the topic. One theory on how this could work, would be to allow customers to visit your site, and purchase the sitting fee, which would let you know they paid and who to shoot, so you could issue a Print Credit coupon afterwards. Is this what you're looking to do? This is just discussion at this point, but something you can customize into your site right now, through Google Checkout or PayPal.

Here's our our House Pro and COO does it elegantly right now: http://www.moonriverphotography.com/Services/Portrait-Services/830860_WaToT

Is this what you have in mind?

jmphotocraft · September 27, 2010

SteveM wrote: »

Hi Jack,

We'd love to hear more about this. I'm not sure I'm fully understanding the workflow and order progression here, so if you could give more info, we'd love to hear it.

If I'm understanding correctly, you like Print Credit coupons, so you can have customers order $25 worth of products without being charged, but you're not keen on selling those prepaid coupons yourself, handling the sale/transaction in person, etc?

Thanks for the response. You've mostly got it right. However I wouldn't do a Print Credit, because SM calculates their cut based on the full amount of the print credit. So if I were to sell a $25 print credit for $20 as an incentive to prepay, I'd lose a little. I would sell an Amount Off coupon. Almost the same thing. I'm fine with dealing with people in person, but people often don't have the cash, and they forget to mail checks. Besides, speaking for myself who uses credit cards and online bill-pay, dropping a check in the mail seems like an antiquated hassle these days!

There's been lots of talk and discussion at SmugMug about a means for collecting things like booking/sitting fees, and we're still noodling on the topic. One theory on how this could work, would be to allow customers to visit your site, and purchase the sitting fee, which would let you know they paid and who to shoot, so you could issue a Print Credit coupon afterwards. Is this what you're looking to do?

Basically. However it would be great if it didn't require the intermediate step of me issuing a coupon. Doing that for a league of 500 little league baseball players would be tedious. I should be able to have the sitting fee turn into the coupon automatically. I can see the checkbox now!

This is just discussion at this point, but something you can customize into your site right now, through Google Checkout or PayPal.

Here's our our House Pro and COO does it elegantly right now: http://www.moonriverphotography.com/Services/Portrait-Services/830860_WaToT

Is this what you have in mind?

Funny, I didn't even know Google Checkout existed*. That's pretty elegant, however it forces the customer to enter their CC twice - once in Google Checkout, and once in SM. I guess that's not too painful as the two events will be separated by a day or more, usually. But more importantly, PayPal and Google charge a fee. Won't that mean paying two fees on a sale? Pretty sure it will - basically I'm paying credit card fees twice. I'd rather keep all the fees inside SM. Isn't it rather ironic that SM's own COO has to use this work-around for SM's own shortcoming?

*on that note, why use GC instead of PP?

SteveM · September 27, 2010

Hi Jack,

Google Checkout versus PayPal is really a personal choice. GC has a more professional feel to me, and functions more as an eCommerce solution where PayPal seems more consumer-geared. GC allows you to do partial refunds, and really organizes, on a business level, all of your transactions and their statuses. They're relatively new to the market, going for a few years now, but the respected name and the UI makes them more appealing to me. It was also nice that when they launched, there were NO fees, however, that promotion ended after the first year. I think their current rate is around 2.5%, but you'll want to check on that.

At this point, it would require two fees, but as mentioned above, the Google Checkout fee itself is pretty minimal and really a bargain compared to a full merchant account. The SmugMug charge would of course cover the final transaction, customer service, and our full SmugMug guarantee http://www.smugmug.com/prints/our-guarantee.mg

We're going to keep discussing it. It would of course be great if we could offer this and combine transaction fees, so we'll have to see what our Product Manager and engineers can come up with. Ironic that our COO uses this method? No, not at all. Remember, SmugMug is a small family owned company consisting of about 90% photographers. We're absolutely in there with you. If WE need it, we KNOW our customers need it and it really drives innovation. That, together with feedback and feature requests like yours above is exactly what's built SmugMug over the past 8 years.

Keep em coming!

P.S., if you haven't seen it, check out http://don.blogs.smugmug.com/2010/09/21/a-look-inside-smugmug/

jmphotocraft · September 27, 2010

Thanks Steve...

SteveM wrote: »

I think their current rate is around 2.5%, but you'll want to check on that.

It is 2.9% if your sales are under $3000/mo, which mine are. (I am a part-timer)

If WE need it, we KNOW our customers need it and it really drives innovation.

So do you guys consider this something that you need?

SteveM · September 27, 2010

jmphotocraft wrote: »

So do you guys consider this something that you need?

We know this is something we need, and is important to lots of our pros (you and I included). Hopefully this is something our sorcerers can make happen, but it won't be tomorrow.

Need to allow customers to prepay for packages and coupons

Comments