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Vend photo cart Quick start guide...

This is a quick 10 step guide to setting up a client set and sending it to them. There are numerous options that you can play around with at your leisure.  You can find all of the options and descriptions to the backend in our comprehensive guide to Vend.  However, we thought you might like the fast track to get you started.

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Prep your images

The Vend interface never allows your images to ever be visibly larger than 1000 pixels wide in either direction. They should be saved as web ready JPGS before uploaded. If you upload images larger than 1000 pixels wide or tall, they will be downsampled.

 

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Where do I go to login to the backend of VEND?

For exact information, please see the emails sent to you during your initial installation of the product.  When you initially installed the product, you installed it at a URL in a folder.  It probably looked something like this: mywebsite.com/vend-proofing (unless you changed the folder name on the end).  If this is the case, then the admin location should look something like this: mywebsite.com/vend-proofing/?admin (just add the /?admin to the end of the URL). 

 

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Step1: Set up your contact information(the contact dialog window). VIDEO - contact form and splash page

1. Select the “Pages” tab
2. Click the "Contact" tab
3. Add a title for the page (ie: contact us)
4. In the "Description" area you can add your address, phone number, etc.
5. Your Website URL: in the first field add your http//www.com.  In the second Field add the name of your website (ie: Jay Reilly Photography)
6. Your Email: In the first field, enter your email address.  In the second field, enter your name.
7. Server Email: Leave this blank unless you have a Yahoo account or you know your server requires it. 
8. Click “Save”

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Step 2: Set up your Splash page/ gallery wall (Learn more about your gallery wall/login options) VIDEO - contact form and splash wall

1. Select the “Pages” tab
2. Click the "Splash" tab
3. Add a title that will appear in the opening Dialog box like: "Welcome"
4. In the "Description" field, write something like: Thank you for visiting my photo cart.  Your orders will be sent in x days, etc etc. 
5. Splash Page View:  Choose "Gallery Wall" from the drop down list.
6. Gallery Wall Sorting: You can choose from " Pinned, Active, Expired - Data Created Ascending or Descending " to "   Pinned, Active, Expired Alphabetical Ascending or Descending"
7. Auto hide Expired Sets Bool: Select "True" and this will remove expired sets from the wall.  (Keeps it clean and tidy)
8. Hide Image count: Select "True" and this will hide the image count for each set on the wall
9. Click “Save”

   

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Step 3: Set up your ordering options (REQUIRED)  |   VIDEO - sales tax, payment gateways, shipping, handling, etc

1. Click on the “Setup” tab
2. Click on the “Ordering” tab on the left panel
3. Ordering Email Inbox: In the first field enter your email address.  in the second field enter your name or company name.
4. Default Country: Select the country that you operate your business out of.
5. Default Currency: Select the currency that you conduct business in. 
6. International Purchases: Select "True" if you want to handle international orders
7. Allow Offline Payments: Select "True" if you want to all people to have the option to pay you over the phone or via mail. 
8. Enable Credit Card Payment Gateway: Select "true" if you want people to have the option to pay via credit card in Vend.  
9. Force browser SSL: Select "True" if you enabled Credit card purchases above.  If your server does not have an SSL certificate, select "False" or Vend will not work for security reasons. 
10. Calculate and Display Shipping: Select "True" if you would like Vend to calculate the shipping costs and add them to the order. 
11. Calculate and Display sales tax: Select "True" if you would like Vend to calculate the taxes and add them to the order. 
12. Allow local pickup: Select "True" if you would like to allow people to pick up their order to eliminate a shipping fee. 
13. Allow Discount Codes: Select "True" if you would like the ability to use discount codes. 
14. Shipping flat fee:  Add a numerical value to determine a flat shipping cost (ie 10 for $10.00)
15. Handling flat fee:  Add a numerical value to determine a flat handling cost (ie 5 for $5.00)
16. Shipping flat Rate:  Add a numerical value for the % you would like to charge based on the total order. 
17. Shipping is Taxable: in some regions, the government requires you to tax the shipping fees.  
18. Handling is Taxable: in some regions, the government requires you to tax the handling fees. 
19. Default US State: select the state you operate your business out of. (if applicable)
20. Default Canadian Province: Select your province.  (if applicable)
21. Prices include Tax/GST/VAT: GST and VAT on non US tax systems.  Some countries do not show their tax as a line item. 
22. Click “Save Changes”
23. Click on a location from the Tax representation panel on the right.
24. Click Edit at the bottom
25. Add the current tax rate.
26. Click Save Changes

     

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Step 4.  Payment setup options Paypal or Authorize.net and Authorize.net Emulators  |   VIDEO - sales tax, payment gateways, shipping, handling, etc

Paypal Standard options (not processing credit cards via Vend)

1. Click on the “Setup” tab
2. Click on the “Payment Gateway” tab on the left panel
3. Enter your email address that is associated with your paypal account if you want to accept standard paypal payment.
4. Click “Save” at the bottom

 

Set up your Paypal merchant account (Website Payment Pro) to accept credit card payments via Vend.

* please note that there may be fees associated with this type of paypal account, fees may be subject to change. *

 

1. First, you have to apply for a merchant account from PayPal. They will give you a Merchant username, password, and API key.This doesn't necessarily mean you have been approved.  Please check back with PayPal in a few days to confirm that your credit was approved.
2. Once you have been approved by the merchant, contact your host provider and activate your SSL certificate.

 

Log in to your Pay Pal Account

1. Go to "Profile" and click on it
2. Under "Account Info" click on Request API
3. Choose option 1 Pay Pal API
4. click set up pay pal API credentials

(2nd page api access)

1. Select option 2 View API Signature
2. Then copy username, password and signature

 

   

 

Log in to the backend of VEND

1. Click on the “Setup” tab
2. Click on the “Ordering” tab
3. Set the “Force Browser SSL” to “True”
4. Click “Save” at the bottom
5. Click on the “Payment Gateway” tab
6. Enter your Merchant username, password, and API key.
7. Click “Save” at the bottom

Hint: Make sure if you put in the PayPal merchant information, your server has an SSL certificate turned on and the Force Browser SSL is set to TRUE.

 

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Step 5: A La Cart/Packages/Papers/Modifiers  |   VIDEO - pricing packages, and more

* A La Cart is your image sizes and pricing.  
* Products allows you to sell other items, such as a calender or mug.
* Packages to combine multiple " A la Cart" items in one session
* Papers allow you to offer different types of papers like glossy, matte, etc.
* Modifiers allow you to add miscellaneous fees to any item you sell (ie: retouch an image $5).  

Each one of these are going to be set up in groups for use later in specific client sets.  For example: You can set up an A la Cart set called "Weddings" that you use for your wedding clients.  Then you will add formats to this "Weddings" set (ie 4x6, 8x10, etc.)

A) Setting up A La Cart

1. Click the "A La Cart" tab
2. Click the “New” button at the bottom of the left panel
3. Add a title for this group in the “Create Group” window (ie: wedding clients, portrait clients, etc)
4. Click “Save”
5. Now that you have a set created, start adding items one at a time to this set.
6. Click on the newly made set in the left panel (ie Weddings)
7. Click “New” at the bottom of the right panel
8. Title the first item 4x6
9. Add the dimensions 4 and 6
10. Add a price for this item (ie: $10)
11. Modifiers are optional.
12. Click “Save”
13. Repeat until this set has all of the necessary information.
14. Once you have completed the Weddings set, repeat steps 1-5 to create a portraits set.  If you like, you can follow the same process for papers by clicking on the papers tab.

 

B) Setting Up Packages

1. Click on the" Pricing " tab
2. Click the " Packages" tab
3. Click the “New” button at the bottom of the left panel
4. Add a title for this group in the “Create Group” window (ie: wedding clients, portrait clients, etc)
5. Click “Save”

1. Now that you have a set created, start adding items one at a time to this set.
2. Click on the newly made set in the left panel and click “New” at the bottom of the right panel
3. Name the package i.e " Package A " ,
4. The package image is optional
5. Add a package price for this item ( ie $100) and a shipping cost (ie 10)
6. Write a package description :
7. This package contains 1- 5x7 , 2- 8x10 , 3 4x6
8. Click "Save"

 

 

1. Next click on " Prints/Formats"
2. Click " New"
3. Title the first item 4x6
4. Don't forget to add the quantity ( how many of this item you would like to have in this package
5. Add the dimensions 4 and 6
6. Add a price for this item (ie: $10)
7. Click " Save"

make sure to repeat steps 14-19 to add additional items to this package.

Hint: When you set up the images for a client, you can link that client set to your prints, papers, and modifiers (for more advance info on modifiers).

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Step 6: Add your Logo(s)   |   VIDEO - design/branding, watermarks, and general options

1. Select the “Setup” tab
2. Click the "Design" tab
3. Dialog Logo: Upload a logo for all of the Dialog windows.  This logo should be no wider than 440 pixels.  We also recommend that this file is saved as a transparent PNG file.   
4. Navigation Logo:  Upload a logo for the left side of the navigation tool bar.  This logo should be no less than 40 pixels tall.  We also recommend that this file is saved as a transparent PNG file.  
5. Invoice Logo: add an invoice logo at (300 dpi 9print resolution)
6. Click "Save"

 

 

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Step 7: Create a client set   |   VIDEO - create a client set and learn about the options

1. Click “Sets”
2. Click “NEW”
3. Name the set  HINT: name it something simple like the client's name “smith”.
4. Select 'Basic"  for now.  This will allow you to upload approximately 300-1500 images into a one category set. (read more below)
5. Click “Create Set”

There are two kinds of sets, Basic and Advanced.  Basic is a one category set while Advanced allow for multiple categories.  During initial testing, we found that 10 year old computers can only process so many images on the wall- approximately 300.  Your typical computer we have successfully processed 1500 images on the wall at one time.   Your mileage may vary.

To lean more about this, read about advanced instructions here.

 

 

 

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Step 8: Adjust the settings for this set (optional)   |  VIDEO - create a client set and learn about the options

1. Click “Sets”
2. Click the client set
3. Click the “Settings” tab on the right panel
4. Enter a Password (optional)
5. Set an expiration date (optional)
6. A La Cart Group: Select an A La Cart Group from the sets you created in Step 5. (Ie Weddings)  If you set up package,paper, product groups or modifier groups, you can select those as well.
7. Enable Quantity Selection: Select "True".
8. Use the Global Soundtrack: Set this to "False" for now.
9. Include on Gallery wall: Set this to "True" to make this set appear on the gallery wall.
10. Gallery Wall Image: Add an image that is no taller than 150 pixels to represent this image on the gallery wall. 
11. Contact List: Add the emails of your clients in a comma separated fashion (ie: email1@email.com.email2@email.com,etc)
12. Click "Save"

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Step 9: Upload web ready images (see sizes above)  |  VIDEO - create a client set and learn about the options

1. Click “Sets”
2. Click the client set
3. Click the “Image” tab on the right panel
4. Click the “Upload” button at the bottom
5. Click “Add Files From your Computer” (in the new window)
6. Find the images you want to upload
7. Wait for all of the images to be done loading.
8. Click “Done”

 

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Step 10: Preview and Send

Quickly preview the set and the wall

1. Click “Content”
2. Click the client set
3. Click "Preview" at the bottom of the left panel

 and/or

1. Open a browser and type in the location of your flaunt installation.  ie: mysite.com/vend-proofing
2. This is a general place you can send client or link to from your website so that clients can find their set without you sending them the direct link.  

 

Send the client a direct link to their set

1. Click “Content”
2. Click the client set
3. Click the "Output" tab
4. Select "Bulk email" from the Drop down
5. Click the "Include Contact List" if you set it up in the previous set or add emails in the "Comma Separated email" field 
6. Type in a personal Message (the link to the set will automatically be included)
7. Click "Send Bulk Message"

Hint: Try it.  Send this to your email first and see what it looks like.

Looking for more information on the Output tab?  Click here.

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ONE MORE THING

Test:  We recommend that after this is set up you run a quick test with your own credit card and fake order.  This will help you make sure you did this correctly and get the feel of how it all works. 

Looking for our comprehensive guide to Vend?  Click here.