Another quirk with the shopping cart
I enter quantity and the price does not get updated until I click on the cos column. So if I enter 6 4x6's and then click on checkout it shows that I have nothing in my cart. I must also hit the cost column each time for the prices to get updated. That is not intuitive, The cost column should get updated each time the quantity is changed.
I enter quantity and the price does not get updated until I click on the cos column. So if I enter 6 4x6's and then click on checkout it shows that I have nothing in my cart. I must also hit the cost column each time for the prices to get updated. That is not intuitive, The cost column should get updated each time the quantity is changed.
Hi Laslo, can we get a link where you saw this? Thanks.
Hi Laslo, can we get a link where you saw this? Thanks.
Andy,
The link is below. You may need to got to pretend you are buying a photo. I took a closer look at it. In the shopping basket if you highlight the number and type in the quantity , the cost does not update, If you click the + or - it seems to work (i see why this is not easy to design these things).
The link is below. You may need to got to pretend you are buying a photo. I took a closer look at it. In the shopping basket if you highlight the number and type in the quantity , the cost does not update, If you click the + or - it seems to work (i see why this is not easy to design these things).
I enter quantity and the price does not get updated until I click on the cos column. So if I enter 6 4x6's and then click on checkout it shows that I have nothing in my cart. I must also hit the cost column each time for the prices to get updated. That is not intuitive, The cost column should get updated each time the quantity is changed.
Hi Laslo. As soon as you leave the product that you entered a quantity for, the update will trigger. This can mean selecting another product, clicking in the quantity box of another product, clicking the checkout or back to photos button or just clicking a blank area on the screen. Those things, as well as hitting enter or tab will trigger an update.
Pedal faster
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Matthew SavilleRegistered Users, Retired ModPosts: 3,352Major grins
edited August 8, 2007
Sweeeeeet!
I'm still not sure if I like how the print types are organized. I really wish I could just restrict everything to 2:3 aspect prints only, or 4:5 aspect prints only, or something.
But, all in good time...
=Matt=
Oh and edit, one question I have for you guys: I want to explain to my customers that they can browse different galleries without having to submit an order for each gallery, and I've done that, but I also would like to know how FAR this can be taken- I just noticed that there's a print in my shopping cart from a few days ago! Am I safe actualy telling customers that they can close their browser, turn off their computer and come back a day or two later and "promise" that their photos will still be in their shopping cart? Or could their cart get automatically dumped based on some kind of cookie / cache setting, and therefore I shouldn't say this? I think it would be a selling point if I could tell people they can leave my website and come back later, but I know that FF has a "delete cookies when FF closes" option and that might screw people up...
I'm still not sure if I like how the print types are organized. I really wish I could just restrict everything to 2:3 aspect prints only, or 4:5 aspect prints only, or something.
Oh and edit, one question I have for you guys: I want to explain to my customers that they can browse different galleries without having to submit an order for each gallery, and I've done that, but I also would like to know how FAR this can be taken- I just noticed that there's a print in my shopping cart from a few days ago! Am I safe actualy telling customers that they can close their browser, turn off their computer and come back a day or two later and "promise" that their photos will still be in their shopping cart? Or could their cart get automatically dumped based on some kind of cookie / cache setting, and therefore I shouldn't say this? I think it would be a selling point if I could tell people they can leave my website and come back later, but I know that FF has a "delete cookies when FF closes" option and that might screw people up...
We set the expiration of the cart cookie for 30 days, and that is reset every time they add or remove something from their cart. If they delete their cookies then they lose their cart.
The new cart is looking great guys, and I know things are still in the pipeline, but there is a feature I really must request (and I am surprise it has not cropped up in this thread at all)...
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CAN WE HAVE MULTIPLE CURRENCIES SOMEHOW INTERGRATED INTO THE CART???
Being a UK user this is the only thing stopping me from fully utalising SmugMug to its full.
I just wanted to say that I LOVE the new cart interfaces. This is one of the areas that I really think is going to improve my customer's experience while visiting my site. Great job, and thanks!
This cart upgrade is rather timely because I was about to leave SM. You have served me very well and forced me to learn CSS but SM hasn't kept up with the needs of my wedding photography business.
I built my own Flash site (www.kenluallen.com) and was evaluating other shopping cart providers when I noticed the new cart. It's a substantial improvement that may actually keep me here.
Here are the features that I feel would make SM competitive with every other company out there:
1. Customizing the cart appearance. :deadhorse (I do understand it poses security challenges for you though.)
2a. Allow ME to fulfill certain orders instead of EZ Prints.
It may be as simple as an option in the pro-pricing menu that asks whether I want to fulfill orders for an image or a gallery myself. At checkout you'd have a disclaimer telling the customer SM is not liable for their CC payment or the delivery of the prints. Much the way that PayPal works.
I would absolutely be willing to give SM a smaller cut for this service.
2b. Allow me to add customized products. If I could offer, say, canvas prints on the site and fulfill those orders myself, I would never even dream of leaving SM because the gallery navigation is exceptional.
3. It's been said by others because it's important -- coupons and credits.
4. See #1. I never, ever need digital camera sized prints. The ridiculous array of print sizes is the number one thing that confuses customers. We have to find a way to get rid of all that. Also, why would the average customer ever need to choose between true and auto color? There's absolutely *no way* for them to know which will print better. Automatic confusion.
That option should be available to photographers only, preferably in the pro pricing section or at least when approving proof-delayed orders. (And besides, that option only exists because EZ Prints color fidelity is so inconsistent in the first place. *I* don't even know which option prints better because both are unpredictable. And I'd like to think my skin tones are pretty good.)
5. Email notification of major upgrades. There's no reason we need to be surprised every time SM rolls out an upgrade. Send us an email and save miles of message board posts.
Smugmug is on the edge of greatness. Pretty please take the next step.
This cart upgrade is rather timely because I was about to leave SM. You have served me very well and forced me to learn CSS but SM hasn't kept up with the needs of my wedding photography business.
I built my own Flash site (www.kenluallen.com) and was evaluating other shopping cart providers when I noticed the new cart. It's a substantial improvement that may actually keep me here.
Here are the features that I feel would make SM competitive with every other company out there:
1. Customizing the cart appearance. :deadhorse (I do understand it poses security challenges for you though.)
2a. Allow ME to fulfill certain orders instead of EZ Prints.
It may be as simple as an option in the pro-pricing menu that asks whether I want to fulfill orders for an image or a gallery myself. At checkout you'd have a disclaimer telling the customer SM is not liable for their CC payment or the delivery of the prints. Much the way that PayPal works.
I would absolutely be willing to give SM a smaller cut for this service.
Both requests we've heard before. Thanks for letting us know they're important to you!
2b. Allow me to add customized products. If I could offer, say, canvas prints on the site and fulfill those orders myself, I would never even dream of leaving SM because the gallery navigation is exceptional.
3. It's been said by others because it's important -- coupons and credits.
4. See #1. I never, ever need digital camera sized prints. The ridiculous array of print sizes is the number one thing that confuses customers. We have to find a way to get rid of all that.
Just zero items out in pro pricing that you don't want available to your customers. It should take all of 1 minute to put a "0" in the portfoiio pricing next to the print sizes you don't want to sell.
Also, why would the average customer ever need to choose between true and auto color? There's absolutely *no way* for them to know which will print better. Automatic confusion.
That option should be available to photographers only, preferably in the pro pricing section or at least when approving proof-delayed orders.
Hmm.. but how do you define "the average customer"? We have plenty of professional photographers that don't sell their prints on SmugMug so they use a power or standard account for photo storage and personal print orders. They love being able to select "true" in the shopping cart and taking away that option because they chose a different account type doesn't really seem right.
We've found that the vast vast vast majority of "average" customers just leave it at the default. The default is auto (unless a pro photographer changes the default to true) and auto improves the majority of images and hardly ever goofs on an image. When it does... SmugMug's guarantee to the rescue: http://smugmug.com/prints/our-guarantee.mg .
(And besides, that option only exists because EZ Prints color fidelity is so inconsistent in the first place. *I* don't even know which option prints better because both are unpredictable. And I'd like to think my skin tones are pretty good.)
Hmm... I would have to whole-heartedly disagree with you here. I don't find EZ Prints to be inconsistent and that certainly isn't the reason we allow for true color prints in addition to color-corrected prints.
I'd be happy to discuss this further with you and take a look at any images you orderd that you felt you saw inconsistent printing from. Again, we guarantee each print. True color prints have no adjustments made to them, and auto-color prints follow a specific recipe so your mileage shouldn't vary from order to order for the same image.
5. Email notification of major upgrades. There's no reason we need to be surprised every time SM rolls out an upgrade. Send us an email and save miles of message board posts.
Yes, we do need to get better about notifying our customers about new features. You're absolutely correct. We do try hard to get customer feedback on upcoming major changes (see this thread as an example) and we often make use of the messaging system in the control panel. However, the next step is certainly an opt-in notification of every release. If we hadn't been slacking on our release notes lately, I'd recommend subscribing to that feed.
I just want to make sure you know, we offer canvas prints already
Yes, but I need the flexibility to go with a higher end product. The same holds true for most of what SM offers; it works very well at a certain quality level, but it sort of sputters when it comes to anything of a higher quality. As a professional photographer charging some pretty significant fees, I need to have both.
Just zero items out in pro pricing that you don't want available to your customers.
Thanks for this tip. Is this another '07 addition no one told me about, or has it always been this way?
We've found that the vast vast vast majority of "average" customers just leave it at the default. (true color vs. auto)
Maybe that's because my average customer is the bride who calls me and says 'which one of these do I want to choose?'. If she has to spend even a second thinking about something she shouldn't have to think about... I consider it undesirable service on my end. It hurts her experience with me.
This all gets back to allowing us to customize the cart.
I don't find EZ Prints to be inconsistent and that certainly isn't the reason we allow for true color prints in addition to color-corrected prints. I'd be happy to discuss this further with you and take a look at any images you orderd that you felt you saw inconsistent printing from. Again, we guarantee each print. True color prints have no adjustments made to them, and auto-color prints follow a specific recipe so your mileage shouldn't vary from order to order for the same image.
You're not understanding me -- EZ Prints is consistently bad. I currently have to examine every print I get and look for the handful of duds, which is not something I want to do for an event with hundreds of images. Five bad prints out of a hundred is a real problem.
And even more important, I need to KNOW that prints being sent directly to my customers are acceptable. I have no faith in EZ Prints when it comes to this.
Auto-color can make skin tones look awful -- orange and doughy. The 'improvement' is far too drastic. My feeling is that a reasonably color-accurate image should print well in both true and auto, but that is absolutely not the case.
True color prints sometimes have a red cast. Auto-color may print a given image consistently, but the issue is that I have no way of knowing HOW it will affect an image until I see the print. Get it? I cannot predict the effect auto-color will have, so I'm always asking myself "Which of these will harm the image less?".
While I appreciate the print guarantee, I have been hesitant to request reprints. I guess because I don't see the printing issues as a manufacturer's unintentional defect -- I've accepted that the variable level of quality is just how they come.
I have compared identical prints between SM's EZ Prints, White House Custom Color, Fotoworks, Buckeye Custom Labs, and ProDPI. I'm certain the problem is not my dual monitors because none of those pro labs have any problems making prints that look the way I expect them to.
Another issue with EZ Prints is the slow shipping. I live in North Carolina, but I always order the expedited shipping from Georgia because the 3-14 day standard shipping usually arrives at the end of that window. Two weeks is completely unacceptable when most other labs turn around print orders the same day.
we often make use of the messaging system in the control panel
SM is one stop on a long list of my online vendors, message boards, blogs, and software providers.
I need notifications by email.
We're constantly aiming for greatness and your feedback helps.
Again, the gallery navigation is the one thing you have that is head and shoulders above your competition. It's much better than PickPic, Digilabs, RedCart... everyone. That is why I want to stay. But forcing me to use EZ Prints exclusively is the reason I want to leave.
No high end wedding photographer I know of uses Smugmug. Instead they pay *thousands* of dollars for inferior proprietary shopping cart systems. That should tell you something.
I want to leverage Smugmug's gallery system and ease of uploading to my workflow's advantage, but I NEED this flexibility from you to do it.
I'm quite certain that allowing independent order fulfillment would send SM from last to first in my industry. The next step of partnering with a pro lab would be utterly groundbreaking; no one has done this.
Either way... you offer a tremendous product that is just a few features away from the greatness you deserve.
Another issue with EZ Prints is the slow shipping. I live in North Carolina, but I always order the expedited shipping from Georgia because the 3-14 day standard shipping usually arrives at the end of that window. Two weeks is completely unacceptable when most other labs turn around print orders the same day.
Just to be clear, the processing and printing of an order takes 1-2 business days. No longer, except in rare cases (<0.5% currently).
If you choose economy, you get the cheapest shipping method around, but yeah... the USPS takes its time delivering the order. It's just plain old USPS 1st Class mail.
Express is USPS Priority mail, and we also offer Fedex 2nd Businessday and Next Businessday.
Thanks for clarifying your other concerns/feature requests! You told it to us as you see it, and we definitely appreciate it!
Express is USPS Priority mail, and we also offer Fedex 2nd Businessday and Next Businessday.
Unless I'm mistaken, Priority Mail from USPS is not guaranteed to be delivered in any particular rush. They will only say delivery "averages 2-3 days"; this doesn't mean it won't take a week or two.
IMO the USPS marketing of this product is deliberately misleading, and customers who select it thinking that it will be faster than "economy" but cheaper than "2nd-day" may be very disappointed. I would love it if Smugmug would drop it completely and get a real guaranteed 3-day delivery option from some other carrier.
File names are now in the cart!!!
I placed my first order since the new cart interface was revealed and saw that the file names are listed throughout the order process! This has been my biggest complaint since I switched to SM, so this is HUGE for me. I offer print credits to wedding and portrait clients, so I have to order some prints for them. It was always difficult checking the order because it was just a thumbnail image. This makes the process SO much easier.
Way to go BigWebGuy, Baldy and the rest of the SM Team!
I placed my first order since the new cart interface was revealed and saw that the file names are listed throughout the order process! This has been my biggest complaint since I switched to SM, so this is HUGE for me. I offer print credits to wedding and portrait clients, so I have to order some prints for them. It was always difficult checking the order because it was just a thumbnail image. This makes the process SO much easier.
Way to go BigWebGuy, Baldy and the rest of the SM Team!
Originally Posted by kenluallen Also, why would the average customer ever need to choose between true and auto color? There's absolutely *no way* for them to know which will print better. Automatic confusion.
That option should be available to photographers only, preferably in the pro pricing section or at least when approving proof-delayed orders.
Hmm.. but how do you define "the average customer"? We have plenty of professional photographers that don't sell their prints on SmugMug so they use a power or standard account for photo storage and personal print orders. They love being able to select "true" in the shopping cart and taking away that option because they chose a different account type doesn't really seem right.
I conpletely agree with Ken here. Having the true color and auto color options is confusing. It's a fact. Like he said there is NO WAY for a customer to know which is better. We should be able to turn it OFF if we want. That would satisfy Anne's comment as well.
Overall, I like the new shopping cart, and think it's a definite improvement. Still, there is room for more improvement.
Are coupons really coming?
Looking back at these forums and others, I see that coupons have been on the request list for years -- and the response has usually been the same as the response to my own presale question.: "Hmm, that's an interesting idea, we'll look into it."
I also see that the latest shopping cart changes may have cleared a path for packages and coupons. I have about 4500 images up for a school and I've been working on them for a while to sell prints as a fundraiser. They're pretty much on board now, but they want to do it using coupons, and that's definitely /the/ right way for them to do it.
Printroom is the model for their needs. Printroom offers exactly what they want and makes nice prints, but I like Smugmug better than Printroom. I don't want to move all these pics over to Printroom; I want to offer the service through Smugmug. But right now I can't, because afaik it hasn't moved past "an interesting idea." They're planning to start the fundraiser right after Thanksgiving.
I don't need elegant code and eminent flexibility in this feature; I just need to be able to pre-sell some prints with shipping included and hand the customer something that lets him order the pre-sold prints of his choice within, say, a six-month timeframe.
Will I be able to offer this on a pro Smugmug account this November, or will I have to move?
[custom Items]
I would like to see the ability to add custom items to the cart, for 3rd party offerings through ClubSmug. As things get offered through smugmug that is around new types of prints that could be offered to customers, it would be nice to be able to enable/disable a printing vendor module.
Mostly what we're looking for is feedback on the layout and usability, not wording.
When you do address the wording, please make it as professional as you can. It is important. When people see text when purchasing photos that describe something as being done "magically" - it can be a turn off to our customers.
Your language should be designed for adults, not Harry Potter fans. There is no magic involved, so just state the facts professionally without the needless embelishments.
When you do address the wording, please make it as professional as you can. It is important. When people see text when purchasing photos that describe something as being done "magically" - it can be a turn off to our customers.
Your language should be designed for adults, not Harry Potter fans. There is no magic involved, so just state the facts professionally without the needless embelishments.
Proof your text carefully.
smughug
[imgl]http://cmac.smugmug.com/photos/131481399-L-2.jpg[/imgl]Personally, I'm glad to be associated with a company that isn't stiff and tightly-wound. Part of what makes me pour my heart and soul into this company is our whole attitude about everything we do, and yeah, that includes using words like "magically." I love how our programmers are SmugMug Sorcerers, and our Customer Service folks are SmugMug Support Heroes.
Here on the left are our co-founders, Chris and Don.
Personally, I'm glad to be associated with a company that isn't stiff and tightly-wound. Part of what makes me pour my heart and soul into this company is our whole attitude about everything we do, and yeah, that includes using words like "magically." I love how our programmers are SmugMug Sorcerers, and our Customer Service folks are SmugMug Support Heroes.
Here on the left are our co-founders, Chris and Don.
[imgl]http://cmac.smugmug.com/photos/131481399-L-2.jpg[/imgl]Personally, I'm glad to be associated with a company that isn't stiff and tightly-wound. Part of what makes me pour my heart and soul into this company is our whole attitude about everything we do, and yeah, that includes using words like "magically." I love how our programmers are SmugMug Sorcerers, and our Customer Service folks are SmugMug Support Heroes.
Here on the left are our co-founders, Chris and Don.
Cart question - selection of finish
The current way to force a picture finish is to zero out the other types of finishes which presents the shopper, option not available, I think.
Matte 0
Glossy 0
Lustre
Oh good, Lustre is the only one available, forces the user to select Lustre.
Is this still applicable with the new shopping cart features ??
I second the idea that something needs to be done to the interface for selecting the finish.
Moreso, I would like to see a somewhat structural change in the cart itself. I hate that I have to pick the crop more than once if I decide to get the same photo more than once, just a different size (same aspect ratio) or different finish. When I choose a crop, it should apply to all prints of the same aspect ratio, or at least give me the choice to do so.
Lastly, an issue with the image above (and the current cart actually).. If you arn't going to add some sort of radio buttons or list boxes, please make sure that the finishes are in the same order for all print sizes. I've ordered the wrong finish once (and almost done it more than once) because they vary in order. Looking at the example above, for the 4x6 it goes Matte, Lustre, Gloss. For the 5x7 it goes Gloss, Matte, Lustre. For the 8x10 it goes Luster, Gloss, Matte.
In the current cart, it goes Gloss, Matte, Lustre for 4x6 and 8x10 and it goes Lustre, Matte, Gloss for 5x7 and 8x12.
Comments
I enter quantity and the price does not get updated until I click on the cos column. So if I enter 6 4x6's and then click on checkout it shows that I have nothing in my cart. I must also hit the cost column each time for the prices to get updated. That is not intuitive, The cost column should get updated each time the quantity is changed.
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
Andy,
The link is below. You may need to got to pretend you are buying a photo. I took a closer look at it. In the shopping basket if you highlight the number and type in the quantity , the cost does not update, If you click the + or - it seems to work (i see why this is not easy to design these things).
http://www.digitalexpressionsphotography.com/gallery/3264865#180876923
That was fast! You guys are awesome.
Portfolio • Workshops • Facebook • Twitter
I'm still not sure if I like how the print types are organized. I really wish I could just restrict everything to 2:3 aspect prints only, or 4:5 aspect prints only, or something.
But, all in good time...
=Matt=
Oh and edit, one question I have for you guys: I want to explain to my customers that they can browse different galleries without having to submit an order for each gallery, and I've done that, but I also would like to know how FAR this can be taken- I just noticed that there's a print in my shopping cart from a few days ago! Am I safe actualy telling customers that they can close their browser, turn off their computer and come back a day or two later and "promise" that their photos will still be in their shopping cart? Or could their cart get automatically dumped based on some kind of cookie / cache setting, and therefore I shouldn't say this? I think it would be a selling point if I could tell people they can leave my website and come back later, but I know that FF has a "delete cookies when FF closes" option and that might screw people up...
Thanks again,
=Matt=
My SmugMug Portfolio • My Astro-Landscape Photo Blog • Dgrin Weddings Forum
you mean as a buyer or seller?
We set the expiration of the cart cookie for 30 days, and that is reset every time they add or remove something from their cart. If they delete their cookies then they lose their cart.
PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CAN WE HAVE MULTIPLE CURRENCIES SOMEHOW INTERGRATED INTO THE CART???
Being a UK user this is the only thing stopping me from fully utalising SmugMug to its full.
Thanks,
Michael
p.s. keep up the great work!!
www.banksy.me.uk - main website
http://galleries.banksy.me.uk - smugmug site
James
Langford Photography
http://www.langfordphotography.com
james@langfordphotography.com
There will always be input on how to make it better depending on each person's goals.. But the key thing is it's a HUGE improvement!
I found out while walking through the steps showing someone how to order a photo (older gentleman ;-)) and was surprised to see it in action!
http://www.riphoto.com/
Please Vote - External Shopping Cart Links:
http://uservoice.com/a/mL8RD
I built my own Flash site (www.kenluallen.com) and was evaluating other shopping cart providers when I noticed the new cart. It's a substantial improvement that may actually keep me here.
Here are the features that I feel would make SM competitive with every other company out there:
1. Customizing the cart appearance. :deadhorse (I do understand it poses security challenges for you though.)
2a. Allow ME to fulfill certain orders instead of EZ Prints.
It may be as simple as an option in the pro-pricing menu that asks whether I want to fulfill orders for an image or a gallery myself. At checkout you'd have a disclaimer telling the customer SM is not liable for their CC payment or the delivery of the prints. Much the way that PayPal works.
I would absolutely be willing to give SM a smaller cut for this service.
2b. Allow me to add customized products. If I could offer, say, canvas prints on the site and fulfill those orders myself, I would never even dream of leaving SM because the gallery navigation is exceptional.
3. It's been said by others because it's important -- coupons and credits.
4. See #1. I never, ever need digital camera sized prints. The ridiculous array of print sizes is the number one thing that confuses customers. We have to find a way to get rid of all that. Also, why would the average customer ever need to choose between true and auto color? There's absolutely *no way* for them to know which will print better. Automatic confusion.
That option should be available to photographers only, preferably in the pro pricing section or at least when approving proof-delayed orders. (And besides, that option only exists because EZ Prints color fidelity is so inconsistent in the first place. *I* don't even know which option prints better because both are unpredictable. And I'd like to think my skin tones are pretty good.)
5. Email notification of major upgrades. There's no reason we need to be surprised every time SM rolls out an upgrade. Send us an email and save miles of message board posts.
Smugmug is on the edge of greatness. Pretty please take the next step.
Ken
Ken Luallen Wedding | Style
www.kenluallen.com
Pictures you can feel.
kenluallen.smugmug.com
Thanks for the feedback!
Both requests we've heard before. Thanks for letting us know they're important to you! Definitely an interesting request. I just want to make sure you know, we offer canvas prints already: http://www.smugmug.com/prints/mounted-canvas-prints
http://www.smugmug.com/prints/rolled-canvas-prints .
Just zero items out in pro pricing that you don't want available to your customers. It should take all of 1 minute to put a "0" in the portfoiio pricing next to the print sizes you don't want to sell.
Hmm.. but how do you define "the average customer"? We have plenty of professional photographers that don't sell their prints on SmugMug so they use a power or standard account for photo storage and personal print orders. They love being able to select "true" in the shopping cart and taking away that option because they chose a different account type doesn't really seem right.
We've found that the vast vast vast majority of "average" customers just leave it at the default. The default is auto (unless a pro photographer changes the default to true) and auto improves the majority of images and hardly ever goofs on an image. When it does... SmugMug's guarantee to the rescue: http://smugmug.com/prints/our-guarantee.mg .
Hmm... I would have to whole-heartedly disagree with you here. I don't find EZ Prints to be inconsistent and that certainly isn't the reason we allow for true color prints in addition to color-corrected prints.
I'd be happy to discuss this further with you and take a look at any images you orderd that you felt you saw inconsistent printing from. Again, we guarantee each print. True color prints have no adjustments made to them, and auto-color prints follow a specific recipe so your mileage shouldn't vary from order to order for the same image.
Yes, we do need to get better about notifying our customers about new features. You're absolutely correct. We do try hard to get customer feedback on upcoming major changes (see this thread as an example) and we often make use of the messaging system in the control panel. However, the next step is certainly an opt-in notification of every release. If we hadn't been slacking on our release notes lately, I'd recommend subscribing to that feed.
We're constantly aiming for greatness and your feedback helps. Thanks again!
-Anne
Yes, but I need the flexibility to go with a higher end product. The same holds true for most of what SM offers; it works very well at a certain quality level, but it sort of sputters when it comes to anything of a higher quality. As a professional photographer charging some pretty significant fees, I need to have both.
Thanks for this tip. Is this another '07 addition no one told me about, or has it always been this way?
Maybe that's because my average customer is the bride who calls me and says 'which one of these do I want to choose?'. If she has to spend even a second thinking about something she shouldn't have to think about... I consider it undesirable service on my end. It hurts her experience with me.
This all gets back to allowing us to customize the cart.
You're not understanding me -- EZ Prints is consistently bad. I currently have to examine every print I get and look for the handful of duds, which is not something I want to do for an event with hundreds of images. Five bad prints out of a hundred is a real problem.
And even more important, I need to KNOW that prints being sent directly to my customers are acceptable. I have no faith in EZ Prints when it comes to this.
Auto-color can make skin tones look awful -- orange and doughy. The 'improvement' is far too drastic. My feeling is that a reasonably color-accurate image should print well in both true and auto, but that is absolutely not the case.
True color prints sometimes have a red cast. Auto-color may print a given image consistently, but the issue is that I have no way of knowing HOW it will affect an image until I see the print. Get it? I cannot predict the effect auto-color will have, so I'm always asking myself "Which of these will harm the image less?".
While I appreciate the print guarantee, I have been hesitant to request reprints. I guess because I don't see the printing issues as a manufacturer's unintentional defect -- I've accepted that the variable level of quality is just how they come.
I have compared identical prints between SM's EZ Prints, White House Custom Color, Fotoworks, Buckeye Custom Labs, and ProDPI. I'm certain the problem is not my dual monitors because none of those pro labs have any problems making prints that look the way I expect them to.
Another issue with EZ Prints is the slow shipping. I live in North Carolina, but I always order the expedited shipping from Georgia because the 3-14 day standard shipping usually arrives at the end of that window. Two weeks is completely unacceptable when most other labs turn around print orders the same day.
SM is one stop on a long list of my online vendors, message boards, blogs, and software providers.
I need notifications by email.
Again, the gallery navigation is the one thing you have that is head and shoulders above your competition. It's much better than PickPic, Digilabs, RedCart... everyone. That is why I want to stay. But forcing me to use EZ Prints exclusively is the reason I want to leave.
No high end wedding photographer I know of uses Smugmug. Instead they pay *thousands* of dollars for inferior proprietary shopping cart systems. That should tell you something.
I want to leverage Smugmug's gallery system and ease of uploading to my workflow's advantage, but I NEED this flexibility from you to do it.
I'm quite certain that allowing independent order fulfillment would send SM from last to first in my industry. The next step of partnering with a pro lab would be utterly groundbreaking; no one has done this.
Either way... you offer a tremendous product that is just a few features away from the greatness you deserve.
Ken
Ken Luallen Wedding | Style
www.kenluallen.com
Pictures you can feel.
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Just to be clear, the processing and printing of an order takes 1-2 business days. No longer, except in rare cases (<0.5% currently).
If you choose economy, you get the cheapest shipping method around, but yeah... the USPS takes its time delivering the order. It's just plain old USPS 1st Class mail.
Express is USPS Priority mail, and we also offer Fedex 2nd Businessday and Next Businessday.
Thanks for clarifying your other concerns/feature requests! You told it to us as you see it, and we definitely appreciate it!
-Anne
IMO the USPS marketing of this product is deliberately misleading, and customers who select it thinking that it will be faster than "economy" but cheaper than "2nd-day" may be very disappointed. I would love it if Smugmug would drop it completely and get a real guaranteed 3-day delivery option from some other carrier.
I placed my first order since the new cart interface was revealed and saw that the file names are listed throughout the order process! This has been my biggest complaint since I switched to SM, so this is HUGE for me. I offer print credits to wedding and portrait clients, so I have to order some prints for them. It was always difficult checking the order because it was just a thumbnail image. This makes the process SO much easier.
Way to go BigWebGuy, Baldy and the rest of the SM Team!
THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
Sam Ellis
www.samellis.smugmug.com
www.samellis.com
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All the best,
Baldy
Also, why would the average customer ever need to choose between true and auto color? There's absolutely *no way* for them to know which will print better. Automatic confusion.
That option should be available to photographers only, preferably in the pro pricing section or at least when approving proof-delayed orders.
I conpletely agree with Ken here. Having the true color and auto color options is confusing. It's a fact. Like he said there is NO WAY for a customer to know which is better. We should be able to turn it OFF if we want. That would satisfy Anne's comment as well.
Overall, I like the new shopping cart, and think it's a definite improvement. Still, there is room for more improvement.
My site:Fine Image Photography
Looking back at these forums and others, I see that coupons have been on the request list for years -- and the response has usually been the same as the response to my own presale question.: "Hmm, that's an interesting idea, we'll look into it."
I also see that the latest shopping cart changes may have cleared a path for packages and coupons. I have about 4500 images up for a school and I've been working on them for a while to sell prints as a fundraiser. They're pretty much on board now, but they want to do it using coupons, and that's definitely /the/ right way for them to do it.
Printroom is the model for their needs. Printroom offers exactly what they want and makes nice prints, but I like Smugmug better than Printroom. I don't want to move all these pics over to Printroom; I want to offer the service through Smugmug. But right now I can't, because afaik it hasn't moved past "an interesting idea." They're planning to start the fundraiser right after Thanksgiving.
I don't need elegant code and eminent flexibility in this feature; I just need to be able to pre-sell some prints with shipping included and hand the customer something that lets him order the pre-sold prints of his choice within, say, a six-month timeframe.
Will I be able to offer this on a pro Smugmug account this November, or will I have to move?
I would like to see the ability to add custom items to the cart, for 3rd party offerings through ClubSmug. As things get offered through smugmug that is around new types of prints that could be offered to customers, it would be nice to be able to enable/disable a printing vendor module.
(i.e. WallHogs, FatHead, etc)
/mark
Principle Photographer/Co-Founder
Body Bumpers, LLC
PH: 717 918 1262
Fax: 831 480 5873
url: www.body-bumpers.com
email: mteicher@body-bumpers.com
When you do address the wording, please make it as professional as you can. It is important. When people see text when purchasing photos that describe something as being done "magically" - it can be a turn off to our customers.
Your language should be designed for adults, not Harry Potter fans. There is no magic involved, so just state the facts professionally without the needless embelishments.
Proof your text carefully.
Steve
Here on the left are our co-founders, Chris and Don.
We all have alternate identities and are proud of it
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Some might call you stiff and tightly wound for not wanting to change your wording to benefit your paying customers ...
You are free to worship whatever gods you want. I apologize if my suggestion offended the legalism of your religion.
Many Blessings ... and freedom.
Shalom.
Steve
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Andy's The Hulk -
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The current way to force a picture finish is to zero out the other types of finishes which presents the shopper, option not available, I think.
Matte 0
Glossy 0
Lustre
Oh good, Lustre is the only one available, forces the user to select Lustre.
Is this still applicable with the new shopping cart features ??
/mark
Principle Photographer/Co-Founder
Body Bumpers, LLC
PH: 717 918 1262
Fax: 831 480 5873
url: www.body-bumpers.com
email: mteicher@body-bumpers.com