printsales - how to collect payments?

[menos]

I am setting up a gallery for a special project, for selling prints directly off my website.

I am now in the planning and site building phase.

I sold sporadic prints in the past on inquiries and collected the payment in advance via my bank account or Paypal account.

I am not very versed in fine print, is there any issue on just using my private paypal account for bigger sales in the future?
Am I forced into a "business model account" ?

How do you collect international payments, when selling prints?

Paypal offers solutions, to accept credit card payments without the buyer needing to open an account - any experiences with these?

I see the need, to offer payment by credit card or Paypal for international buyers, as international money transfers can be a pain and big hindrance for potential print buyers.

How do you do it?

 

[Chriscrawfordphoto]

I have had a paypal business account for a long time, because in the USA Paypal limits how much you can withdraw from your Paypal account each month if its a personal account. Business accounts don't have that limitation. This may be totally different for you though, since you're in China. I don't know what Paypal's rules are there; I know some of the European RFF members have mentioned that Paypal's rules and fees are different for them than they are for Americans.

I have a shopping cart on my website now that allows them to select what they want, enter their shipping info and then it uses Paypal to get the payment. Payments are in US Dollars, so Paypal translates the currency for international buyers so i get Dollars and they pay whatever amount of their money is needed to get me the dollar amount I charge for the print. They'll probably do the same thing for you to accept payment in Chinese money.

If you're going to have a lot of photos online for sale, you might consider implementing a full-featured shopping cart system from the beginning. This makes it easy to add new photos and to change things like prices and availability of different size prints, etc. anytime you need to. I use Cartweaver, and I like it a lot. If you know PHP or Coldfusion well, it is fully customizable to the point that you can actually add features that it didn't come with by changing the source code, which is included. You can use the basic stock install too if that kind of coding is more than you can do, and its pretty easy to set up. There are free open source solutions available too, like Zen Cart. I played with some and liked CW better because it integrates easily into an existing site design...and I had a lot of experience using it for a client who insisted on that particular cart so it was one I knew well.

 

[thegman]

You could take a look at e-junkie, it starts at $5 a month, and can integrate with PayPal, Google Checkout, and a lot of different things. Used it for a while now, and I can't complain. The Flash interface on the website is a matter of taste though.

 

[menos]

Thank you!
I do not plan, to sell prints, hosting the photographs on another site.
As the site building is done without much knowledge about programming, a cart integration from the get go is also not considered at this point.

Employing a person, who will continue to handle the sales manually after a certain volume is reached seams a better approach for now.

I will look into the Paypal Premium Account first for Paypal only payments and will add offering credit card payments, if I see necessary.

Thank you very much for the pointers regarding the shopping cart system Chris - I have bookmarked this, but at this point, it would mean a total rebuild of the site with another software, to implement.

 

[Leigh Youdale]

Thank you!
I do not plan, to sell prints, hosting the photographs on another site.
As the site building is done without much knowledge about programming, a cart integration from the get go is also not considered at this point.

Employing a person, who will continue to handle the sales manually after a certain volume is reached seams a better approach for now.

I will look into the Paypal Premium Account first for Paypal only payments and will add offering credit card payments, if I see necessary.

Thank you very much for the pointers regarding the shopping cart system Chris - I have bookmarked this, but at this point, it would mean a total rebuild of the site with another software, to implement.

Have you considered that to make the change later, after you've made the investment and set up the system you currently envisage, it may be a lot more expensive and troublesome?
Might it not be the right time now to change course and steer towards a new destination rather than finding you have stopped your journey only half way to your real goal?

 

[tlitody]

I would be amazed to hear of anyone here who has enough sales of images from their website to have to worry about the amount of withdrawls they can make. Not suggesting that images aren't good enough but that selling photos online does not usualy generate many sales.
Having said that, its easy to set up the right type of account at paypal which must be verified and paypal provide all the code you can place in your site to effect sales using a paypal cart.

But that code won't modify your stock on hand and to do that you need to write code to handle the call back from paypal so the cart is pretty useless if you don't have the skills to do that except it allows multiple items to be added to cart before final checkout. Do most buyers buy multiple images at a time? I think not.

If slaes volume is low its hardly worth the effort of doing it. It would be easier to just ask buyers to contact you and then send them to your payapal email address to make payment.
That way you avoid the paypal exorbitant charges for international sales and currency conversions if you only accept payment in your own currency.

 

[menos]

Thanks for the additional input regarding Paypal.

I second tlitody's thoughts about turnaround of prints for now.
My website, as it is has been designed after a few months of having my first real camera.
It's main content and structure is already a few years old now.

The sporadic prints, I sell after people inquire on an unofficial way should be more directed in a proper way after a redesign, which is in the making now and will represent better, what I do at the moment.

I judge Paypal offsite to be a fully appropriate way at this moment.
I don't intend, to implement on site shopping carts and payment handling, as this would make a complete switch to another site building software, complete rebuild of the site and outsourcing the site building necessary.
All points, which make no sense for the sake of a more official channel of print sales in this scale.