How To Sell Prints With WordPress

We wanted to make it easy for photographer to sell prints so that is why we built NextGEN Pro Ecommerce. Now you can sell prints with WordPress.

When we decided to create an Ecommerce system for NextGEN Gallery, we received every Ecommerce plugin available, but did not find one that would be ideal for selling prints with WordPress. All the Ecommerce plugins we tried are fantastic for selling products in general, but not specifically images or photos.

What was missing? When photographers are selling prints they are unlikely to add a price to each image individually. The better method is to use Pricelists for images to connect with. Using this strategy, photographers can easily create multiple Pricelists and choose one default for a gallery. Then if the photographer wants an individual photo to use a secondary Pricelist or not make the photo available for sale, he/she can do that.

So we went with that method for the Ecommerce system in NextGEN Pro. We also wanted to make it easy for photographer to sell prints by including multiple payment gateways. So included in NextGEN Pro is PayPal Standard which only requires a PayPal account (an email address) to setup. We also included PayPal Express which uses an API provided free from PayPal, and is a reputable system over PayPal Standard. We didn't want to leave users with only PayPal as an option so we also included Stripe, which is a gateway that accepts credit cards without needing an account by the photographer's customer. The last gateway we included is payment by Check which allows photographers to accept payments offline and manually approve the order.

When an order comes in, the photographer receives an email with the photographs the customer ordered. At the time I'm writing this, all print orders must be self-fulfilled. That means the photographer must use the lab of their choice or print the order themselves, and then handle the delivery of the order.

Of course we also included shipping rates in the Ecommerce system. In fact, photographers have two shipping rate options for both domestic and international. One option is a flat rate added to the order, one for domestic and one for international. The other option is a percentage of an order, also separated for domestic and international. That means photographers selling prints can offer a shipping rate that is 20% of the order for domestic and 40% of the order for international.

For the photographers worried about photo theft, we have also included right-click protection and drag protection to help reduce the risk of theft.

As far as selling prints with WordPress, we believe NextGEN Pro is one of the best ways to do it. Not only do you get the benefits of the dynamic and extensive gallery management system from NextGEN Gallery, but you also get the Pro Lightbox which allows you to sell prints on desktop or mobile devices.

Sell Prints with WordPess

The Ecommerce system doesn't end there, though. There is a lot in the works and other features already included but not specific to selling prints. For example, the Digital Downloads feature is perfect for selling images as stock or for other reasons.

For now, we hope this helps you understand our Ecommerce system more. Try NextGEN Pro and start selling prints with WordPress today.

This Post Has 4 Comments

  1. Would be great if it also had an option to let clients pick their work up at the studio. Most of my clients do and now I have to juggle with the add on price for shipping in the payments.

    Maybe something for the next update?

  2. Would be nice if you could use more than one printing service, for instance, one in the States and another in the United Kingdom.

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