I'm starting to look into options for taking print orders online. I would like to hear of some other's experience with this. I'm thinking I'd still do the order fulfillment, but have them handle the credit card side. I don't foresee a great amount of revenue generated by this, so I'm leaning towards hosts that don't require monthly subscriptions. Any insight would be appreciated.
P.S. I've looked at Tim's sticky at the top of the forum for ideas, so I'm really just wondering about real world experience, and whether or not it's a good idea. Thanks!
I use LabPrints- http://labprints.com/website2/
I'm set up so they take a % of each sale but no monthly or subscription fees. They process the credit card orders and make a deposit into my checking account on the 1st & 15th of each month. Every February they send me the paperwork for my taxes. I'm quite satisfied with them.
www.instaproofs.com Great customer service, no charge for print credit vouchers, commission on sales only. You can take a look at my presentation at http://rddeckerphotography.instaproofs.com/.
Proofbuddy.com. Don't know why it isn't talked about so much, especially when it's nearly free. No subscriptions, no % of sales (this is where you get hit the hardest). $100 one time fee if you want the pro version (this is insanely cheap).
Pictage has been great to us. Our new site going up this week has client proofing and direct ordering, so I will slowly phase Pictage out. Pictage is by far the best of them and is used by some of the biggest names in the industry. It's nice being able to order our PicBooks for proofing, prints and Leather Craftsman albums all in one place.
Once we start our own proofing, we will still use them for a while, but our clients will never see the site. I don't want them to have to navigate away from ours at all..
i probably should have started a thread like this when i was getting ready to look for something like this, but i found simplephoto and they work out just fine. their customer support is great, replies to emails and phone calls just to make sure my site is the way i want it.
monthly fee of $10 for what i use and everything is unlimited. there is also a commission rate that they take out, but that doesn't bother me for the service that they provide.
I don't know how, but I missed that you don't what much of a monthly payment! Sorry..
I'll add to that, that I really don't make money off of our prints. I always add between $150 and $500 in print credits (they still pay full price, ie. $20 for 8x10's etc.). Most of our clients really want large canvas prints and albums. We've started leaning toward Graphi for a majority of our albums and we never use Willowbook, so the more time passes, the less I need Pictage.
Up until very recently, we only used Leather Craftsmen and it was nice ordering everything from one place.
mcarr wrote:
I was looking at Instaproofs, actually. I was wondering if there are any "gotchas" that you've come across.
I've used them for a year and have had nothing but great experiences with them. They're quick to answer questions, rectify problems, etc. Checks come twice a month and always clear. My clients seem happy, I'm happy. Pretty much a Win/Win in my book.
I do the same with print credits, but the online order would be aimed directly at everyone else, but the bride and groom. I figure, the easier I make it to click and order, the more orders I should get.
I still don't expect a big revenue off print orders, which is why I don't want a monthly fee... I have plenty of room to raise print prices 15% if that's what the cost per order is, however.
try www.zetaprints.com
They ain't for selling photos. More for designs with personalization, but it's good if you want your photo to blend into a poster or a greeting card. http://orders.studio34.co.nz/ are using them. I saw someone uploading photos into a gallery and then users would pick which photo they want to see on the card. Quite handy. You pay $2 or less, I think, per order.
