When to Print your Photos for Buyers

[Former_Member]

Instead of having 8x10's and 16x20''s and all other variations of a photograph already printed, is it ok to just place an order with ex: shutterfly and have it shipped to the customer?

I have not yet opened my photography store and do not have a reserve of printed photographs to sell and cannot afford to print a variety of sizes for all my different photographs.

What do most people do?

I know there is a digital file option but that seems scary to me. Are you not just handing over your work for someone else to claim and sell as their own?

[Former_Member]

Hi Rebecca,
I am not sure as I just started on Etsy. I will be printing photos once people order them. I just listed 13 photos today. My goal is to get 75 - 100 photos listed in this next week and go from there. You might be able to post the photos and print on demand like I am trying to do. All the best!
Scarlet

[Former_Member]

I'm doing the same. As the canvasses I'm selling are pretty expensive I can't afford to have any stock waiting, so I'm going to print on demand.

However I'd like to check the quality of every print I sell, so I'm having them first shipped here and then I'll send them on to my customer. Obviously that adds to my costs and slows down delivery, but I'm happier that I can do my own QA before sending them out.

[Former_Member]

I've been wondering the same thing to. At the moment I have had my photos made into 6x4 greeting cards and they've turned out really well. I'm just worried that they might not look as good if I blow them up to large sizes as prints but I can't afford to print them all first to check.

What should I do If I listed them and someone bought one and I wasn't happy with the quality of it when printed?

[Former_Member]

Why don't you have a few representative photos printed near your largest size? That way you'd get an idea how they'll look when you accept orders.

[Former_Member]

Currently I have some already printed as I do work with local vendors that sell my prints in their stores. But of my sizes above an 8x10 I special order, have it shipped to my office to preview and then forward it to the ordering client. I get off a little easier as everything shipped to me is free [thank you printers!] so I just insure costs to package, insure and ship to them is all that needs to be covered additionally.

[loreleilee77]

Rebecca,

I use a professional lab, Millers. I only place an order when I get an order from a client. They only charge $6 to drop ship to the customer. They never send the receipt with drop shipments so your mark up is not known to the customer. I like this route, because I don't have to have the prints on hand and store them. I also don't have to order them, wait until they get to me, just to turn around and ship it out. Plus some prints are really large and there is no way I could ship it as cheaply as Millers does. Everything is $6 and it is FedEx overnight. I have found this to be the best way of going about it. I hope this helps you.

[Former_Member]

Does anybody have any ideas to boost my sales?
https://www.etsy.com/shop/RGTPhotos?ref=si_shop