Hey Mike,

The modifiers are complected, more so, since many of the printing vendors that I use do not use a formula to figure out costs (at least not one I can find).  It would be great if I can offer prices based on material then size rather than size, then fake a price adjustment.  For example, MPix might sell a print for 89 cents, then if you want a metallic paper the cost jumps to $1.15.  Add on to that a lustre finish then you have a 24 cent increase in price.  Having a pricing range that is simplified makes it easier to plan out and deliver multiple types of print medium without having to figure out complex formulas.  I would prefer to figure out my costs first, then enter this information for each material and size + finishing + framing if so ordered. 

Let me know if you want to talk and I can bounce ideas off of you.  Have a great weekend!

Hi, I have a question.  What happens if you have packages where the customer should receive 2 - 8 X10, 4 - 4X6, and two sets of wallets.  How would you handle that?  And do the discount codes only work once per customer, or do they work if they are passed to other family members?

Thanks, 

Joe

You asked to different questions Joe, so let me break it down for you.  Michael can chime in if perhaps he wants to add information or correct anything as I am a customer and do not work for Into the Darkroom. 

Currently there are not "sets" as you refer to like you would get at Olan Mills >shudder<.  Instead, it is possible to create a custom coupon that can be extended to a customer for a pricing discount for a group of image - though it is not possible to validate that a customer order 2 - 8x10, 3 sets of wallets and so on.  I would think it is better that you manage these sets on your side and simply allow the flexibility of the shopping cart do its thing.  This allows you customer flexibility when shopping and still gives you what you are looking for, revenue.  You could still offer sets to the client to help guide them in their purchasing. 

As for your second question, discounts are based on 3 criteria. They are:

1. minimum shopping cart value.  This is a minimum value required that has to be met before a discount can be applied.  It could be possible to use this criteria when offering discounts for sets.  This functions more as an à la carte shopping cart, though if you wish to offer a "package" - then I suggest that you manage this from with the client and let the back end do what it does best - handle your clients purchase.
2. Expiration Date: This is a simple date that you set that expires the offer and can be used to drive business your way.  Try and use a 30 day window as I find offering anything more causes pessimism on the part of customers. 
3. Maximum Uses: This is simply how many times the discount can be used.  Discounts are per set and not transferable to other clients.  This applies to your question.  

In summary, you decide how many times you want the coupon to be used, what the minimum shopping cart amount should be before the savings can be applied, if the savings will be a percentage or dollar amount savings, and finally when the offer expires.  It is that simple.  So to answer your question, Yes, coupons can be shared.

Brian Krecik
http://www.briankrecik.com

While I appreciate the desire to be simplistic I must say not being able to have multiple price sets is very limiting. I can deal with just modifiers but the biggest problem with them is there is no way to restrict the availability of them as you may not want the modifier or paper choice to always be available.

For instance: Print sizes range from 4x6 to 24x36 and everything in between. You want to have a canvas option, but canvas (at least with my supplier) don't come in anything smaller then an 8x10 so you don't want your customers thinking that these are available. Currently the only way of doing this properly is listing all the options (paper and canvas) in the a la carte area - but this makes it excessively long and cluttered.

As far as I can see the only two possible solutions is to have a more powerful paper/modifier area or allow multiple price sets.

1. Not ideal but definitely workable. Would just prefer not to show things that aren't available to avoid any potential issue.

2. This would work but it is confusing to the person on the other end. They will just wonder why when they clicked add to cart that they have to reselect the image and why they have to nickname the purchase. Simple for me, but definitely not for the client.

3. The system still allows you to buy a canvas and select metallic paper option for it which really isn't an option. It's also a little easier with landscape photographers to limit the different size options for a given print but for a portrait/wedding photographer, we tend to allow for more options.

Right now I guess there is no great solution but the best option out there in my eyes is #1 (with the exception of an issue with the math not working)

I've just lost a couple of hours trying every imaginable variation to set up simple album offerings using the modifiers, packages, products, etc.  I've not yet found a way to: 

Offer Album A

1.  Price variable 1 - choices include 4 different image counts (album a, 16, 24, 32 or 40 images)
2.  Price variable 2 - album a comes in three sizes, obviously those sizes are of a different cost to the vend user.

Offer Album B

1. choices include 4 different image counts (album b, 12, 24, 36 or 50 images), price
2. and album b comes in three sizes, obviously those sizes are of a different cost to the vend user.

And.. tie a modifier to only album A as optional upgrades, as they are not available for album B

Packages don't seem to be a viable option, a'la carte seems to be the only option available, listing each album, image count options and size as it's own unit.  But that's just not pretty and we rely on pretty for sales as well as functionality for the end user, our clients. 

In an ideal vend we would have the ability to tie variables such as size, paper, modifiers to individual products ((and in a perfect vend the individual products would have pretty photos as recently integrated within the packages option))

Ideal vend would flow a little like this -

Product A >  Choose price variable 1 > Choose price variable 2 > Allow for optional upgrades via modifiers specific to Album A.

For me the math part is not an issue... that is done outside of vend...

I haven't given it to any clients yet, but I think I found a good way to make this work for portrait/wedding photographers.  So far I've only entered in the prints info, haven't started the album stuff yet.

Here's an example: http://eliwedel.com/proofing/#/set/2a99/

I put the size options and photo papers in the A La Carte category, then put the machine textures in the Papers category, and in the Modifiers category I put all the mounting options.  All of my prices use the advanced ECMAscript math functions, mainly  the max([minimum price], (A*[markup based on printing cost)) function.  I had to list the available sizes for each mounting option, but I think it's pretty understandable.  

Still working on the rest of it, but looks like this would work for me.

Something that I would suggest is having a required option for each pricing category so the user can't add the item to the cart until all required fields have been modified from the placeholder's value.

Eli - thanks for sharing that.  Here are my thoughts - for people outside of our industry, proofing feels complicated.  When I pull up a 30x40 portrait, and then go to the modifiers, it's simple.  Then when I hit more options - it becomes, confusing.  I *get* what you've done, but I think it might be frazzling to someone outside of our industry...

ITDR people - yeah you, with the messy cheetos fingers in the corner - anyway to make modifiers specific to a product?  without having to create an entire product line dedicated to the 5x7/4x6 which wouldn't either because we've limited our clients to one specific line.  Huh?  Huh?  :P

I thought about that too, but then I realized that I will most likely be seeing my clients before they look at their photos, and will be emailing them the information anyway, and with the personal message box in the handy 'Bulk Email' output under Sets, I can describe the procedure again and if they have any questions they can call me.  It's not they ideal way for a proofing system, but from what I've seen, this is definitely one of the best out there, which makes your photos look stunning, therefore hopefully increasing sales.  I can handle a little more conversation/emailing with my client if it means bigger orders.  

TBH, I think you guys are over thinking things.  It can't, and shouldn't be a one meets all solution unless there is a management tool allowing the back end setup of the system.  I run a business where I do some portraits but the majority of my work is fine art and Art for Commerce.  My clients rarely look at proofs and if they ask, I send them a contact sheet from either Bridge or LR,  In particular, I control how many of a particular print goes out as many of prints of EULA's or are a limited edition.

The system needs to be simplified to handle all situation otherwise they end up marketing for one area - wedding/family photographers.  There are a lot of other types of photographers out there and having a tool that meets the needs and is still robust is something that ITDR excel at.

Brian

In which case you would be free to use the features or not.  

But not if you have required fields...

Ah.. yeah.  Requirements not my brainchild.  

But having the *option* of making some fields a requirement would be nice.