So currently in my package I give the image files so clients can make their own prints. But now I am planning to add an option for online print ordering too. It will cost me $120 for each wedding if they want this option. Right now (and tis is where your feedback is appreciated) I am a little unsure if from a business pov it makes good business sense to have this available as an option for people who want online ordering. Should I add it to my packages and bump up my pricing to cover it or just charge extra if they want it added on? And how important in your experience is having OPO as a option or part of your package price?
May I ask why print ordering online is costing you so much? Have you looked at places like Zenfolio? It's not anywhere near that. I think online ordering helps and is a nice thing to have for clients and their families, however, I would cut the overhead of $120/wedding. If you shoot 30 weddings, that's $3,600. If you want to charge the client $120, but then use a more economical system, you would make profit by cutting overhead.
Saad Syed wrote:
May I ask why print ordering online is costing you so much? Have you looked at places like Zenfolio? It's not anywhere near that. I think online ordering helps and is a nice thing to have for clients and their families, however, I would cut the overhead of $120/wedding. If you shoot 30 weddings, that's $3,600. If you want to charge the client $120, but then use a more economical system, you would make profit by cutting overhead.
Have you looked into Smugmug? I believe it's quite popular with WP's and other event photogs. With a pro account, which costs $150 or so a year, you get unlimited hosting (IIRC) as well as the ability to let your clients order prints directly, with you setting the price/profit. You literally do nothing between the uploading and the check-collecting. And their print quality seems to be well regarded.
You can do online print ordering two ways - the site you choose does it all - takes the order, prints the pics and sends them out. Some charge a monthly fee (pictage) and some do not. All take a percentage of the sale. You must upload full res files (or send them on CD)
Option 2 is the site only takes the money - you get an email and you have to get the prints made, shipped to you and then you repackage and send them out to the customer. You can use any lab you want. You get to see the prints. You can put whatever marketing materials you'd like in the envelope. This can be free to host pics (instaproofs.com among others) and you only pay a percentage of what gets sold.
prof_fate wrote:
Option 2 is the site only takes the money - you get an email and you have to get the prints made, shipped to you and then you repackage and send them out to the customer. You can use any lab you want. You get to see the prints. You can put whatever marketing materials you'd like in the envelope. This can be free to host pics (instaproofs.com among others) and you only pay a percentage of what gets sold.
Free to upload an unlimited amount of events or photo, proof size, so it goes fast. You set prices, products, shipping, etc.
My lab is cheap - $1/unit. So it's hard not to make money when someone orders.
I like having final control of the package that goes out - my biz card, brochure and sometimes other promo materials are in there. Free marketing as the client paid the postage. That's something you can't do with a site/company that handles fulfillment.
But it depends on how you like to work. I only have to final edit prints that sell. If you upload and they print, every image uploaded has to be a final image, edited and ready to print. So I can't say which takes less time in the end, that depends on you.
I'm using Millers for some of my printing, but have a cart on my blu cart for the online ordering. Two extra steps for me (ordering/delivery), but I'll probably stick with this until I can afford Pickpic. I have that on my list for next winter. http://www.pickpic.com/what/
I use Instaproofs and give a print credit with my packages. People seem to like the fact that they'll get some prints with the deal and Instaproofs serves as a way for me to proof the images. They also select their favorites from which I build the album. Most buy more prints than the credits included with their package...
We use Pictage. They are fairly expensive, but we get to do credit card transactions for 1.5% which makes it worth the $1,200 a year. We also sell plenty of prints so that we make a good deal of money and do not have to do anything except upload the shots. They also archive all of our images which is nice. Online sales are difficult at best and we never rely on them.
Selling the disk however is pretty easy since everyone wants it for the most part, so I would put a steep price on them and not give them away with any and every package, especially since that is what everyone wants so bad.
