best cart for selling photos as digital downloads

[mcsolas]

Im seeking the best platform to build an ecommerce site that is based around selling photos. My main criteria is watermarking support and a secure file system so that people can url hack and down load the original before buying.

I have tried a few. I was going to build it on a wordpress site, using wp-ecommerce or woocommerce ( what we currently are testing ). Its great I can do everything but handle the watermarking system. The wp-ecom plugin was interesting in the it had an amazon cloud plugin which might be more suited for storing the massive # of 6mb photos we are going to upload as time goes on.

any suggestions as to some options either to move forward from where we are or try something else?

[carter.dorothy]

I suggest you to use oscommerce for your needs. Its really easy to customize and provide you a search engine friendly website.

[mcsolas]

most important factors I am seeing is how it handles protecting the uploaded files and if it can handle product creation from just one upload. In other words, you upload the image you want to sell, it watermarks all displayed items and offers it to the user in a variety of formats. in my case, I want to offer a digital download and also physically delivered products. we are partnering with a local print shop to fulfill print orders.

still havent found the perfect solution, so any feedback is welcome.

[gauravsaini03]

I suggest you vplanetcommerce ecommerce platform.

[mcsolas]

Not sure what that vplanet system costs, it looked expensive although I have no idea what currency it was priced in. I want to be able to choose my host. In working with the cart I mentioned (woocommerce) and still reviewing many more as we have not yet launched the site. I went looking for stores similar to what I want to build here - stores powered by oscommerce but didnt quite find what I was looking for yet. I went to some of the music ones but wasnt finding much I liked. The categories of sites I am interested in would be print related, something similar to some of the more popular art sites.

I am realizing that product import is really a massively important aspect. Potentially every day, we might post 200-500 photos. We have come up with a few workflows, such as giving each photo a unique name. I would like to then assign the sku as the same. Either way, the import process needs to support image import. I am going to keep looking, as I havent quite found my solution there yet. I have a great single image workflow but it kind of pales in comparison to the scale we want to achieve.

We want to sell our photos as framed prints and also offer the same item as a digital download. So far, its been hard to base that off a single "product". Right now I could do this, but I would have to configure 2 different products: One for download, one with the configurable options for buying as a frame.

[aheadWorks]

What platform do you use right now?

[mcsolas]

Im working with the cart I mentioned (woocommerce) and still reviewing many more as we have not yet launched the site.

...

[Lukevdp]

There are two main ones that I know of: www.picturespro.com and www.photographyorders.com (full disclosure, I own Photography Orders)

[mcsolas]

Thanks for posting some suggestions. I am going to take a closer look at them. Looks like they are geared around what I want to do, although I am not sure if there is support to add in ordering of prints and other physical delivery products.

[Lukevdp]

Both pieces of software I linked to will allow you to sell prints as well

[mcsolas]

Nice. Now we are getting somewhere! I had almost given up on this thread. I will take a much closer look and see where it goes. Thank you for posting.

[Lukevdp]

No worries. If you want further help, PM me what you want to achieve and I'll take a look at it for you

[bozzo22]

hi everyone, i have the same problem...for this guy here, krainyc.com/kids.aspx that is prettty much under construction, but i have to prepare with the same features, let people buy downloads, and send the physical printed pics that they bought...i´m worried, so much things to implement and no point to start with... and all this in .net c#
has anyone a knife???? i will need it soon , any suggest highly apreciate! good luck