What is RedCart?
RedCart is a host-it-yourself online proofing and shopping cart system for professional photographers. You install the system on your own web site (or we host it) and you maintain complete control over the print fulfillment process to maximize profits! Stop paying third-party companies commissions on your sales and control the entire process using the lab of your choice.
Where did it come from?
RedCart was designed and built from the ground up by photographers - for photographers. The cart offers a robust framework that allows you to offer more options to your clients based on your lab's products and services (ie. paper types, print sizes, and finishing options). It also allows you to sell other products that are not related to prints ie. Session fees, Albums, Gift Certificates...etc.
What makes RedCart different?
Our goal when designing RedCart was to create the cleanest, most user friendly photo ordering interface on the planet, and we think we did just that! It will not only make you and your images look fantastic, but it will get your clients excited about their photos. Excited clients + easy to order = more sales!
What else is different?
Most online carts are cluttered with things that can distract and frustrate the customer. RedCart on the other hand, is not only clean cut and looks great, but it is "smart" in the sense that it only shows the relevant buttons and controls that need attention throughout the customer viewing experience. This reduces button clutter on the screen and improves the ability for your customers to focus on their images without getting lost in the details.
How it works
- Use RedCart Desktop to resize your images, choose gallery options, upload, and activate your galleries.
- Your clients place orders and pay by credit card, by Paypal, or from a multitude of other configurable payment options.
- You receive the order details, fulfill the order yourself, and send it to your lab of choice without paying any commissions.
Fulfilling Orders
There are two different ways that you can fulfill your orders:
- Manually - using your favorite photo editing software
- Semi-Automatic - using the RedCart Fulfillment Script
The RedCart Fulfillment script is a script that runs in Adobe Photoshop. With a button click or two, it runs through all of your orders, crops them to the customer specified crop, resizes them, runs any black and white or sepia actions that you specify, and saves the resized images to a folder all ready to be sent to your lab of choice! Finally, there is a semi-automatic fulfillment method for a host-it-yourself online proofing system!
Use Your Own Branding
Configure the complete look and feel of the cart through the RedCart Admin screens. Upload your own logo, custom background graphics, change the colors, and update all screen notes and text without the need for hiring a web designer or developer.
It's so easy ANYONE can do it!
The LabCentric Model
RedCart's product configuration is based on what we like to call the LabCentric model. When configuring RedCart, you define a pool of products that your finishing lab sells using the actual lab cost for each item. After the Product Pool from your lab is configured, RedCart calculates target retail values to help guide you when configuring your pricing. Raise or lower your pricing across the board at the click of a button! RedCart allows you to offer a virtually unlimited combination of print sizes and finishing options to your clients.
Price Groups
After the Product Pool is configured and the retail calculation options are set, you can build subsets of products from your product pool called Price Groups. Price Groups are convenient for those of you that want to setup different pricing for portraits, weddings, sports, corporate events etc.
Analyze Trends and Key Financial & Product Data
RedCart's Admin is NOT your run-of-the-mill shopping cart Admin application. It's robust framework and LabCentric model allows you to accurately track key financial and product data with the use of charts and graphs. Compare this years financial/product data to what you did the previous year!
My Image List
Not only does RedCart allow you to sell photos online, it comes with an image selection tool that can be used to kick off the album design process! Use the My Image List section as a communication tool for your clients to select images for their albums, cards, collages, frames, story boards...etc.
Discounts & Promotions
RedCart allows you to create discounts and promotions of various types:
- Percentage off retail
- Dollar amount off retail
- Percentage markup from cost
Also, you can restrict the number of times discounts can be used, set minimum dollar amounts, and set expiration dates on discounts!
The Order Tracker
RedCart also comes with a built in Order Tracker. You can allow your clients to track the progress of their order as it continues through the fulfillment process via your web site. The Order Tracker is completely optional so you can enable or disable it depending on how you would like to run your business.
Gift Certificates
You can create gift certificates and specify dollar amounts in the RedCart admin screens. These gift certificates work like a gift card or mini bank account where the client can use the code over and over again in the shopping cart until the funds in the account are used up completely. You can also set expiration dates on gift certificates so that they are no longer valid after a specified date.
RedCart Technology
Peeking under the hood of your RedCart is guaranteed to impress even the geekiest of the technology geeks! V3 was designed & built with the most cutting edge Adobe Flash front end technology and is supported with a powerful PHP / MySQL back end which will run on the majority of web hosting servers.
BROWSER NAVIGATION BUTTONS NOW SUPPORTED!
Unlike many other Flash applications out there, RedCart allows you to use your browsers 'Back' and 'Next' buttons to navigate through the shopping cart without kicking you out of the site. Being user friendly is a top
priority of ours, and being able to use both browser navigation buttons in addition to the navigation buttons in the cart make RedCart the king of the user friendly hill :)
RedCart's database driven core allows the system to automatically save your client's selections and keeps them for 90 days without using cookies. This provides a user friendly experience and allows your clients to continue where they left off days, or even weeks later!
What do I need to accept credit cards?
If you only plan on using Paypal then all you need is a Business Paypal account. If you would like to accept credit cards and don't want to use PayPal then please see the FAQ and The Process for more details.
Setup and Installation
RedCart usually only takes a business day or so to get setup and running. We offer multiple licensing options to fit just about any professional photographer's business needs and budget. Free installation is incuded with all license options except for the Student license. To compare all licensing options please visit our RedCart License Comparison page. Please review The Process listed at the top of this page for more info.
