Hi All,

To those with APUG Portfolios, you now have sales functionality built in. I think for the first release it's fairly decent. Here is a quick rundown of what you'll see:

From the admin side.. You will still use the same admin page located in your "My APUG" area "Edit your Portfolio".

New fields:

Currently paypal is offered for the automated sales, you enter your paypal address. This means all sales go through you and you alone, there is no middle man or commission scheme. Additional payment methods will be available in future releases. If you do not use paypal you can still sell prints (more details on that further down).

Enter your Country name so that buyers can determine if the print cost is national or international

And, enter any all encompassing sales details.

-screenshot-
http://www.apug.org/changes1a.jpg

New options on the print properties in your admin panel:

Number of prints for sale: if sold via paypal this number will decrease and the print will delist on zero qty.
Hide price: select this option to request buyer contact rather than listing a price
National price: print price + shipping for national sales (keeping this simple for now)
International price: print price + shipping for international sales (keeping this simple for now)
Currency: select your preferred currency (contact me if it is not listed and I can add it), this should also be what your paypal currency is set to
Additional details: specific details per print if needed, for example print size, etc.
-screenshot-
http://www.apug.org/changes1.jpg


If you decide to list prints for sale, your portfolio will then show the Buy option near the bottom <screenshot>
[img]http://www.apug.org/changes3.jpg


If someone clicks to view your prints for sale the sales page lists your available prints -screenshot-
http://www.apug.org/changes4.jpg

One neat feature is that the main Portfolios page now has a link that shows a unified view of all prints for sale -screenshot-
http://www.apug.org/changes2.jpg

If you have a print with multiple sizes or configurations it would be best to hide the price and request the buyer contact you. In the "Additional details" box for that print you can explain this.

Any sales generated or buyer questions will result in you getting a forum PM, so you may want to set APUG preferences to email you when a new PM arrives.

I have left a demo print up so you can see the system in action. As far as I can tell there are no bugs but I am sure a few will turn up so just let me know. I hope the community finds this useful.

Thanks!
Sean

National price: print price + shipping for national sales (keeping this simple for now)
International price: print price + shipping for international sales (keeping this simple for now)


OK, maybe I'm dense, but...
does this mean the price INCLUDES shipping, or that shipping is IN ADDITION to this price?
If the former, this might be tricky, as I don't think one price for shipping will apply to every destination, especially for international sales.

Shipping is always a problem area for such things. At this stage it's not coded and I'm looking for ways to do it. There are so many variables I'm not sure how to integrate it so open to suggestions. The current options are to eat the costs on variation, or not list a price requesting the buyer contact you. Once the buyer contacts you then invoice him via paypal or add your agreed price to the portfolio print at which point he could then click 'buy now'. Not the best options but I'll be working to improve it..

Stefano has four up for sale already and for something fresh out of the gate it looks really slick!

Murray

Hi Sean,
I've just put four prints to sell, and I like the sistem. Shipping is a problem, I did for an international shipping an average cost, and after I chose the less expensive.

A Well Done work Sean

Stefano

Stefano has four up for sale already and for something fresh out of the gate it looks really slick!

Murray

I agree. It looks really good and the shipping options are fit for purpose. Undoubtedly over time it good be further developed, but right now it looks great. Thanks Sean.

And veering a bit OT, having got some of Stefano's prints I'd like to add that his graffiti series is very, very good!

Ian.

Bravissimo ; It just look easy and great

Shipping is always a problem area for such things. At this stage it's not coded and I'm looking for ways to do it. There are so many variables I'm not sure how to integrate it so open to suggestions. The current options are to eat the costs on variation, or not list a price requesting the buyer contact you. Once the buyer contacts you then invoice him via paypal or add your agreed price to the portfolio print at which point he could then click 'buy now'. Not the best options but I'll be working to improve it..

I read this to mean that the price includes shipping.
Wouldn't it be better for it to mean the reverse, and the buyer could contact the seller about the shipping price?

Well, at this stage with configuration options you can have it one way of another. For example Stefano has chosen to have a total price including shipping:

http://www.apug.org/forums/portfolios.php?u=432&what=showforsale

And if you have a look at Gavin's, he is requesting buyer contact for pricing and they can work out the total:

http://www.apug.org/forums/portfolios.php?u=12991&what=showforsale

I have seen shipping controls built into paypal so it a future release of the system it should be possible to have a link that totals the shipping costs on the spot..

Thanks Sean. I just had a go at this and added a couple of prints for sale. Quick and easy. I wonder if it would be possible to have an 'NA' or 'Unlimited' option for number of prints for sale? I realise limiting number of prints for sale and pricing higher as you go is a common marketing approach for photography but I have given away as gifts or traded many of my prints over the years and I'm not inclined to keep a strict register of which edition I'm up to and how many might be out there.

Cool!

New options on the print properties in your admin panel:

Number of prints for sale: if sold via paypal this number will decrease and the print will delist on zero qty.


OK, another dumb question...
Does "delist" mean that the print will disappear from the gallery, and I will have to re-upload it if I want to print another for sale?

System looks great, great work.:D

Have had a tweak with the pricing etc on my portfolio (and will doubtless tweak some more!).

Cheers,
Gavin

OK, another dumb question...
Does "delist" mean that the print will disappear from the gallery, and I will have to re-upload it if I want to print another for sale?

No, basically no prints are listed in your for sale section if you have quantity 0 for sale. So if you sell out and it hits 0, your print is still there in your portfolio just not in your for sale area..

Also, I found a bug where if someone clicks "Buy Now" out of curiosity it will notify you that a print has been sold. I have a new bit of code going in to prompt the person who clicked to ensure they want to proceed with a sale or cancel the transaction. If you get notified and no money shows up from paypal you can assume that it was a transaction that did not continue 100%.. hopefully there will not be many of those..

Just a warning for anyone having a look at how the system works.

I had a look at a couple of peoples images for sale and actually hit the buy button which took me to paypal so I could see what was shown in PayPal. However I didn't complete anything in paypal but the system notified the sellers that I was interested in buying their prints which is going to be annoying for them when you are not really.

Hi Rob, I'm installing a box that notifies people of this when clicking 'Buy Now', which gives them the option to then cancel going further. I'm open to suggestions on a different way to do this. As I stated above if you get notified and no paypal money arrives then for now consider it a phantom purchase that never went through 100%

For those who want to test the workflow, best to list one of your prints for sale then 'Buy Now' your print to see what happens.

Hi Rob, I'm installing a box that notifies people of this when clicking 'Buy Now', which gives them the option to then cancel going further. I'm open to suggestions on a different way to do this. As I stated above if you get notified and no paypal money arrives then for now consider it a phantom purchase that never went through 100%

For those who want to test the workflow, best to list one of your prints for sale then 'Buy Now' your print to see what happens.

Sorry I didn't see your post sean. I think I may have been writing as you sent it. I had a couple of very hopeful PM's from now very disappointed people so thought I had better mention it.

Hi Rob, I'm installing a box that notifies people of this when clicking 'Buy Now', which gives them the option to then cancel going further. I'm open to suggestions on a different way to do this. As I stated above if you get notified and no paypal money arrives then for now consider it a phantom purchase that never went through 100%

For those who want to test the workflow, best to list one of your prints for sale then 'Buy Now' your print to see what happens.

I would suggest that if people have opted for paypal method of payment direct from apug, then there is no need to send the seller any kind of notification as paypal will do that when someone sends money.
i.e. some if else logic is required depending on selling preferences.
And if paypal is not a selected preference then take people to an email form to request info and only send that form if the send button is hit. That way there are no notifications unless genuine interest is there.

That's ok, as much as I try to test things and find issues you never really know until it goes live. The more feedback and suggestions the better. I'm so happy to see 120+ great portfolios listed and hope we get many who list their work for sale as well. I already have a list of features for the next release but need to get back to a few other neglected areas of APUG first (featured member, articles system, core system upgrades, etc)

I would suggest that if people have opted for paypal method of payment direct from apug, then there is no need to send the seller any kind of notification as paypal will do that when someone sends money.
i.e. some if else logic is required depending on selling preferences.
And if paypal is not a selected preference then take people to an email form to request info and only send that form if the send button is hit. That way there are no notifications unless genuine interest is there.
that sounds best to me..

more feedback...

I've had a quick look at the request for information (click here) and think its a bit impersonal. Any potential buyer who wants to ask for info is going to want to ask what they have in their mind at that time and not wait for a response to allow them to ask, by which time they may have changed their mind or forgotten what they wanted to ask. i.e. if someones interested, then let them get to the point quickly.
So, and I know its more work, I would show an email form with "name", "email" and "message" fields as a minimum so the buyer can actually ask their question there and then, and the seller can respond using the buyers name which is far less impersonal.

That sounds good Rob will work on that one.

As for the other issue I have removed the notification when 'buy now' is clicked. This should remove phantom orders. However, buy now click will no longer decrease qty of prints you have listed so when sold you will need to visit the print in your admin panel and decrease it manually. This should now cut down on any phantom orders and if someone does make the purchase paypal will email you the purchase details with print name.

Thanks,
Sean

Good Job Sean...

Stefano

Sean, the only option at the moment is to buy a print now.

What about those of us who print to order. At times it can be 6 months or more between printing sessions in my own case. I'd prefer to see is an option to order a print, perhaps paying a deposit the balance when the print is despatched.

Also: The currency setting for National/International are linked, it would be useful to be able to have the national currency as you local currency i.e. £'s, Euros etc and international as $

Ian

Hi Ian, I will put that down for the next version. For now I recommend hiding the price and requesting contact, also in the additional details per print you can state it is made to order.

I have a better contact seller system going in next week. The currency idea sounds cool and I'll look into that as well. I'll also add a few more currencies this week to the list..