Wow, I sure hope all this gets straightened out. I have 16 more days on my trial, and then I have to decide to pay "Pro" or leave. I know I could stay for less, but without the pro benefits, it's no benefit to me at all. I love the professional look and the support staff's attention, I sure hope this other stuff is clarified soon.

  While I agree things could be improved on, I am not sure I am following everyone correct. When I visit another photographers site, logged out to see what my customers will see. The very first option after I add images to my cart and checkout is to, Checkout without Registering. Its the Top one. Clicking on that and you are not ever asked to register. The only complaint I can agree with is the fact Zenfolio is on that page. While I agree no branding would be great, its not a deal breaker for me. Especially when the company is being open minded about these things and taking suggestions.

 I really have to agree with tagz here in that I don't see what the real problem is.  I don't do alot of online shopping, but when I do, if I have the option to buy what I want, without registering for a user account, that's what I do.  By the time I see that option here, I have filled my cart, and now all I have to do is enter my address and payment info and be done with it.  That is what I would do and I'll bet 90% of people out there would do when faced with those options.

As far as the shopping cart experience as a whole?  Can improvements be made?  sure...  Has ZF stated this is their first 'version' of the cart system and improvements and changes are forthcoming? several times!  Until then, it works and it works well in my opinion and I don't see alot of major issues.

And Carolyn, deciding whether to stay with ZF?  You've got some pretty special pics there.  Love the twin-turbo prop (guessing) plane in the sunset... and the two lorikeets?  gorgeous!  I hope you'll stay!  It's $100.00 for the year for the whole deal, $95 if ya use someone's code to save $5.00 (use mine! use mine!)  and look at how gorgeous those pictures look with ZF's clean and elegant pages...   :)

Well, I pretty much have decided to stay. I went back after all the responses toward the end and changed my settings so that collections aren't allowed. As tagz says, it's much better that way. I'm the same way about having to sign up when shopping online. Unless it's a "something-I-can't-live-without" item, I will pass if I have to sign up for anything. As I get more work here and possibly do some events that collections might really be necessary, this will work for me.

Thanks for your comments on my photos, Kevin. Yes, the one in the sunset you like is a twin prop. I have a gazillion other animals pictures, landscapes, and everything else in between that I will be uploading. Sorry, didn't mean to get off topic here.

Yes, the clean pages, smoothness of navigation and lightning fast response was what set me up for the trial. I'm sure I'll go with my gut instinct and stay.

This has been a great, productive, discussion. Thank you! We are already making some small incremental adjustments that should address some of the issues mentioned in the thread. In addition, as a result of this discussion, we will be adding some longer-term items that will improve customers' shopping experience.

I am currently evaluating both Zenfolio and Smugmug as choices for my site. I don't know yet how the other guys do it yet but from what testing I did on Zenfolio the checkout process can be really confusing to the user and I agree with all those above that asked for it to be changed. I like that Zenfolio offers the non branded shipping option  and that gives it a (HUGE) leg up over Smugmug in my book but why insist on a branded checkout page? Also I read that the competition is working on adding another lab to their service so the non branded shipping may be non advantage soon.

The Zenfolio branded checkout (or SM or other sites) smacks of a free service and lowers the credibility of the studio/photographer leading to lower trust and therefore lower sales. I know I would never buy anything from a site that seems like it's just a generic template hosted site that anyone can subscribe for as I would be afraid that it's a scam. Therefore I think you should strive to minimize the appearance of a geocities or whatever other free hosting with added photo fullfilment (the average photo buyer out there has no clue what fullfilment is all they care about is who they buy their photos from and who they give their CC to and where they may trust us the photographer they do not want to give their CC to a website that anyone can create overnight or they never heard of before). The customer comes to our site and they expect to have that experience with us throughout and introducing another company right in the middle can lead to lost sales (the way it is now A LOT of lost sales) which is not a good thing for both Zenfolio and us the photographers. The charge to the CC by Zenfolio can be easily explained either in the checkout process or on the CC statement itself with a service name change as someone above already suggested, or better yet with both so that's a weak excuse as well.

I also do not buy the argument that trivializes the availablity of base pricing to our cusomers. If someone wants to go digging by clicking on the little "powered by Zenfolio" link in the footer then let them and that cannot be stopped but to shove it in their face with a different look of the checkout and asking them to dig deeper and confusing the average users out there is just not good for business. This especially affects the wedding photographers and other event photographers.

I understand that you may want to boost your subscriptions but:

 a) people that buy photos and are not in the photo business themselves or do not take their own photos will be confused by the current checkout proces.

b) people that would subscribe to Zenfolio (at any level) if they are in the market for hosting for their site will ask us who our hosting is if they like the site and that word of mouth recommendation is worth 1000s of impressions you get from randomly throwing your brand at our customers hurting ours and your sales in the process.

The bottom line: The people that buy the photos ,wedding or otherwise, buy them from us the photographer, therefore the photographer branded checkout that only mentions Zenfolio in the CC charge context would be the best in user friendlines and trust and would boost sales for everyone involved.

I kinda quickly mentioned this before, but I want to give some example to it this time.  This is my opinion and I am not speaking for anyone else here, either personal or corporation:

I have NO problem with the branded service showing ZF or showing MPix.  I know in my area, Rockford, IL, that you can get your photos printed at walgreens, kmart, motophoto, target, walmart, sam's club, camera craft, lundgrens, etc etc etc.  So you as a customer come to me directly, get a proof book after your wedding, pick out your 50 favorite pictures and want 4x6's of each at $5.00 a pop, you just ordered $250.00 in pics from me and in 3 days I will drop them off to you at your door.  Where did I print them?  C'mon... tell me... where?  Did I get them from the best lab in the country?  Did I drive 3 blocks to Walgreens?  No answer?  Right... you DONT KNOW.  and I personally KNOW for a FACT that if you had photographer XYZ shoot your wedding here in rockford, your pictures you ordered were printed at Sam's Club on Perryville Road.  And for $35.00 / year, you can get your own Sam's Club membership and get those SAME 4x6's printed (if you bought the cd) for $0.14 each instead of $5.00 each.  So now you're a little smarter... so you're gonna ask.. where are you getting my pictures printed for me?  Walgreens?  Sam's Club?  or Camera Craft... the best in town processing...  hmmm???   Well Krista (one of my bride's names, not reflected on anyone on the forum) I'm having your pics printed at MPix, because they are owned and operated by Miller Photo Lab, which is the BEST in the country!  Great!  now I know you are having the pics done right Kevin!   (so now Krista goes home and looks up MPix online and finds pricing!  and she knows I marked up the prints to $5.00 because I took them!)   See people are not dumb.  They know that if they go to a pro to get photos done, they are gonna pay for it.  Pay sitting, pay photo costs...  you can't go to walmart photo studio and get your pics for $0.19 each... you pay.  not as much as you would the top wedding photog, but you pay... you buy an artist's painting, you are going to pay more than the cost of the canvas and a couple brushes and tubes of paint.  So I want my customers to KNOW that I am giving them the best printing service they can get.  And if ZF chooses to remove all branding.. that is fine.  I will put it on my site that I care about you my customer and I am having your prints made by one of the top photo fulfillment labs in the country, because you my customer deserve it.  See I'm offering a service here, and I want my customers to know that I'm offering them a good service.  My customers have come to trust me on that and know my integrity in how I do business.  They know I will not short change them, when it comes to their prints, or who I have handling their credit card transactions.  And I work hard for them to build that trust, and to let them know that I am giving them the best they can get.  And I will use that fact in marketing to new customers, because for me, it would be silly not to.

ok, I'm gonna put away my soapbox now, go home and see if anyone left me anything to eat for supper tonight.  thanks all for listening to my opinions, but don't feel I expect you to make them your own.  (and thank you also to all those who have trusted me enough to contact me outside of this forum for special help as I am thrilled that you would trust me for that also and am always glad to do what I can.)    :)

Just to back you up, Kevin, I tend to share the same attitude.  I sell art prints and people damn well better understand why they're paying through the nose for them.  And to any lesser extent, in the modern photography landscape which is SO competitive, I think all of us should learn to sell ourselves, our quality of work, our experience and decisions and attention to the whole process and result.  I'm always baffled and bemused when any photographer shies away from that responsibility to their own business (and profit).  

BUT, I know I'm in a different situation than most, so I definitely support any way that zenFolio can make the shopping experience less "confrontational" in this same competitive landscape.  Every way we can appear more professional (and zenFolio more invisible) is to all our net benefit.  

Though in my case, and like you, Kevin, I'll keep mPix branding "out front," because I too see it as an asset.  I guess I'm just seeing both points of view here.  I already know how to sell "my time and decisions are worth your money/my markup," but I do sympathize with those still learning to do that.   

 Having a choice to tell or not to tell your customers that you print with Mpix or WHCC or anyone else is quite different from the customer being forced to a white page with a big Zenfolio logo and only a text mention of the photographer at checkout ... and wondering what happened to the so and so photography page

 The photographer is the one providing the "blueprints" for the product, the Mpix is the one "manufacturing" and both of these have an effect on the end product. Zenfolio or SM or any other service is just a courier service that the customer (photographer) pays for $100/year + much more in % of sales to make their life easier and ordering as simple as possible for increased sales and therefore they get their cut and should be as transparent to their customer's customer as possible. That's just my feeling. Otherwise the sites do not feel professional and feel like something that is a drive by night special that's there now and may be gone tomorrow... I would think twice if I give my CC to sites like that. And as more and more people in the photography world know the name Zenfolio or any other service these are quite obscure services in the non-photo world and I would not expect my customers to know or trust anone else with their personal information but me if they are buying from me.

While we're on the subject of checkout would it be possible to list all finishing options on the page a la SM so that the customers have the option right there instead of having to dig for it in the ZF branded checkout page...

 These are my 2 main gripes so far with the service. The reason the second one is a big deal is because instead of telling someone "When you select your print you may want to try the metallic ones for something different that makes the colors stand out blah blah blah" now it would require a diagram with screen shots to explain to them how to order metallic prints or change the finishing options.

Bottomline for me is two things:

1. I could care less about what is charged to the customers CC statement.  I just want a good host with a good lab link that I don't have to worry about the quality of my prints.

2. I want the host/lab partner to be the invisible part of my ecommerce solution.  I figure I paid my $100 and ZF will get a pretty good chunk of chage in the % of sales.  My sales have already increased since moving here from Printroom.  I attribute that to the better laid out galleries. But, I seriously don't like the way some of the checkout works.  I want my customers to get a CLICK HERE TO PAY page that then redirects them back to my website or ZF homepage when they are done at the checkout.

[deleting a post I put in the wrong thread... way too tired... sorry]

Kevin, did you just post that in the wrong thread?  You might wanna use the Edit feature.  ; )

 I sure did... lack of sleep I guess... whoa... where was I?

 Totally agree with branding/non-branding option, as well as making the check-out process more transparent for the customer.

I second all of this, and all that has been written in other threads in the subject.

For me, as a potential ZF-customer, this is a HUGE showstopper!
Please tell me improvements are on it´s way - SOON!

I personally don't have a problem with customers knowing I'm on ZF, but I DON'T want them to HAVE to sign up for a ZF-customer account, just to buy my pictures. 

First of all, the shouldn't have to sign up at all, as long as they are ok with typing their credentials every time the place an order.

Second, IF the want to sign up, the should sign up in MY interface to a "customer account" rather than a restricted ZF-client account.
As it is today the customer gets a "control panel" (WHY IN HEAVENS SAKE?) and their OWN "album" in which they can do noting at all (except from maybe add their own collections?)

Again, PLEASE tell me this is sorted in the near future!
I just opted out from signing with Smug, due to their catastrophic way to handle payments (to me) and was ALMOST on my way to sign up here when I found this thread (and others)

Anyone know where else to go if this will not be sorted?
Getting desperate soon :-( 

/patrick