smugmug printing: packages, bulk pricing, coupons

[Chase]

I am each and every day wanting more control of different kinds of pricing, not uploads. Package pricing, bulk pricing, and orderable vouchers and coupons (from smugmug for prints). :dunno

[onethumb]

I am each and every day wanting more control of different kinds of pricing, not uploads. Package pricing, bulk pricing, and orderable vouchers and coupons (from smugmug for prints). :dunno

- bulk pricing : what aren't we doing well in this area? It seems pretty easy to bulk price things rapidly, but maybe I'm missing something?

- package pricing : incredibly difficult to do, because the pricing on photos and galleries differ so much. Would you want the package price to override all other prices?

- coupons : even more difficult. How do we explain to the customer, for example, that while they have a 10% off coupon, when they place a $0.29 print in their cart, they can't actually have 10% off of that particular print, because it doesn't have enough markup to cover the 10%?

There are so many landmines with packages & coupons that they're both very unlikely in the near future.

Don

[dashphotography]

I have posted on here several times asking for Smugmug to consider doing coupon codes. I shoot sports and events and offer discounts to the coaches/organizers because when I do so....they refer me business for sure. The last coach I gave a discount to sent an email out to the parents that generated 3 sales for me.

I end up having to find out what photos the coaches want and have those orders processed locally which is a pain...but I don't feel like creating duplicate galleries, passcoded for the coaches..with a different set of prices. Passcodes might slip out to other team members as well. A simple one time use valid coupon code that I could create on my end would be great. Amazon and others have them where you set how many times a given coupon code can be used..after 1 to ? uses it is expired and does not work. If a coach goes to reorder..they can call me or email me and I'll assign them another coupon code which would take all of 2 seconds to do. I want to continue marketing to the coaches offering them discounts because they DO send business. There are others here who thought the coupon code idea for that sort of thing was a good idea. We have PRO accounts with marked up pricing. Very marked up. Using a coupon for a picture that I didn't have enough mark up on to cover it would NEVER happen.

Yes I know the other option is for them to call me and I place the order for them. I still have to find all the pics they want, collect money, or talk them into giving me their credit card number. By that time..It's just as easy for me to get them done locally.

If anyone else has other suggestions on what we could do....by all means please give some input. There has to be an easier way than the hard ways mentioned above...... and a coupon code is the easiest thing that I can think of. Any other ideas?




- coupons : even more difficult. How do we explain to the customer, for example, that while they have a 10% off coupon, when they place a $0.29 print in their cart, they can't actually have 10% off of that particular print, because it doesn't have enough markup to cover the 10%?

There are so many landmines with packages & coupons that they're both very unlikely in the near future.

Don[/QUOTE]

[Nikolai]

- bulk pricing : what aren't we doing well in this area? It seems pretty easy to bulk price things rapidly, but maybe I'm missing something?I think what Chase (and others, me included) means is that price would be dynamically different if a customer orders "in bulk".
Example: 5x7 is priced at $4.99 if ordered alone, $4.49 if more than 10 images ordered (copies or different pictures), $3.99 if more than 50 ordered, etc.

So the Pro would only set the structure, which control the price change over the number of prints ordered.

- package pricing : incredibly difficult to do, because the pricing on photos and galleries differ so much. If this whole online photo sharing were easy everybody would do it, so nobody would come to SM, right? :-)

Would you want the package price to override all other prices?
I would, yes sir.


- coupons : even more difficult. How do we explain to the customer, for example, that while they have a 10% off coupon, when they place a $0.29 print in their cart, they can't actually have 10% off of that particular print, because it doesn't have enough markup to cover the 10%?
I'd say this is pro only feature, which would be enabled only if the marging is big enough - which is very easy to check at the price setting point when checking the validity of the prices. You would not allow negative prices now, right? Hence - there is a check point, it only needs to be more versatile..

There are so many landmines with packages & coupons that they're both very unlikely in the near future.

DonI agree, pricing, packaging and coupons are not a trivial matter. Especially with the abudance of the workforce you guys have in R&D:D
But... this is where the money is:dunno . Why not contract somebody to do it for you? You already did that with Mac uploader.:scratch
Those features would actually let the event photogs use SM as their full front, not just as the store window/display..

Just my $0.00000002..

[Gator]

If it were possible to at least have the option to set up my own packages and their prices that would be great!

[dashphotography]

My thought process on the coupons it that it could generate more revenue for myself and smugmug. Imagine if I could put in a coupon code that is valid for 5 uses only (like Dell does, etc). If I shoot an event and pass out a my cards and a flyer that says the first 5 people to place their orders get __% off, it does create a sense of urgency and I would be willing to bet that I would get more orders that way. Especially if I spelled it out that the coupon code was only valid for 5 uses! I think it would be a great tool for creating interest and some urgency in placing their orders.

It's just a thought on another possible use for a Pro Account coupon that could possibly work very well if marketed right.

[Mac Write]

Here are my thoughts on how all this could be implemented and <b>it would just work</b>. All features would be Pro only:

Bulk Ordering
Bulk ordering would be in the control panel under selling. Steps to create and manage bulk ordering:

Go into selling click "Bulk Ordering management"
click create new bulk order
Select photo size for bulk pricing
set what # of prints must be ordered to get bulk pricing
set % of discount

There also would be a "add another discount for this print size" which would allow you to set a even bigger discount on larger print orders of X size.

There also would be an error message that would come up saying "pricing below cost. Please set pricing to XXX amount to allow % discount."

Does this seem straight forward enough?

Package Pricing:

This would also be a control panel option handled in the selling section. You would go into Selling select "Package pricing management" and do the following steps:


create new package pricing
Option "Allow bulk pricing in package pricing"
Option: "Coupon for package pricing" (which coupon options outlined below)
Option: Set package price
select checkbox beside each print size you want in package along with # of prints of that size

Does that seem simple?

Coupon Codes

This is extremely easy to do. Control panel option under selling. Create new coupon set % discount, # of uses, expiry date.

Hope this helps everyone understand this.

Edit: Forgot to mention for coupon code you would also need to select what it's valid for (this part could get messy).

[Gator]

Sounds good to me. Think this is possible?:dunno