Buying Experience for Photography
Whether it’s portraits, art, street or landscape photography, the average person rarely buys photos online. Those that do buy photos usually buy once or twice a year. The experience of buying photo prints can be daunting; which photo should you buy, what size, how many prints, should you change the aspect ratio of the photo, should you buy different sizes, etc. Since buying is done so seldom, the buying experience needs to rely on clarity rather than a speedy checkout process.
To construct a clear step-by-step approach, the buying experience was treated like a conversation: “what do you want to buy, what’s the size or variation of that print, do you want a different finish to the print, and how many prints?”
For the photographers with selling as their primary business, an “Enhanced Buying Experience” option is offered, which automatically displayed the buying experience and gave the lightbox photo viewing a much more commerce feel and stronger emphasis in selling.
Visually, we didn’t want the buying experience to draw your attention away from the photography. With that in mind, no icons or images were used for the first step of the buying experience, as a way to minimized distractions that can draw attention away from the photography.
We were able to vastly improve the photo purchasing experience by simplifying the buying process as well as enhance a look and feel that focused the attention on the photography. After launch, we monitored the buying experience activity and saw a 15% increase in photo sales from the previous buying experience. After announcing this change to all SmugMug customers, we saw SmugMug account holders upgrade their plan to including the commerce features.
Upon viewing the photo in the lightbox experience, the user has the ability to buy the photo by clicking or tapping the Buy Photo button. A panel will appear, providing all the buying options the photography has enabled.
It starts with a list of different types of products. Short descriptions were added to better clarify. The buying experience was purposefully designed with no illustrations or icons to give the photo its needed focus.
In this scenario, the user has selected "Paper Prints" which displays a list of different print sizes. Some of these sizes are not the same aspect ratio as photo. When the user hovers on a print size with a different aspect ratio, the print aspect ratio will the displayed over the photo.
If different paper finishes are offered, the user will have the option to select a higher quality finish at an additional cost. By default, the most cost effective finish is selected making this a passive step. The user can increase the quantity of prints and adjust/move the print cropping.
In the confirmation panel, the user can review the currently added print, view the shopping cart or return to the gallery to explore more photos and add make additional purchases.
An overview of the mobile buying experience.