Selling Prints Online

City-Exile

Excluding Deviant Art, is there a website where you can create an account, host your images and present them for sale, adding a mark-up, in the same way that you can on Blurb?
At the moment, people e-mail me, I get the prints done and post them out.
I really don't have the time to manage this efficiently.
With Christmas fast approaching, I'm looking to get the service "outsourced", as it were.

Thanks in advance,
P.

Calina

Photobox do but you need to sign up to Photobox.co.uk AFAIR. Smugmug is also an option.

I was looking for alternatives in Europe as well but didn't find one.

xshayx

Have you looked at http://www.imagekind.com/

City-Exile

Sorry, I should have stipulated, I don't want to use a US based printer, if at all possible. EU based would be preferred, with Ireland based being the ideal.
I'll look at Photobox again.
Easy for me to setup a UK account, if needs be.

Thanks Calina.

stcstc

Its something i have been looking at setting up

where i host all the images, etc

and when orders come in both me and you (the photog) get copies of the orders.

i will print and fullfil the order and you get what ever the agreed profit is

s

OnLooker

www.eventphotos.ie

City-Exile

stcstc wrote: »

Its something i have been looking at setting up

where i host all the images, etc

and when orders come in both me and you (the photog) get copies of the orders.

i will print and fullfil the order and you get what ever the agreed profit is

s

Yeah Steve, that's the basic idea.
I'd certainly be happy to do business with you again.

Photobox hope to have their Pro Gallery live in January.
It's in Beta at the moment and has certain issues which need to be resolved.
It would be cheaper for them to run off high volumes of prints.

stcstc

yea i would be

I would be aiming at a slightly higher quality, like the print you got

kensutz

Interesting idea Steve and something I'd be interested too.

City-Exile

Seems like there's demand for such a service anyway.
Ideally, I'd end up with something which I could incorporate into my website.

stcstc

thats kind of what i had in mind

a system that photogs could build into their sites, and then everything is done for them

City-Exile

Freakishly, I've just received an e-mail from Zazzle, telling me they've launched their UK site.

Could be just what I need for the Christmas market.

emul

@steve again something I'd be interested in and in these patriotic times something I would like to do with a Irish based supplier whom I'm certain of.

Fajitas!

Redbubble.com do it aswell. Don't know a whole pile about them though.

It's something I'd be interested in doing at some stage myself, but not at the moment - The backend of my flash site allows me to sell off of it, but I'd rather create my own custom site for selling, and keep my own site for promoting myself as a 'Tog for Hire'.

In a perfect world, I'd love a service that looked like part of my own site, someone places an order, goes through the printer, and sends out to customer. *Cough* Steve *cough*! :pac:

and in these patriotic times something I would like to do with a Irish based supplier whom I'm certain of.

Not to lick arses here, but I agree. I'd trust Stcstc's quality more than I would the majority of cowboys out there.

City-Exile

Yeah, I'd want a front end that integrated into my own site.
At the moment, people send me cheques, which don't always arrive without several reminders and I then have to post back to my bank in Dublin.

Payment up front and images being shipped direct from the printer, would be the nap!

Paulw

City-Exile wrote: »

Payment up front and images being shipped direct from the printer, would be the nap!

It does sound like a brilliant idea. I'd also make use of such a service.

I guess there would be a number of factors involved - how payment was made, the cut for print/postage, profit, tax (and such revenue matters), etc never mind the quality of print and speed of postage.

stcstc

its exctly what i am looking at, more than likely it would be a frame system to intergrate into your own site.

I would then hold copies of the images on my server ready for printing.

I am thinking, there wouldnt be a charge for having use, but a commission + printing charge for using it.

and start quite simple, like prints only, prints & mounts, and prints and frames, with a simple selection etc

I have a courier lined up to be able to ship at a fixed cost etc too.

City-Exile

The pro agencies charge around €25 for a 10" x 8" print.
I think we could cover all costs and have a little profit, at that price???

stcstc

i need to do the maths, but would think you would easily make a profit on that price

Fajitas!

City-Exile wrote: »

Yeah, I'd want a front end that integrated into my own site.
At the moment, people send me cheques, which don't always arrive without several reminders and I then have to post back to my bank in Dublin.

Payment up front and images being shipped direct from the printer, would be the nap!

Yep, that'd be the dog's dangley bits. The whole cheque business dosn't work for me tbh - Too much faffing about (Ordering prints, that is. You're free to send me on all the cheques you want otherwise :pac: )

stcstc wrote: »

its exctly what i am looking at, more than likely it would be a frame system to intergrate into your own site.

I would then hold copies of the images on my server ready for printing.

I am thinking, there wouldnt be a charge for having use, but a commission + printing charge for using it.

and start quite simple, like prints only, prints & mounts, and prints and frames, with a simple selection etc

I have a courier lined up to be able to ship at a fixed cost etc too.

Sounds good then. I guess, (And I know I'm being fussy here) that keeping the frame system customisable would be very important - My colour scheme is pretty handy to match in with (Black, white, grey), but I know that not every site is. To keep it fluid with sites, colour matching would be vital - I know it probably sounds like a small part, but I'd like a customer pretty much thinking they're still on my site, while buying prints.

Of course, creditation and links to the hosting site can be put it, but I'm just fussy about colours :pac:

Of course, different 'togs have different needs. While (For this example, I'm just picking 3 genres... noone get uppity ) a gig photographer might just want to sell poster sized prints, relatively cheap, with no mount, a sports photographer might just want to sell 10 x 8's with say, a simple mount and have an option of a poster sized print, and someone selling say flower photos might want to go for a canvas option, and fine art paper option.

I guess... What I'm trying to say... and it's more work for yourself... but might be something to think about, the amount you can customise the process would be quite vital - And possibly more of a selling point than you might think.


All that said, I wouldn't say no way if it didn't have the above, I guess I'm just trying to give over a few ideas.

stcstc

al

they are all things i had thought of. ie the tog could put images up, decide on sizes etc available, and the look and feel i hope would work with most peoples sites. ie it looks like your inside your site still. the control panel would also allow you to set your prices etc. and give you a breakdown of the costs involved etc.

what i am trying to achieve is that its a no brainer, ie let me look after it all, you build it into your own site and processing of orders and fullfilment are all taken care off

City-Exile

Black background, white text would work fine for me.
Drop it into a frame.

Would it be possible to have the tog's details stamped on the back of the prints?
Just something simple, like contact & re-order details.

Fajitas!

stcstc wrote: »

al

they are all things i had thought of. ie the tog could put images up, decide on sizes etc available, and the look and feel i hope would work with most peoples sites. ie it looks like your inside your site still. the control panel would also allow you to set your prices etc. and give you a breakdown of the costs involved etc.

what i am trying to achieve is that its a no brainer, ie let me look after it all, you build it into your own site and processing of orders and fullfilment are all taken care off

Good stuff, I thought you would have thought of it already, but nothing like a second opinion

Anyways, I'm not making any demands, just suggestions

stcstc

al, sorry i ment its good to see i am thinking along the same lines

city, it would be simple to add a a laser printed label with details on the back of the print yes

Dodgykeeper

Sounds like an excellant idea for a service, and one which I would like to avail of!

City-Exile

Seems like this is a bigger market than I had imagined.
I'm going to use Zazzle for now, but it's free, with no comitment, so I'm not tied into anything, if Steve gets his project off the ground.

City-Exile

City-Exile wrote: »

I'm going to use Zazzle for now, but it's free, with no comitment, so I'm not tied into anything, if Steve gets his project off the ground.

This seems to be a non-runner.
From what I can tell, you need to turn your image into some tacky "procuct", in order to be able to sell it.

You can order prints yourself, but there doesn't seem to be any way to sell them.
I've sent an e-mail to their support, for clarification.

Fajitas!

Ugh, sounds like a pain in the ass, City.


Tack never works. Unless you can advertise yourself as a 'Lomographer'.

Rojo

hmmm this sounds interesting!

DaireQuinlan

Fajitas! wrote: »

Tack never works. Unless you can advertise yourself as a 'Lomographer'.

Careful now !

Stcstc just does inkjet prints though, right ? (correct me if I'm wrong here ...) I quite like the quality of those Fuji Frontier prints from photobox and the like, optically printed on actual photo paper. They just look ... better ... to me than any inkjet prints I've seen. That said, maybe I've just never seen good inkjet prints.

stcstc

i am hoping to have a test system up and running in the next 3 weeks or so

as for inkjet prints

I think its the quality of the prints you have seen i am sure

also the longevity of the prints is longer with ink that the fuji crystal archive that photobox use.

fuji cyrstal archive have a ideal life of 30 years (for colour)

fuji pearl with epson ink is ment to be 75, but all of this is based on accelerated testing though for both print types

City-Exile

The prints I've seen from Steve have been well up to the standard I'd expect.
I know the quality from Photobox is good, but in these uncertain times, I'd like to spend my money in Ireland.

City-Exile

It seems that I can share an album, by sending someone the link, and they can buy prints, but I can't add a mark-up to the price.