Allowing customers to browse the results of their photo sessions online opens the door to many more possibilities than a traditional studio visit. More than ever before, consumers have become accustomed to the convenience of shopping and gathering information through the Internet. To keep up with these trends, most photographers have a website showcasing their works and listing prices for their services. While this does provide a convenient way for customers to get information about their services, it does nothing to enhance the customer experience or directly increase sales.

Allowing customers to access their photos online creates a very liberating sense of choice. Customers are free to browse their photos, compare their favorites, and share them with long-distance relatives and friends when making their final print decisions. Often when given a larger selection with more choices and possibilities, customers will choose to order more prints.

The Mozart Photo System delivers a return on your investment in two ways. First, all of your customers will enjoy the benefit of being able to browse your work through a convenient and helpful interface. They can narrow down their favorites, discuss with friends and family, and place orders all at their convenience. The very nature of this service provides two key advantages for the photographer: increased exposure and increased sales potential.

Consider a photo session of a public event. Weddings, sports events, and socials are all excellent opportunities for an online showcase. Guests, participants, and relatives will be able preview and purchase prints directly and securely through your website. Distant relatives can order an 8x10 of the bride and groom. Parents can order 5x7's of their son's big game. All of these purchases are in addition to the prints purchased by the hosts of the event.

We understand the importance of protecting your work from unauthorized printing and copyright violations. Our first line of defense is the introduction of a permanent watermark on all images available for preview. The text, position, transparency, color, and size of the watermark are all configurable giving the photographer total control. The size of the preview images is configurable and is designed to not exceed the quality necessary for onscreen viewing. Subsequent product updates will implement full right-click download protection options to deter customers from even downloading the watermarked images.

Events can be listed as public or private. Public events can listed on the events page without requiring a search. Private event will require a login name and password. Whether an event is listed as public or private, it can be protected with a password. The password serves to restrict event access to a private audience.

The Mozart Photo System can be configured to support manual credit card processing, checks, and money orders. The customer can also be instructed to call with their payment information. Automated credit card processing and PayPal integration are under development and will be available soon.

If you already have a merchant account and access to a terminal to enter credit cards, you can use manual credit card processing. When the customer completes the checkout process, a portion of the credit card information is stored and accessible through your Mozart Administration interface. The remainder of the information will be sent in a secure email to your administrative email address. While this procedure appears less convenient, it is necessary for security reasons because it does not store the customer's sensitive billing information in one location.

This feature will be available in subsequent releases of the Mozart Photo System. If you are interested in this ability for your store, or have any other feature ideas for Mozart, please be sure to visit the Mozart forums.

We are always interested in hearing what our clients and potential customers have to say. Please post your comments, suggestions, and ideas in the Mozart forums. You can also leave a comment through our Contact form.