The new Proof Delay/Retouch Feature for pros

jfriend · July 28, 2006

As part of the big feature rollout today for pros, one very cool feature is called Proof and Retouch. This feature allows you to upload proof prints (good for viewing, but perhaps not fully retouched) and then when your customer places an order you get N days to do one final retouch on them before the order is printed. You set the N number of days on a gallery by gallery basis. See the details of how this works here in the help system:

http://www.smugmug.com/help/proof-retouch-replace

This is very cool, particular for event photographers like myself that may post as many as 600 categorized images from an event or a sports season. Obviously, I'm not doing detailed PP on everyone of those, but if someone wants a large print, I now have the opportunity to give special attention to that image before the order prints.

The proof/retouch feature does not apply to digital downloads.

Andy · July 28, 2006

You nailed, it, John.

One gotcha: be sure that your initial uploaded file is large enough, resolution-wise, to allow the sale of the largest size print you wish to sell.

Here's the resolution minimums chart:
http://blogs.smugmug.com/pros/2006/01/09/new-minimum-print-resolutions/

So, 1000x800 will cover up to 8x10. 1024x768 will cover up to 11x14. 1280x1024 will cover up to 16x20. Remember, you can compress your proofs, so Photoshop JPG level 8 for the initial uploads would result in a file small enough to still allow fast uploads.

Other CRITICAL parts of this feature:

* you MUST use "replace photo" to upload your retouched/final version
* you MUST upload it before the end of your # of proof days (we'll email and let you know the actual cutoff date/time). If you do not, the order will fill with the originally uploaded file.

Andy · July 28, 2006

Your customer, after ordering, will get this in an email confirmation:

customer email wrote:

Thanks for your SmugMug order!

We truly appreciate your business and hope you'll be delighted with the prints you've ordered.

This email is your order confirmation and payment receipt. It will take about 9 business days to process your order because the photographer whose prints you've ordered has requested extra time to make sure the images are perfect before we process your order.

We'll send you another email to let you know when your prints have shipped. Of course, you can always view your order online at:

etc
ec

We'll also give them your contact email if you've updated it in your control panel (please do that, it's good business for your customers to be able to reach you!).

Notice the 9 days. That's because this pro chose 7 days for the proof/retouch period, and then 2 days processing time at our lab. The time is automatically calculated based on number of days YOU decide in your gallery customization.

PBolchover · July 28, 2006

Will the customer be told of the delay at the time of ordering? If not, will they be given the option to cancel the order during the N days?

Andy · July 28, 2006

PBolchover wrote:

Will the customer be told of the delay at the time of ordering? If not, will they be given the option to cancel the order during the N days?

In the email excerpt above, they are told and told why.

They are also told in the shopping cart, as they are buying the image.

jfriend · July 28, 2006

An edge case question?

Andy wrote:

In the email excerpt above, they are told and told why.

They are also told in the shopping cart, as they are buying the image.

This is all very cool. Andy, is there any provision for N number of "business days" instead of "calendar days". That way a pro could set a gallery to 2 days or 1 day with the intent of turning it around quickly during the work week, but not be obliged to catch every order on the weekend if they happened to be away for the weekend occasionally? I know they could set it to 3 or 4 days to cover that but then their customers will think the orders will take longer than they usually will and might not order or order as much.

Andy · July 28, 2006

jfriend wrote:

This is all very cool. Andy, is there any provision for N number of "business days" instead of "calendar days". That way a pro could set a gallery to 2 days or 1 day with the intent of turning it around quickly during the work week, but not be obliged to catch every order on the weekend if they happened to be away for the weekend occasionally? I know they could set it to 3 or 4 days to cover that but then their customers will think the orders will take longer than they usually will and might not order or order as much.

We'll look into it. Remember, too, the proof days and the processing time, + the shipping time = total time.

ONE OTHER POINT: if the pro is ready "early" he can go to the "Ship It" button in his pro sales reporting, after uploading the new photo.

onethumb · July 29, 2006

jfriend wrote:

This is all very cool. Andy, is there any provision for N number of "business days" instead of "calendar days". That way a pro could set a gallery to 2 days or 1 day with the intent of turning it around quickly during the work week, but not be obliged to catch every order on the weekend if they happened to be away for the weekend occasionally? I know they could set it to 3 or 4 days to cover that but then their customers will think the orders will take longer than they usually will and might not order or order as much.

It *is* business days. I specifically wrote text to that effect on the site, so if you see areas where we didn't explicitly call it out, I'd appreciate a link and a heads up.

Don

jfriend · July 29, 2006

The help page doesn't mention "business days"

onethumb wrote:

It *is* business days. I specifically wrote text to that effect on the site, so if you see areas where we didn't explicitly call it out, I'd appreciate a link and a heads up.

Don

That's cool. I didn't know it was business days because the help page that describes the feature which is all I know about it, doesn't say anything about business days. Here's an expert from that page:

We make it easy. Just go to customize gallery for any gallery. Find the "proof days" field and enter a number between 0 and 7. All orders placed for images in that gallery will wait that number of days to process.

When your customer places an order, we'll let them know that you have requested a few additional days to perfect the order before it is printed.

limbik · August 2, 2006

You guys are just blowing my mind... This is such a great feature that I never suspected I needed until it just so happened I did. Excellent timing and excellent additions to smugmug, keep up the hard work!

The new Proof Delay/Retouch Feature for pros

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