Blog

Fotomerchant Alpha 2 Testing

Posted by Kain Tietzel at 10:44 am

We need photographers who can spend time going through the application, looking for bugs and interface inconsistencies and then reporting them to our support team. We’re only going to allow a limited amount of test accounts for a short amount of time and it will be limited to Australian accounts only. It’s going to be a case of “first in, best dressed”.

This is for testing purposes only – your existing photomerchant account login details will not work as this is an all new system. You’re under no obligation to have a go at testing the new system. When the time comes we will be migrating existing PhotoMerchant  accounts over to the latest version. Your current website will not change and will continue to look and feel the same. We are opening up the test platform for anyone who’s interested in taking a peak at what’s going on and also help us find any last minute bugs and/or issues in the process.

Create a new account and become a Fotomerchant alpha tester (Suitable for all people who have never been an Alpha Tester previously)

Existing alpha testers can sign in using existing account credentials (Only applicable to previous Alpha Testers. Your existing PhotoMerchant account details will not work)

Keep Reading…

PhotoMerchant Version 2.0 testers required

Posted by Kain Tietzel at 10:44 am

We’re looking for current PhotoMerchant customers to volunteer their time to help test and shape the next version of our photography website and e-commerce publishing software. If you’d like to take a look under the hood and be a part of history, simply fill out the Alpha/Beta Testing Program Survey. We’ll let you know in the next week if you’ve been successful.
Keep Reading…

2012 Christmas Processing Dates

Posted by steve saunders at 2:26 pm

Wow.. here it comes again! It’s time to get your Christmas on folks!!
If you’re using Direct Fulfillment you may want to pass this information on to your customers to help manage the end of year rush..

Australian photographers

Nulab Professional Imaging will be closed from 5.30pm Friday 21/12/2011 and will re-open 8:30AM Wednesday 09/01/2012

The following dates are to be used a guide for ordering specific products. ORDERS MUST BE RECEIVED BY 12pm (mid-day) ON THE DAY LISTED.

Wednesday – 12 DECEMBER

• Prints with frames
• Prints with mounting (non-acrylic)
• Canvas prints (that require stretching)

Thursday – 13 DECEMBER

• Metallic prints with acrylic mounting

Monday – 17 DECEMBER

• Last day for “Off Peak” despatch orders

Tuesday – 18 DECEMBER

• Metallic prints (unmounted)
• Canvas prints (without stretching)
• Last shipping day for NZ & Interstate orders

Thursday – 20 DECEMBER

• Last shipping day for Victorian orders

Friday – 21 DECEMBER

• 
Last shipping day for local Nulab courier

Wednesday – 09 JANUARY 2013

• 
Nulab re-opens at 8:30AM

Please note Nulab will continue to take your Direct Fulfillment orders during the Holiday Season. Orders will be printed on a first come – first serve basis once the lab re-opens.

US photographers

Burrell Colour Imaging will be delivering products throughout the holiday season with the same quick response that you’ve come to expect.

Burrell will however be closed on the following days this holiday season:

Thursday, November 22nd – Thanksgiving

Friday, December 21st – the lab will close at 4pm, Central Time and reopens on December 26th

Saturday, December 22nd – Closed

Sunday, December 23rd – Closed

Monday, December 24th – Christmas Eve, Closed

Tuesday, December 25th – Christmas Day, Closed

Saturday, December 29th – Closed

Sunday, December 30th- Closed

Monday, December 31st – New Years Eve, Closed

Tuedsay, January 1st – New Years Day, Closed

Burrel will be open all other business days in November and December to process and fulfill your orders as usual. Add extra delivery time for large prints and wraps.

So there it is folks.. make sure you plan ahead, get your Direct Fulfillment orders approved early and beat the rush!

Wishing you and yours all the best for the holidays!

The PhotoMerchant Crew.

New Acrylic, Canvas, Frames and Mounted products (Australia only)

Posted by Kain Tietzel at 9:38 am

Now available: new print, wraps, framed and mounted products

The wait is finally over and you can now start selling Fine Art, Canvas Prints, Wraps, Framed and Mounted products immediately through your PhotoMerchant website store thanks to Nulab Professional Imaging. Simply login to your account* and the new products are available for you to add to your existing Feature Sets and Pricing Models. Watch this quick video tutorialto see how you can add them to your existing Feature Sets and pricing models.

New print types

In addition to our existing Lustre and Metallic paper types, we’ve added some new paper types and sizes for you to sell directly to your customers with Direct Fulfilment. Please note that the Print options are not framed or mounted and will be shipped as is. Each print is guaranteed to last a lifetime. Keep Reading…

Making your website more awesome – Live Webinars

Posted by admin at 5:13 pm

Have you seen other PhotoMerchant websites and wondered “How do I do that on my site?” Ever wanted to add a facebook graphic, embed a video, create a funky slider animation or a just add a dollop of awesomeness but are not sure how?

Join PhotoMerchant co-founder and resident design guy Kain Tietzel as he takes your live requests and shows you how to make your website look more awesome in real-time. Places are limited to 20 people per session so be sure to book early.

Register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/36y3y/rt/181532922495893913

Dates

United States – Tuesday June 26
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM // PST
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM // CST
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM // EST

Australia – Wednesday June 27
9:00 AM – 10AM // WA
10:30 AM – 10:30 AM // SA & NT
11:00 AM- 12:00 PM //  NSW, VIC, QLD, TAS & ACT

United States – Tuesday July 10
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM // PST
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM // CST
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM // EST

Australia – Wednesday July 11
9:00 AM – 10AM // WA
10:30 AM – 10:30 AM // SA & NT
11:00 AM- 12:00 PM //  NSW, VIC, QLD, TAS & ACT

United States – Tuesday July 17
6:00 PM – 7:00 PM // PST
8:00 PM – 9:00 PM // CST
9:00 PM – 10:00 PM // EST

Australia – Wednesday July 18
9:00 AM – 10AM // WA
10:30 AM – 10:30 AM // SA & NT
11:00 AM- 12:00 PM //  NSW, VIC, QLD, TAS & ACT

Register here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/36y3y/rt/1815329224958939136

Hope to see you there!

Webinar video (archive)

The following video is of the webinar recorded on July 17, 2012.

Notice: Toll shipping price change

Posted by Kain Tietzel at 2:09 pm

This notice is for all Australian PhotoMerchant Direct Fulfillment users; the cost of Toll Priority Shipping has been increased to reflect new pricing costs from Nulab Professional Imaging (effective immediately).

Toll Domestic Normal was $15.00, now $16.50
Toll Domestic Large was $22.00, now $30.00

_{* Australia Post rates have not changed. Prices include GST.}

Win tickets to the Australian Professional Photography Workshops

Posted by Kain Tietzel at 11:08 am

Attention all Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Brisbane based wedding and portrait photographers!

How’s business at the moment? Is the wet weather slowing down your bookings? Finding it hard to upgrade your customers to buy the prints you KNOW they want? Looking for ways to grow your customer database and get more from your customers? If you want to get more from your business you really should get along to the Australian Professional Photography Workshops. Keep Reading…

What in the world have we been doing lately?

Posted by Kain Tietzel at 4:45 pm

We’ve not been mucking around I can assure you. It’s been a long time since we sent out an email newsletter or did some serious blogging, but that’s all about to change over the coming weeks – expect a maelstrom of news and updates. Here’s what we’ve been up to lately… Keep Reading…

Inside the Photography Business: Sharon Chapman

Posted by Pilar Mitchell at 10:00 am

PhotoMerchant: Tell me about yourself and your photography business.

Sharon Chapman: I’ve been photographing weddings for about 10 years, and have recently given up my full time job as a law clerk to focus on my business, Whole Package Photographics.

I also do horse racing photography, working for a trainer at Caulfield Race Course. I had a friend who owned a horse at Caulfield, and he suggested I come down to take some photos of trackwork in the morning, for something different for my portfolio. The trainer wanted a photographer to take photos to keep the owners updated on the horses’ progress and hired me as the stable photographer.

In 2011, I won the Quill Award for News Photograph of the Year, which has been great for giving my racing work exposure and credibility.

Keep Reading…

Alert: planned system upgrades

Posted by Kain Tietzel at 4:02 pm

Some of you have been experiencing a range of problems inside the PhotoMerchant Application and a slow loading times on your website. Some of these issues have been going on for some time time, others are new and bizarre. Thank you to everyone who has submitted a problem to our help desk and helped us research the problem.

The problems you may have experienced are:

• Slow loading category based galleries (website)
• Sluggish performance during checkout (website)
• Long pauses when viewing the dashboard and customer orders (admin)
• Gallery Order page appearing blank (admin)
• And a few others…

Over the past two days we have performed a thorough “biopsy” on the PhotoMerchant application servers and database. The good news is, we now know what has been causing the problems and we know how to solve them. The bad news is that we will need to make iterative adjustments to our database which is likely to cause some periods of downtime over the coming week.

This will mean that your Website and the PhotoMerchant Admin Interface will be unavailable for brief periods of time – most less than half an hour, and at worse, up to two hours. We are planning these outages so that they will have minimal impact on your productivity.

The result of these outages should see dramatic speed improvements on your website and in the admin area. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

Stay tuned for updated to this blog post and the Help Desk for more.