Question about setting up online purchasing options for my website.

[BigRC]

Hi guys. I've got a question that hopefully someone may be able to help me with. I recently picked up a client that wants me to do multiple event photography for her throughout the year. She wants clients/guests to have the opportunity to buy photographs directly from a website. I've looked in to collages.net and that seems kinda nice, but I was wondering if anyone had any other suggestions.

Basically I'd like to have the ability to switch back and forth from having an online provider automatically pick up the order, print, and ship, to allowing me to do it if time allows (all while maintaining the same store front online). Does that make sense? Basically I want it to be automated (printing and shipping process) most of the time, but have the opportunity/ability to turn that option on and off at will.

If anyone has any suggestions I'd love to hear them. I'm sorta in a crunch. I've only got about a week before the first shoot, and I'd like to have it up and running before this event.

 

[HikinMike]

I suggest Smugmug. You can customize your website until you're blue in the face. They have great support forum. I use them for my gymnastic stuff.

 

[BigRC]

I suggest Smugmug. You can customize your website until you're blue in the face. They have great support forum. I use them for my gymnastic stuff.

Thanks Mike. I'll check them out. I used them a looooooong time ago, but that was before I was making money in the photo business. That just may be the solution.

*Still like to hear from others though if you have any ideas/suggestions*

 

[K.Li]

If you plan to use your own company website then you can set up online checkout with paypal and other 3rd party website to deal with the transaction.

For a website to be able to use credit card directly online it takes a lot of $$ and arrangement with banks.

 

[HikinMike]

For my nature stuff I use Paypal and I do my own matting, framing, packaging and shipping. But for my daughter's gymnastics team, I use Smugmug. All I see is an e-mail that says 'I got an order". I never have to lift a finger. BTW, I have the 'Pro Account' so if that helps.

 

[gnohz]

I use Paypal and I plan to do my own framing and shipping too. I am not very sure of other options that allows you to automate the printing and shipping process. For printing I guess it's possible if you direct all the orders directly to the printer, one email to yourself and another to the printer.

 

[Chris Stegner]

I LOVE Zenfolio. I only have a few galleries I sell from, so I haven't done a ton of selling. But when I did set it up it was very easy through MPix. They are partnered with MPix and a couple of others. I think you can have the orders sent to you instead of a lab, if you want to print your own. The cool thing is, you have a ton of options from the various labs.

I'm not a Zenfolio sales rep so I can't give you all the details. I mainly use mine jst to share my photos but I love the look and feel.

 

[Photomaker]

I agree about Smugmug. I have an account there, only at the power level- so I can't actually profit from the sales of the photos. At the pro level ($150 Annually), you can sell your photos for profit- and SmugMug handles all the printing load- for 15% of the profit. That doesn't include the cost of printing, you're not charged a percentage of the cost of goods sold (not necessarily the case at some of the more upscale, more expensive sites).
SmugMug also gives you the ability to turn that on or off- just like you want. So you can either have it available to your clients, or do the work yourself and save 15% of your profit (but lose something like that on time- that's the rub)
My question is about the lab that SmugMug uses for their printing. I'm currently using WHCC, and love them. But what of Bay Photo and EZ labs? How are they?

 

[KmH]

Zenfiolio is $100 a year and if they do order fulfilment they take a 12% cut and as mentioned B2B with Mpix. If you fulfill your own orders they take a 4% cut.

I highly recommend Zenfolio.

 

[BigRC]

Thank you all. I decided to go with Smugmug. I really like it. I haven't really used it much since most of my presentations are done in person, but I found a discount coupon online and got like 40% off a year. Thanks so much guys, I really appreciate it.