E-commerce Discussions

Non-US resident sales

rae2 — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 16:02:42 GMT

I live in Canada. If I offer photos for sale at a profit to anyone anywhere in the world and receive payment through my PayPal account am I not solely responsible to the Canadian "IRS" for reporting that income and for paying any provincial/federal taxes on the sale?

In Canada, an individual can sell as a "small supplier" up to $30,000 worth of goods/services per year without either collecting or submitting sales taxes. (Of course, that individual also cannot claim a refund on "inputs" purchased for resale either.)

So how does all this tax stuff work for me, as a Canadian or even if I lived in Lapland, selling photos through Zenfolio worldwide? This is an avocation for me - a hobby - not a business. I'm a retired guy on a pension. Of course, I'm probably just dreaming about selling even one print but what if I turn out to be another Joe McNally and have orders totalling $25,000 in 2010?

Thanks for your reply.

Richard

Is there anyway to sell gift certificates for the holidays?

visualsspeak — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 21:55:26 GMT

Had requests from people who would like to give gift certificates for the holidays rather than selecting something for someone else. Is there a way to do this through our Zenfolio site?

Additional frame markup

Kevin Pepin — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 20:59:57 GMT

I was just wondering why there is a difference in prices on framing direct from mpix vs zenfolio.

It seem to me that the cost for framing on zen is around 15% (some more, some less) higher than it is on zenfolio. Isn't zen already getting a service fee? Why the additional cost? It looks like the print prices are the same (except maybe volume discount) but frame pricing is higher.

The only reason this comes up is I was working on designing a brochure to give customers. I wanted to list the options available with pricing. I contacted mpix and they gave me the ok to use the images of the frames they have on their site in my brochure. That's when I noticed the pricing was off. I believe the pricing was off for all the mounting options as well like backing, glass, or mats. Can someone explain this? I might just be better of not offering framing on zen, and tell customers to place the order direct with me if they want frames. 14% on a 20x30 frame is enough to ask what gives?

Selling confusion!

jargra — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:29:00 GMT

I am almost cross-eyed trying to figure this out. If I click on the option to "allow ordering at prices I set" then I can't seem to find anyplace where I can sell other products. All I have available to sell in the shopping cart is gift cards, no prints, no mugs, calendars, etc. If I don't select the option to make my own prices, then it tells me I have no markup and no profit. Clearly I am missing something big here, but I don't know what?

Richard

Boston, MA

A way to combine shipping?

Momentum Images — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 02:54:23 GMT

I'm sure I've missed it somewhere, but I need to ask.

I have a customer who wants 3 photos. The system is setup to charge him shipping for each photo he orders. Is there anyway to combine the shipping so he isn't charged 3 times for shipping?

Is there a simple solution I seem to be missing?

Thanks,

Michael

Time to get paid

FlowingDesert — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 18:28:24 GMT

I just requested my first payment for sales over the past month or so. I found where checks are issued within a few days, but I don't see anything about the timeframe for Paypal payments going out.

What kind of turn-around have people seen? I see that my balance was reduced immediately after requesting, but haven't gotten an email or seen it show up in my PayPal account yet.

Thanks

Prospective customers need to view products

Cassie — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 21:29:50 GMT

If a customer does not yet have a gallery or password, whether they are just looking for a photographer or I do not have their photos ready, how can they view the products that I offer. I have a short price list for prints, etc. but would like them to see the full product list.

I know I can print or export to Excel, but I think the customers need to see the little photos that go along with the price list. Scrolling through hundreds of lines of words, descriptions, and prices, isn't inspiring and doesn't make them want to buy that product.

Any ideas or suggestions??

Thanks!

Cassie

Report enhancements?

FlowingDesert — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:23:17 GMT

Just wondering if it is possible to get additional information when exporting sales data. The key information for me that is missing is "Which gallery was this order from?" and bonus points for being able to include the file name.

I sort the export by gallery so I know which event it was from and thus how much I need to pay my second shooter. If that is possible today, great. If not, I will add this to the enhancement request list.

Thx

Question on coupons: restrict to a picture or collection

Jose Vigano — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:02:29 GMT

Is there a way to restrict the use of a coupon to a picture or a selection of pictures? Or perhaps to a collection?

The need I have comes from the fact that I have on my site (a) higher marging high end work as well as (b) more casual stuff available at near cost. I want to give a discount coupon for "a" but I don't want it to be used on "b" purchases otherwise I go on red.

Any suggestions are welcome.

Jose

What's the best way to apply a $75 credit?

dididaniellephoto — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:57:47 GMT

Hello,

I owe a client $75 off their print order. Can they put an order in, that will be left unapproved? Looking for a solution... Thanks.

: ) Didi

Selling Cards Through Your Zenfolio Website

CNelson — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:19:15 GMT

I recently stumbled across a service that allows you to sell cards of your design by a link from your website. It's called GREETING CARD UNIVERSE (GCU) and I've provided a link below. The artist gets $0.50 per card sale and GCU handles printing, shipping, collecting payment, etc. One of the advantages is that a customer can purchase as few as one or two cards at a time yet there are discounts for bulk purchases.

MPIX doesn't offer card sales through Zenfolio and cards ordered from MPIX, at least at this point, must be ordered with a minimum order of 25 cards.

I have two questions are as follows.

Has anyone on Zenfolio used GCU or a similar service?

Is a GCU link from a Zenfolio website OK with Zenfolio? (Is it compatible with terms of use?)

Here's the GCU link FYI: http://greetingcarduniverse.com/community/card_widget.asp

Chuck

IA sales tax audit

rbrstudios — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 16:50:33 GMT

I was recently blessed with a random sales tax audit, yippie! When I started Zenfolio I carefully read all the posts and legal documentation for zenfolio I entered my information for the state of IOWA. From what I understood sales tax was only charged on internet sales done and shipped to the state of IOWA.

well.....folks..... the state auditor has just informed me that ALL my sales done on Zenfolio, through Zenfolio and NEVER fulfilled by me are taxable sales. She is now requiring me to pay out of my pocket for the total amount that was handled through this site. I am PEEVED! If sales tax was to be charged, i would have charged it, now it's coming out of my pocket. She told me that Zenfolio is doing it incorrectly, and that these sales are all the photographers responsibility regardless of who fulfills them.

Of course, we are appealing her decision but in the meantime I have a big headache.

Can't sell digital products/downloads through zenfolio as a swedish/international customer

andreassandstrom — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 21:08:17 GMT

I'm from sweden and would like to sell digital products through zenfolio.
Since I want to sell my pictures through my own company and have my premium account registered on my company, the tax laws in sweden require some information about my company on the receipt you get as a buyer/seller

The receipt must have the following information in it:

-Product specification
- My Companys name
-My Companys VAT number
-Date
-Company contact information (like adress, phone, e-mail and so on, so a customer contact the company)

-Sales tax (VAT) must also be stated, If I sell a picture to another swede, the sale tax is 25% and must be stated on the receipt both in % and in value of the price.
-The receipt must also have a text "Innehar F-skatt" Which means that my company is registered to pay company tax.

This is very important for me to be able to sell anything from zenfolio to other swedes. As it is now, the receipt does not have that information.
Also, if a company (like a newspaper) buy an image, I beleive their company information must be on the receipt to.
This is information I got when I spoke to the swedish tax department.

http://www.skatteverket.se/otherlanguages/inenglish.4.3a2a542410ab40a421c80006827.html

I have some issues and features I would like to see zenfolio implement regarding selling digital products. This is one I find critical and I really hope you can find a solution to it.

best regards

Andreas Sandstrom

Selling Desktop Images?

CNelson — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 16:20:24 GMT

I am new to Zenfolio and this is my first post. My Zenfolio website (www.chucknelsonphotography.com) is about 5 days old and I've never had a website before so this is all new.

The purpose of this post is to throw out an idea and get some feedback and advice to see if it is practical. I was wondering if it would be reasonable to make low resolution (72 PPI) image files of select images and offer them for sale in a "Desktop" gallery. They would have to be formatted to fit certain standard sized displays.

A potential client would have to download the image file but I don't know if there's a way to set it up through Zenfolio so that they are charged for the download. I don't think there is. Is this a good idea for a future enhancement of the Zenfolio website?

Also, do you think it's risky to allow even a 72 PPI download of some of your best files? If so, perhaps it would be wise to place a logo somewhere on the desktop image to further discourage piracy.

I would imagine a desktop download would be sold for something like $5.00 max.

I hope my question/suggestion makes sense. Would desktop images sell? I don't know but I know people have appreciated some of my desktop images that I have made available. I look forward to opinions and comments on this idea.

Chuck

Friday Night Sports Shooters Trying to Figure Out How to Sell a Picture

bobchadwick — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 17:21:25 GMT

I, like many people here, have gotten the Friday night bug taking pictures of sporting events at my son's high school. While I'm not looking to subsidize my income, it would be nice to sell the occasional picture. People ask me all the time how they can order pictures but no one ever seems to.

I have posted the pictures here with the most recent pictures under the featured galleries at the top. The site still needs some work as it's only a couple of weeks old, but is already heads and tails above the presentation at Flickr.

The site is linked in multiple places; the high school sports sites, the kids FB pages, etc. According to Google Analytics I seem to be getting good traffic on the site over the last week with 195 individual visits and over 5,000 individual picture/page views.

I allow image saving to the medium size. Part of my problem, I'm sure, is that I allow image saving to this size with the kids and parents downloading this size and printing images. I have considered only allowing small image downloads but don't like the fact that this then limits the visible size of the print on the page. I know I could better control the download size through price lists and the cart function but I'm concerned that most people would not figure out that they would have to go through the cart to get a small picture download for free. This is something I would like to provide.

I have just started to mess with setting up price lists, having set up for 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10 prints so far. While I understand the reasons for the cost associated with MPIX' shipping and handling charges (I did a search and read several posts on this), it's not helping sell to this market effectively increasing the cost by 100% or more on any orders, where most parents want a single picture for the family scrapbook.

I have just started to read up on the Self-Fullfillment capabilities of Zenfolio but have not had a chance to study up on it yet.

How are others setting up their sites for this type of market; the parent that would like a sports picture of their child but doesn't have the equipment to take it?

How much do YOU Charge??

Lori DeLude — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:35:13 GMT

Just curious, how much do you charge for basic prints (4x6, 5x7, 8x10) .. and how much do you charge for digital downloads? I don't even know where to START in making these decisions!! Any input you can give in to what went into these decisions will help.

FYI: I completely understand HOW to set price lists here, just not sure what's fair to both my clients and to myself.

South African and creating new price list

nuttycow — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 08:10:41 GMT

Hi there.

I obviously don't have valid US tax number, so how do I go about registering to create my won pricing etc.?

Many thanks

Can I set up user-specific pricing?

Alleycatdad — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:54:36 GMT

Can I assign a price list on a specific-user basis?

What I want to do is this: I have a gallery of soccer photos for sale to players and their families--and an appropriate price list assigned to that gallery with retail pricing. My kid plays on the team and I want our family to be able to order prints using the gallery-owner no-markup price list. I don't particularly want to give them full account access by just giving them my username and password. Is there any way to assign price lists to specific users?

How else can I do this? Do I need to copy the photos to a protected gallery with family-specific pricing?

Thanks!

Steve

Applying coupon AFTER order?

BDP — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 21:57:08 GMT

Hi-

I have a customer with a coupon. She failed to use it on her recent order (on purpose, I think. I don't think she ever intends to use it!). I, however, want to give her the credit due her. She placed an order, can I somehow reduce her total before sending the order to fulfillment?

Thanks!

Becky
www.beckydohertyphotography.com

Does a coupon work like credit?

jridder — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 10:16:45 GMT

If I set up a $100 coupon as one time use that never expires, what happens to the coupon if someone only places an order for say $50? Will the coupon remain active until the balance is used or is it only good for one order?

What's your watermark philosophy?

alwheeler98 — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 20:57:19 GMT

I would consider my watermark to be on the more "secure" side. I have made that choice for a variety of reasons, but periodically I start to wonder if I am being overly cautious and am doing more harm than good for my photos and myself.

I'd like to hear some thoughts from other photographers who are using watermarks OR have made the choice to not use them.

So to get the ball rolling, what category would you consider yourself in:

a) It's my photo, and I want a watermark that will ensure that no one will be able to use the photo without my permission without a fair amount of work.

b) It's my photo, and I use a watermark, but I don't want my watermark to detract from my photo based on the slim possibility that someone will have the desire and know-how to "steal" it.

c) It's my photo, and I think my watermark is just a great way to brand and market my work. I don't care if someone uses my photo, as long as I get credit.

d) I don't use a watermark, but I only allow low resolution images online.

e) What's a watermark?

I'm sure there's other variations.

For example, I'm generally an "a", but for my IPhone gallery, I have a watermark that could be taken off pretty easily. If you really need IPhone camera art, and you really want mine, then more power to you.

If anyone has ever heard any feedback from CLIENTS (potential and existing) regarding watermarks, that information would be welcome as well.

Selling digital images

Lonnie — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 04:43:05 GMT

Hello, I'm new in town. Which way to the help desk?

I created a gallery of photos of a school reunion. I would like to offer the option to download the photos under a personal use license. I created the license but can't figure how to apply it to the reunion gallery. I would also like to create a CD/DVD slide show of the photos. How do I keep it all together as one group?

I appreciate all the help I can get.

Lonnie

Custom price for a single picture

FlowingDesert — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:39:34 GMT

I want to have a special price for 1 picture in a gallery. Can I do that?

Multiple client coupons to enter...a fast way?

klinksk8 — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:01:07 GMT

I recently had people put down a deposit for their pictures when they were taken. At that time, I gave them a coupon code that will essentially allow them to use that amount toward the purchase of pictures on my zenfolio galleries. Now I'm faced with entering each of the codes, and I wondered if there is a faster way than filling out all of that information for each coupon (all info stays the same except the coupon code.)

Thanks for any advice!

Paula

Sales tax applicable to digital downloads in AZ

speedisgood — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 04:33:52 GMT

So I need to be able to collect sales tax on digital downloads. How can I make this happen?