Online Shopping Cart - what do you use?

[CrossEyedPhotography]

what shopping cart program do you use? and what's your site if you have one so I can check it out. do any of you use paypal shopping carts?

[notapro]

subscribing

[spphoto]

I use EOS templates and Jalbum to create my galleries and then people pay via paypal (it's all integrated). It works really well, take a look at my sample wedding gallery at http://www.spphoto.ca/proofing/wolsey/ .

[Philco]

PickPic is what I use. I don't think there's a better way to go, but definitely some that are cheaper and still decent.

[Gatorboy]

Photo Cart (http://www.picturespro.com/pages/photography_shopping_cart/) -- you install in on your web server and never have to pay any commission like you do with Smugmug, PhotoReflect, etc.

It's head-and-shoulders better than EOS Templates and $1000 cheaper than Pickpic.

[CannedHeat]

Photo Cart (http://www.picturespro.com/pages/photography_shopping_cart/) -- you install in on your web server and never have to pay any commission like you do with Smugmug, PhotoReflect, etc.

It's head-and-shoulders better than EOS Templates and $1000 cheaper than Pickpic.

It should be noted, tho, that photocart is oriented toward wedding, event, photographers. If you are a scenic , landscape photographer it may not work as well for you because it may not allow some pictures, such as panoramas, to be displayed large enough. /Dan

[CannedHeat]

.. (http://www.picturespro.com/pages/photography_shopping_cart/) and $1000 cheaper than Pickpic.

It should be noted that in the opinion of many (even incorporating the initial cost of whichever shopping cart application) that hosting your own site/cart can be more profitable. Saving the commissions and fees of gallery hosting services can more than pay for the cart over time. Plus, you have the added advantage of printing the pics at whichever lab you choose whereas some gallery hosting services may require you to use their chosen vendor. /Dan

[tracknut]

I'm quite happy with PayPal and JAlbum here, did my own integration of the two. I do event photography and all my own fulfillment.

www.pixf.com

Dave

[CrossEyedPhotography]

Is there anyone with a bludomain site that uses photo cart? I purchased it today and I am so lost on how to set it up to my website. I guess patience is key, but if anyone can offer help that would be so great!

[JoesLdy]

Ive been looking for this solution... I've TRIED:

Gallery 2 - Very easy to upload and get going, but it appears to only allow you to check out via snapfish or whoever they have included modules for and I don't want to use those labs. If anyone knows of a prewritten module for a cart that sends you the order to fill in your own lab- I would love to know about it!

OsCommerce- Not impressed. I have some coding knowledge and still couldn't get it installed and running with several uploads patches etc... and gave up on it.

[PhotosGuy]

I use PrintRoom.com & link to it from my home page or the .net url

[asdisc]

EOS Templates here, works just fine for what I need it for.

Portraits...etc...etc

[notapro]

PicturesPro (http://www.picturespro.com/pages/photography_shopping_cart/) was suggested to me the other day. One time purchase (and one-place usage). I'm not recommending it because I've not used it, but it is probably the one I will go with.

[adam LC]

PicturesPro (http://www.picturespro.com/pages/photography_shopping_cart/) was suggested to me the other day. One time purchase (and one-place usage). I'm not recommending it because I've not used it, but it is probably the one I will go with.
This looks really interesting, don't have time now... but will read more of the site later. Thanks for the link!:)

[notapro]

If you saw a man drowning and could either save him or take a picture...
What kind of film would you use? - Anonymous

LOL

[Jayson Prentice]

Ive been looking for this solution... I've TRIED:

Gallery 2 - Very easy to upload and get going, but it appears to only allow you to check out via snapfish or whoever they have included modules for and I don't want to use those labs. If anyone knows of a prewritten module for a cart that sends you the order to fill in your own lab- I would love to know about it!


I'm currently using gallery2 and am beginning to incorporate a cart, they do have modules that are made to offer paypal and a few others now. I plan on using the paypal module, but make some modifications for it. If you're any good with some scripting, etc. PM me and we'll see if we can get something really nice going for gallery.

[CrossEyedPhotography]

well I just got my shopping cart setup using photo cart and I love it! to test it out I had my mom buy a picture and the payment went instantly into my paypal account! Sweet! I can't wait to see how this turns out for my wedding this Saturday!

(don't worry - I refuned the money to my mother)

[CannedHeat]

well I just got my shopping cart setup using photo cart and I love it! to test it out I had my mom buy a picture and the payment went instantly into my paypal account! Sweet! I can't wait to see how this turns out for my wedding this Saturday!

(don't worry - I refuned the money to my mother)

I assume you charged the customary 15% restocking fee, tho.. right? :) ;) /Dan

[zorz]

Doesn't Bludomain offer an integrated shopping cart, too? Why would I need to combine it with, say, PhotoCart or PickPic? I tried the demo on Blu - it lets you select the photos, sizes, add taxes and shipping, then provide PayPal address, after which you are taken to PayPal to finish the payment. Looks fine to me... I am not too familiar with the topic yet, though.

[CrossEyedPhotography]

they do but when I contacted them they said it not work with my template. o well

[zorz]

they do but when I contacted them they said it not work with my template. o well

What a shame... I think the shopping carts are a relatively new concept to them and there is a limited number of the supported templates at the moment. I'd think all of the higher-priced ones will have the feature in the future.

P.S. Ah, there it is, in the description of one of the templates: "This site debuts our latest database functionality and shopping cart." I wonder what "database functionality" is.

[NickSimcheck]

PickPic FTW!

[mtbkanata]

I made my own ... being in Canada we're limited to the sites we can sell on... ;)

Zoomphoto.ca

[JoesLdy]

Did you actually code that yourself or did you use an open source project? Your store is exactly what I want mine to look and feel.... you have to share how you did it! :)

I'm also curious as to how everyone gets an order? Photoreflect is pretty fool proof, but I've not seen the output from gallery or other sites... hows it working for you all?

I made my own ... being in Canada we're limited to the sites we can sell on... ;)

Zoomphoto.ca

[cdifoto]

OsCommerce- Not impressed. I have some coding knowledge and still couldn't get it installed and running with several uploads patches etc... and gave up on it.

That's interesting. You must have wanted some seriously advanced features because mine's OSC and I had no problems getting it together as desired. Although - the selections are limited on mine. You can choose the size and that's about it. I'll be adding color/b&w options later. When I'm feeling inspired.

I haven't yet figured out how to have password protection though. I'm a programming moron. :confused:

[zorz]

Although - the selections are limited on mine. You can choose the size and that's about it. I'll be adding color/b&w options later.

I've just got an idea and may use it in my cart: in the size options, I could list the same size twice (two lines), one in color, the other in b&w. A quick and dirty expansion of functionality, no coding or inspiration required.

[cdifoto]

I've just got an idea and may use it in my cart: in the size options, I could list the same size twice (two lines), one in color, the other in b&w. A quick and dirty expansion of functionality, no coding or inspiration required.

My inspiration will be for getting my batch uploader compatible with the additional fields. Shouldn't take much to do it, but I haven't tried it yet either.

[R_Metzel]

I used to have a cart integrated but never really liked it. I now use pictage.

[liza]

I have a Paypal cart for wedding package payments, but am considering Red Cart at some time in the future.

[mtbkanata]

Did you actually code that yourself or did you use an open source project? Your store is exactly what I want mine to look and feel.... you have to share how you did it! :)

I coded the whole thing myself in PHP.. one of the advantages of being a coder AND a photographer!

[zorz]

I coded the whole thing myself in PHP.. one of the advantages of being a coder AND a photographer!

So am I but having designed my current site in Flash and after few loong manual updates I am thinking of an easier-to-maintain (not as less technically complex but less time-consuming) alternative, such as BluDomain. Same would go for a shopping cart, I'd expect. Am too busy now to set aside time for a quality system of my own.

[zorz]

I have a Paypal cart for wedding package payments, but am considering Red Cart at some time in the future.

Liza, if I remember correctly, you considered getting a BluDomain template - is your PP module part of it now (at the last step)? How would Red Cart come into play? They don't offer its integration yet... Or is it all unrelated to Blu?

[JoesLdy]

I think the reason I can't get OsCommerce to work is that I don't have root access and it's trying to access a tmp file I can't create. Supposedly there are work arounds for this and I tried everything I could find online to no avail.

I need a better host... I plan to get one. I found some web hosts that include a lot of these PHP carts and galleries so you just click and install- I like! :)

[JoesLdy]

Oh, also.... do you still have to sign up for a PP account to pay someone using that service? I'm starting to wonder if they haven't made changes- seems to be popular!

[liza]

Liza, if I remember correctly, you considered getting a BluDomain template - is your PP module part of it now (at the last step)? How would Red Cart come into play? They don't offer its integration yet... Or is it all unrelated to Blu?

It's unrelated to Blu. I found out that they (reportedly) have horrendous customer service, so I'm looking for other options at this point.

[mtbkanata]

So am I but having designed my current site in Flash and after few loong manual updates I am thinking of an easier-to-maintain (not as less technically complex but less time-consuming) alternative, such as BluDomain. Same would go for a shopping cart, I'd expect. Am too busy now to set aside time for a quality system of my own.

One thing I always remember is that flash is cool, but it's not standard installed on browsers like Firefox, so I left the site flash free... They look really cool though, and I wish I had that skillset!

[PhotosGuy]

but it's not standard installed on browsers like Firefox, I have flash enabled, but whenever a site wants to load a new plug-in just so I can see it, I'm outa there.

[JoesLdy]

I just saw in another thread a post from Tim about his albums and cart. He's using EOS template (99.00 not bad!) with jalbum and looks pretty good for the money... I don't know if he's posted here or not but I thought I'd throw it in there since I don't think I've seen it mentioned yet.

Now a word on flash.

From a web development point of view, flash is still kind of a no no for the reason above. Not just the plug in issue, but the loading time. I am as impatient as anyone and I will quickly give up on sites that take ages to load- and sometimes just for having music.

Flash sites are beautiful, but I think there are other options out there for just as pretty without as much trouble.

Personally I think a PHP solution is the way to go. If you want to put some flash in your site (and I say this as a webmaster not as a photographer... as a photographer I like the pretty flash ehhe) you might add a link to your page for slideshows as an option. That gives your viewers the opportunity to choose whether or not they have to wait for loading etc.. etc...

Keep in mind as well that content is king for indexing with search engines, and as far as I know the crawlers still look for text keywords in addition to meta data and I don't believe the flash movies allow crawlers to see your content.

I think flash used to spell out "I paid big money for my website" and in turn would give people more sense of professionalism on your part. But these days you can go get a free flash site, so I think that appeal has been lost as well. People have flash MYSPACE pages... everybody's got one.

Just my .02 on flash... I don't suggest it to customers... so I wouldn't suggest it to fellow photogs.

Those blu sites are pretty but one thing I noticed is that they all seem to have splash pages (the initial page you have to click to get in to the site) and those are also a waste of space and will deter many people from your site. You want to keep your site down to a minimum of clicks to get needed info. People start to lose interest after I think 3 clicks?
Do a search on browsing psych... pretty interesting stuff on flash and splash.

Lookie there...I'm a poet and didn't know it!

[cdifoto]

I combined the best of both worlds, IMHO. Flash gallery smacks you right from the get-go and loads fairly quickly, the rest is interactive PHP. Not the fanciest site around but it works for me.

www.cdifoto.com

[Jayson Prentice]

Oh, also.... do you still have to sign up for a PP account to pay someone using that service? I'm starting to wonder if they haven't made changes- seems to be popular!

A person doesn't have to have a paypal account to pay via paypal. For instance if you have paypal setup on your site, you would of course need a paypal account; but the buyers just need to have a credit card and they can use the service no problem without having a pp account.

[JoesLdy]

I like your site- I think using flash in this manner is perfectly OK. That way the rest of your site will load and if they can't see the gallery at least they can get your info.

I do have one suggestion though, along with the note about downloading flash, you might give a link to a plain html gallery as well. Some people just will not download things, and it gives them the option.

I love your logo btw!

I combined the best of both worlds, IMHO. Flash gallery smacks you right from the get-go and loads fairly quickly, the rest is interactive PHP. Not the fanciest site around but it works for me.

www.cdifoto.com (http://www.cdifoto.com)

[Ray2006]

anybody tried photoreflect I here they are good.Have not started mys yet.

[Ray2006]

anybody uses photoreflect. how do they like it

[cdifoto]

I like your site- I think using flash in this manner is perfectly OK. That way the rest of your site will load and if they can't see the gallery at least they can get your info.

I do have one suggestion though, along with the note about downloading flash, you might give a link to a plain html gallery as well. Some people just will not download things, and it gives them the option.

I love your logo btw!

Thanks.

I might do that. The only reason I hadn't before was maintenance, but now that I can generate easy html galleries (albeit plain and boring) with Lightroom, it wouldn't be much effort.

Thanks again. I actually sucked it up and paid a designer. Best money I've spent so far.

[JoesLdy]

Ray- I am currently using Photoreflect. The service is very easy to use, I downloaded the web edition software free (which is buried deep in links now I believe so they can charge you for the other versions but it's still out there somewhere).

The software makes quick work of ordering, customers like the interface, you get a synopsis of your order via email including thumbnails and image names which I love.

The only downside is the 15% commission. If you price accordingly, that can be a non issue as well.

I had a very bad experience with one of their labs. I cannot say whether ALL of the labs are as poor on service (the one I used was in Cincinnati OH) but I picked the cheapest one and you get what you pay for ;)

I have friends who use the service and use self fulfillment (which is what I switched to) and they all love it.

Give it a shot, post a small shoot on the service and try it out, it wont cost you anything. If you want to check out my gallery to see how it looks and feels for the customer the url is http://devyneproductions.photoreflect.com

A

anybody uses photoreflect. how do they like it

[snapzz]

For my event site I use EOS Template and have done for years. Its cheap to buy for a one off $99. This includes any updates plus tech support via its Yahoo forum. You do need a secondary program to generate the galleries such as CS, Breezebrowser and a few others but you can also download JAlums which is free. EOS its a DIY shopping cart so a little html knowlege is handy but mostly its a case of changing 0 to 1 or 2. There is also many on-line payment options built into the template so plenty to choose from. Downside is there is no "save cart" function. This mean your customers must checkout before ordering from another gallery.
If I did not have EOS PicturesPro would be my first option This is more expensive at $275 (I think) but does offer much more.

[Mike-DT6]

I have just about finished building my website and I am looking for an add-on shopping cart feature so I can sell prints. I have done some reading on here and searching the internet, but I'm not really sure what I need. A lot of the shopping carts I have looked at seem to dictate the structure of the website.

My website is a simple frames-based site, with a thumbnail gallery for each category, each thumbnail image linking to the relevant image display page. Is there a cost-effective add-on shopping cart that I can add onto my website without altering everything I have done so far?

I just want to add a 'Buy' button next to each listed print size on the image display page and have a 'View Cart' link permanently visible so people can go back and forth to the shopping cart whilst browsing my website.

Any suggestions as to what I should be looking at?

Thanks

Mike

:-)