how do you handle print sales?

[John Jovic]

I'm interested to know how you guys handle print sales to car owners/teams.

My situation is one where I work for a third party (magzines), not the car owners, so I have no obligation to supply or sell the owners prints. However, I'm constantly being hassled to do so and am looking for a way that requires the minimum of effort on my part because I don't see it being hugely profitable, more a service.

I'm looking for a site that will display the prints, take the order, print and ship the print. I know they're around but I'm interested to get some feedback from those that have used them.

TIA
JJ

[Mark Scheuern]

Hey, John. I'm in much the same situation. Print sales aren't really my thing but sometimes I get asked. I have an account with Printroom.com and I'm very happy with them. It's easy to make galleries and set up pricing for different print sizes and assorted things like mouse pads, buttons, etc. They do an excellent job of printing and order fulfillment and are very nice people to work with. They make the whole thing quite painless and extra money from print sales is always nice.

Alternatively, I also recently signed up with PhotoShelter but I plan on using them mainly for licensing and archiving.. They also do print sales, though.

[Chris Clark]

Alternatively, I also recently signed up with PhotoShelter but I plan on using them mainly for licensing and archiving.. They also do print sales, though.

Up until now I've been putting together a custom web page on request so that individual's can look at what images I have of them. Not the most efficient way of doing things. Way too much work.

I recently signed up with Photoshelter a month or two ago. Great tool for archiving, as well as having an off-site back-up. Starting this season for my "amateur" events: NASA, SCCA, Vintage stuff I'm going to configure PShelter for the print pricing/sales thing. Tag the images, upload them, and let drivers browse and purchase. I think they'll even do print fullfilment, but I'd rather deal with the lab I've been using. I already know their turnaround times, print quality etc. Photoshelter is definitely something you may want to investigate.

-chris

[Dennis Murray]

John, I noticed you are in Australia...so what you need is the Austrailian cousin to Printroom (which is where I sell through). You might try posting to a more regional board to see what your local colleagues are using.

Printroom in the US and Canada does a great job.

[John Jovic]

Dennis, yep, you are correct. I do need a local equivalent to printroom.com but the only one I've found to date is basically too expensive. It's www.progalleries.com.au They charge a whopping 25% commission, whereas pretty much everyone else, in the US, charges about 15% or even less (www.imagekind.com). I'm trying to find out what's out there before committing too much time to set up galleries, load images etc, etc. A US service might be the better option as they all seem happy to post anywhere in the world.

Using the above Australian site, I worked out that for a $100 print a customer orders ($105 including postage) I would get $41 which doesn't really excite me.

JJ

[Dennis Murray]

If you use a US based company, your customers (and you on your commission check) would face currency charges.

A colleague of mine locally uses morephotos.com...they host, take the order, and then pass it on to you for fullfillment. They do support Australia as well...you only pay for hosting (per image) if you have a merchant account for processing CC's.

The other option is buying a shopping cart solution for your own site (but this can be pretty expensive).

[John Jovic]

Thanks Dennis
PhotoReflect do the same and I'm told by a local who uses them that they can pay by wire transfer, minimising bank fees. I've found a few local sites but not many. They generally seem a bit expensive compared to the Yanks. Economies of scale and stuff...

JJ