What You Need to Know About Online Shopping Carts

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When I developed the first shopping cart for Professional Photographers there were three main rules:

    1. No branding - I would not want another company's name on my site, so MorePhotos is not on yours.

    2. I would not specify the printer that you use - some use more than one and some print their own. I do suggest quality printers I am aware of, only as an option, to make your job easier.  I left all choices open - print some yourself, send some to others. It is all up to you.

    3. I would not be involved in your income. You have a banker already. I would not want another company to take money from my customer, so the money runs though you.  

To answer this question "What You Need to Know about Online Shopping Carts"  I did a lot of testing, for almost a year. Rather than getting into lengthy details I will just highlight the results.

    1. The shorter time you leave the photos up, the more orders you get. Comparing 30 day postings to 60 day postings we received 20% more orders on the shorter postings.

    2. Offering a discount at the beginning of an event increased the orders about 15 to 20%.  For this test we raised the price 20% and offered 20% off if order placed within the first week. It created interest in ordering right away, not procrastinating.

    3. The big benefit with the discount was 90% of the orders came in during the discount time frame. The people that normally procrastinate wanted the discount and ordered. Bottom line, this helps in getting the job complete.

    4. Next we added the ability to buy trading cards & magazine covers and this increased sales.

    5. After all this testing we developed a feature called archive. After a certain number of days - say 30 - the photos go into an archive status and the customer will have to pay to get in. The amount is up to you, it might be $5, $10, etc. This is how it works: The customer enters the data for a desired event, and a notice informs him that this event was on-line for 30 days, is now archived and to view images the cost is $10. Once inside the event, the customer will have a credit for $10, good for three days. If you look but don't buy within those three days you forfeit the $10.

    6. So I had a customer that wanted to charge everybody to go in and view images. I dragged my feet for over a year to make this happen for my photographer, (Did not think it would work) boy was I ever wrong. He shoots grads, mainly college, and he was averaging about $800 a job for the last two years before he put "pay to view" in place. It has been two years since he started this and his average is $3500 a job! Again, I sure was wrong about this one. A couple of questions I had for him were:  Did any one complain & he said no one! And I asked him did any one leave the money & not order and he said a few. I think for all those photographers shooting on spec this might be a game changer.

Success Tip #1: Having a Website... What is Myth and what is Fact.

So with that said here are a few things I would look for in a shopping cart hosting company.

    1. I would not want any other logo on my site ANYWHERE. I worked too hard to have someone else's name show up on my site.

    2. Flexibility on everything - I want to collect my own money, which is why I'm in business - this seems like a no brainer. Plus I need cash flow, it's very important to stay in business! Concerning printing, I might want to print my own or have the lab down the street be my option, not have anyone else choose for me. I think it is much cleaner to host your site and shopping cart together with the same hosting company (MorePhotos). This way your site is not going to a totally different place or look when clients are shopping.  I'm not a big fan of paying commission on sales. We do offer this feature, only in the last couple of years, because of demand. Most of the time when you sit down and do the math it's not in your favor. I get when people say, "I do not want to pay this amount in January when I don't have any work".  When doing the math, the July sales with commission, cost you as much as the whole year would cost you on a monthly plan without commission. So do the math!

    3. You need more than a basic shopping cart if you are going to compete with other photographers. One that can showcase different products, where you can create some of your own, be different. Our new system at MorePhotos will bring this to you and allow you to shine and set you apart from others. Create great products, show videos of these products on your clients' walls, & demonstrate to them how beautiful images can be! At every big trade show there are new ideas, such as what you can put an image on. I would like to see a new product or one you developed and then take it to market with MorePhotos.

    4. Some Photographers love to have their orders drop-shipped to the customer, thinking that it will save them time. It may save time but it is not good for your business. When possible if the order can be delivered or picked up, this is the perfect time to bond with your customer. In doing this you are able to extend a nice thank you and an action. A face to face thank you is always much more effective than an email or card. It is going to be a lot easier to get that person to come back in because a friend or relative has hired you. In this manner the first customer will feel valued and appreciated. I have a hard time thinking a Professional Photographer would drop ship an order without a thank you and an action. The best possible solution we came up with for labs that drop ship for the MorePhotos Photographers’, is to include a thank you letter, provided by the Photographer in the drop ship. Now all I need to do is kick the photographers that do not take the time to do this important step with their order. This is one of the reasons a lot of photographers who have been in business for 10, 20 or even 30 years, have issues of losing business to the new guys. They are not cultivating their customers and starting over every month is too hard.

    5. Your shopping cart should have lots of bells and whistles. To name a few: Coupons; Organized email mailing list; Coming soon events; Pre-pay;  An open cart that allows you to sell anything, not just photos; Discount codes:  lots of ways to do discounts - on sales - buy this get this - packages - favorites - compare - framing. Bottom line this is your company you need to have all the tools for your creativity and no limits to express that.

Writing by Michael Connors – www.morephotos.com