Posted by Darrell Epps on October 22, 2010 at 9:53 AM
Hi everyone,
I am looking to implement a website to not only show our photography, have bios on our three photographers, and other information, but to also have a shopping cart feature so they can purchase via the internet. We are now using a SmugMug site, but we have other products we sell along with our prints that we want to be able to list and sell, something I cannot do via SmugMug. Any suggestions or experiences you may share would be helpful. I would like something that I can administer and change as often as I like. Thanks for your suggestions.
Posted by Drew Fulton on October 22, 2010 at 10:40 AM
Darrell,
I'm not sure there is much out there that is dedicated to photographers who have things other than prints. I am currently working on designing a single source solution for photographers that will not only include a print sales store but allow you to also sell both physical and digital products. Unfortunately, the software package is a long way from release, likely sometime next year but I can't even give you an estimate.
In the meantime, short of creating a custom solution, my suggestion is to go with two solutions. Continue with smugmug and then add something like CubeCart to your site. There are a number of free shopping cart solutions and many web hosts have them available for automated install. If your web host has a cpanel management system then you should be able to install it directly. Of course, hosting it yourself means you also need to figure out payment issues, SSL connections, etc. If you want to avoid all that, look into PayPal's options or Google Checkout.
If you need some help, contact me off site as I have just finished creating a custom designed store for a new site to be launched in two weeks and have looked at a lot of different options.
Best,
Drew
Posted by Jim Bullard on October 22, 2010 at 4:47 PM
PhotoShelter and Zenfolio both have built in marketing tools. You can sell prints you make or prints and products produced by third parties.
Posted by Brad Mangas on October 22, 2010 at 7:25 PM
Posted by Edward Mendes on October 27, 2010 at 4:00 PM
I know Gallery 2 has a shopping cart feature build into it. However it sounds like you need a custom build, have you thought about a Joomla based CMS site with a gallery component and VirtueMart integration? It's what I run on my site and work well.
Posted by Nancy Koch on February 10, 2011 at 12:13 PM
I use Zenfolio. It works great. Their prints come from MPix but there are tons other products you can allow shoppers to create using your photos. Prints can also be framed. You can set your prices many different ways (ie $2 over cost; 15% over cost), set up discount codes. Different prices for different groups of photos, so if one photographers photos can go for more than another photographers.
Speaking as a consumer rather than seller (we sell our photos through a host site rather than our own), my first consideration would be security, as seen by your clients. I don't know enough about it in terms of what the various cart programs include or involve to make a recommendation. But I can tell you for sure that I've decided not to buy from some sites whose security didn't seem robust enough for my personal info.
Discussion
6 repliesI am looking to implement a website to not only show our photography, have bios on our three photographers, and other information, but to also have a shopping cart feature so they can purchase via the internet. We are now using a SmugMug site, but we have other products we sell along with our prints that we want to be able to list and sell, something I cannot do via SmugMug. Any suggestions or experiences you may share would be helpful. I would like something that I can administer and change as often as I like. Thanks for your suggestions.
I'm not sure there is much out there that is dedicated to photographers who have things other than prints. I am currently working on designing a single source solution for photographers that will not only include a print sales store but allow you to also sell both physical and digital products. Unfortunately, the software package is a long way from release, likely sometime next year but I can't even give you an estimate.
In the meantime, short of creating a custom solution, my suggestion is to go with two solutions. Continue with smugmug and then add something like CubeCart to your site. There are a number of free shopping cart solutions and many web hosts have them available for automated install. If your web host has a cpanel management system then you should be able to install it directly. Of course, hosting it yourself means you also need to figure out payment issues, SSL connections, etc. If you want to avoid all that, look into PayPal's options or Google Checkout.
If you need some help, contact me off site as I have just finished creating a custom designed store for a new site to be launched in two weeks and have looked at a lot of different options.
Best,
Drew