Hi everyone!
I would like to finally bite the bullet and create an e-commerce page on my website. I usually sell my work in person, at art fairs or from galleries.
My concerns are:
Shipping from my inventory.
OR
Having a liason send out my work.
I am a photographer and shipping my pieces, be it metals, framed pieces, matted prints, etc. cost a lot of money! Also, it would be terribly difficult to ship my products because of all the packing supplies needed. Which brings me to my thought that I can have a company do this for me, but how? I currently use MPIX and they send everything out but matted prints. How would a comapny be linked? Are there better companies?
I am at a loss here and would love to get a jump on this as so many people ask me for my card to purchase something at a future date.
Any advice will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you so much!
Samantha
Replies
When someone buys something from inventory, I box it up, and take it to fedex. The shipping cost generally ranges from $30-$60, and these are 20 X 30 metal-mounted prints.
Depending on my inventory and upcoming show needs, I often have them drop-shipped from the printer, which is usually Bay Photo. When it isn't, I make more bespoke arrangements.
I looked at the "liaison" services, including smugmug, and they didnt fit my needs. I think they are better now, but I did not see an advantage to me given the low volumes of online sales (often, people walk by my booth, grab a card, and find me later).
Two takeaways: Depending on your printer, shipping may not be a big deal if you look into a bit. More importantly, think about how much you need/want to orient your business for online sales. Because you need to spend a lot of time matching the available print products to your own aesthetic, not to mention sorting all this pricing in advance. You can totally do that, just know what you're signing up for. Good luck!
Thank you so much Adam! So you just have a commerce page on your website? How do people pay you?
Sort of. There are instructions what to think about when ordering, and people email me. It isn't what I would really call e-commerce, because I'm not using the site (smug mug) to generate sales; it's just to showcase the work, and allow people who have already met me (at a show, or via word of mouth) to get in touch. I am not sure whether a genuine sales site approach is really for me, but it may be for you! Good luck!
Thanks again!
Personally, I use Squarespace for my web site and Printique for my prints. Printique has an API that allows you to create a storefront using configurations on Printique's site. It's highly customizable and fairly easy to implement once your web site is up and running.
Let me know if you'd like to learn more. You can visit my site at https://rjsnowphoto.com to see how it works.
Thank you Richard! I will take a look.
Shipping is an expense for everyone, either charge shipping or build into pricing. I see it as less than gallery commission.
Finer works blind drop ships my giclee prints so it looks like it's coming from me. Ask Mpix if they do that. I place each order myself but it only takes a few minutes. I'm not a fan of print in demand. I know some of them, like fine art America, have a widget you can embed into your website. However you can't control when they run a sale. Many of them you are just pointing to another website. If my own marketing efforts got someone to my website, ready to buy, I don't want them leaving and potentially looking at other artists work on a POD site!
Thanks Jill!
Check out SmugMug. That's what I use. You can just create a store page and link to your website. While it is an option, just be aware quite a few people say they want a card to buy and then don't later. Not always like that but Just letting you know that it can happen.
Thank you Stephen! I have been looking at them. What do you mean by "people say they want to card to buy...?"
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