Ecommerce software - analytical review of different options

If you are an artist and want to market and sell your art online then one of the things you'll end up doing sooner or later is investigate ecommerce software. The aim will be to try and evaluate whether any of them do what you want and which one might work best for you.

For those who have never had to deal with anything more threatening than a new version of Microsoft Office, this can be a major challenge!

The first thing you learn is that, with few exceptions, most of the software is generic and not targeted at artists.

I've just come across a website called G2Crowd which provides a way-in to:

• understanding what the options exist relating to ecommerce software
• typically in-depth customer reviews for different products
• an evaluation and rating of different business software according to market presence and customer satisfaction

Home Page - GCrowd website

The idea behind the site is that there is too much spin out there in relation to products available for sale in the marketplace - and not enough well informed reviews.  

• The idea is to eliminate "vendor spin and outdated analyst reports".  
• Products ranks are aggregated from peer reviews and social data. 
• The reviews are intended to be real, unbiased feedback or ....advice from people who had actually implemented and used the software and related services

This, for example, is its page relating to ecommerce software and below is the widget it uses for demonstrating how one site relates to another.

• The y axis is documenting presence in the marketplace with those in the top half being the bigger players
• the x axis looks at the satisfaction scoring attributed to different sites - with the more established sites tending to have more and higher scoring ratings.

These are the policies for grid rating objectives and grid rating methodology. 

Compare Best E-Commerce Software

This is how GCrowd describes the four quadrants of the four cell table

The best E-Commerce Software products are determined by customer satisfaction (based on user reviews) and scale (based on market share, vendor size, and social impact) and placed into four categories on the Grid:

• Leaders offer E-Commerce products that are rated highly by G2 Crowd users and have substantial scale, market share, and global support and service resources. Leaders include:Amazon Webstore, Paypal, PayPal Payments

• High Performers provide products that are highly rated by their users, but have not yet achieved the market share and scale of the vendors in the Leader category. High Performers include: Miva Merchant, ChargeBee, Shopify, Demandware, cleverbridge, BigCommerce

• Contenders have significant scale and resources, but their products have received below average user satisfaction ratings or have not yet received a sufficient number of reviews to validate their products. Contenders include: Magento, IBM WebSphere Commerce, Yahoo Merchant Solutions

• Niche vendors do not have the scale and market share of the Leaders. They may have been rated positively on customer satisfaction, but have not yet received enough reviews to validate their success. Niche include: Zuora, CloudCraze

It's worth taking a look and checking out what you currently use (I've just had some validation of my choice to use PayPal for payments by clients!) and investigating how well it stacks up relative to competitors.

To the extent that dedicated software for artists actually exists, you can assess whether (1) it's recognised and (2)  its performance in the market in general for that type of product.

The ecommerce categories for software are

• E-Commerce Platform
• Digital E-Commerce
• Shopping Cart
• Live Chat
• Order & Fulfillment Management
• Payment Gateway
• Product Reviews
• Subscription Management

Click any of these links above and you can find the software which comes into this category.

Use the column on the left to define attributes and further sub-categories which you want to focus on. You'll end up with a list of options for your particular needs eg for Digital E-Commerce Software

You can also use the platform to assess other business and marketing software - for example, find out which product is rated as the best email marketing tool

Art in Transit: Handbook for Packing and Transporting Paintings

Art in Transit: Handbook for Packing and Transporting Paintings by Mervin Richard
Marion F. Mecklenburg and Ross M. Merrill is available for free from the Smithsoninian Institute.

Art in Transit: Handbook for Packing and Transporting Paintings by Mervin Richard

Marion F. Mecklenburg and Ross M. Merrill is available for free from the Smithsonian Institute.

Title:  Art in Transit: Handbook for Packing and Transporting Paintings

Synopsis: This technically detailed Handbook focuses on different approaches and procedures that will enable museum specialists (packers, registrars, curators, and conservators) to effectively use the results of the research of specialists in the field.  It includes tips and techniques also of relevance to those transporting high value artwork.

Summary review:  If you’ve ever wanted a comprehensive document telling you what to do when packing and transporting artwork, this is a good place to start. Although written for art galleries and museums, there’s a lot of information which will also assist the professional artist who is transporting valuable paintings.  Other artists will also find useful information in this large and comprehensive handbook.

Highlights Accessible: written in the language of lay people rather than art technologists / historians bullet points unpack the processes into easy stages key terms are highlighted in bold lots of useful sub-headings Comprehensive and evidenced synopsis of scientific evidence for best practices in the transport of paintings and other artworks Advantages and disadvantages of different techniques are identified Fascinating glossary Information derived from a variety of publications of note Use of a pdf format enables easy navigation of the document onscreen searches of the document

Think Again? NOT a “how to send paintings for beginners” document NOT for everybody.  Is it relevant to artists producing low value paintings (relative to art in museums)?  However some tips still relevant - and a useful resource of questions arise (eg case labels in different languages) NOT a quick read.The language may be accessible - but there’s still an awful lot of information. NOT a small document - 6.1MB pdf

Who should buy this?: Those wanting to know about good practices detailed in this book Those transporting valuable paintings to clients and to/from exhibitions Museum conservators Gallery transport technicians

Who should not buy this? Those unconcerned about archival practices and nature of packing required for valuable paintings and other works of art People who don’t work in museums have no need to buy this since its is freely available online

Author / (Publisher) Mervin Richard, Marion F. Mecklenburg and Ross M. Merrill / (National Gallery of Art, Washington)

Available from: no need to buy - it’s available for free from the Smithsonian Institute (click the title).   However if you’d like you'd like your very own personal copy you can try buying from via Amazon where copies are available for between $250-$1,000

Technical data: Copyright © 1991, 1997 National Gallery of Art First edition 1991. Second edition 1997 No. of pages Hardcover - pages Paperback pages; ISBN-10 ISBN-13 pdf document - 6.1MB file size

The contents include the following.  As you can see this is a technical document rather than a “how to send paintings for beginners” document.  It’s also particularly related to the conservation of very old paintings where the painting may be fragile

• Assessing Risks
• Criteria for the Selection of Paintings for Loan
• Selection Criteria for Frames
• Selection Criteria for Paintings on Canvas or Paper Mounted on Canvas
• Additional Issues for Large Paintings on Canvas
• Selection Criteria for Contemporary Paintings on Canvas
• Paintings on Wood, Ivory, or Bone
• Paintings on Metal and Other Nonporous Rigid Supports
• Transit Climate Conditions
• Expected Transit Environments in Summer and Winter
• Temperature Protection
• Insulating Materials
• Temperature Half-Time
• Temperature Half-Times of Packing Cases
• Relative Humidity Protection
• Wrapping Materials for Paintings: Polyethylene
• Wrapping Materials for Paintings: Glassine
• Wrapping Materials for Paintings: Kraft Paper
• Wrapping Materials for Paintings: Kraft Paper or Glassine Covered with Polyethylene
• Wrapping Materials for Paintings: Inner Packing Case
• General Properties of Silica Gel
• Use of Silica Gel in Packing Cases for Painting
• Shock and Vibration Hazards
• Shock and Vibration Hazards
• Vibration Fragility of Painting
• Shock Protection
• Fragility Factors
• Probable Drop Heights
• How to Use a Dynamic Cushioning Curve: Procedure A
• How to Use a Dynamic Cushioning Curve: Procedure B
• Optimum Static Loads - Quick Reference Table
• Load-Bearing Areas
• Vibration Protection
• Vibration Control for Canvas Paintings - Backboards
• Vibration Control for Canvas Paintings - Foam Inserts behind the Painting
• Vibration Control for Canvas Paintings - Stretcher Lining
• Packing Cases
• Case Construction - Structure
• Handles
• Skids
• Chemical Stability of Packing Materials
• Soft Packing
• Sample Packing Case No. 1
• Sample Packing Case No. 2
• Sample Packing Case No. 3
• Sample Packing Case No. 4
• Sample Packing Case No. 5
• Sample Packing Case No. 6
• Sample Packing Case No. 7
• Case Labels - English, French, Spanish, German, Italian
• Role of the Courier
• Glossary

POLL: Which "Print on Demand" site do you like the best? (Update #1)

Last summer I started a poll on Print on Demand - Resources for Artists to identify what people's preferences were in relation to different Print on Demands websites.

The popularity of the various 'print on demand' sites waxes and wanes. We know something about the traffic they get ( see the traffic charts below) but what do people think of them after they've used them and/or bought items from them? This poll set out to find out.

This is the situation some six months on.  44 people have responded to date.

Print on Demand Poll as at 12th February 2011

Print on demand - art prints/posters and other printed items

Clearly Zazzle is way out in front.

However looking at the preferences in the context of traffic enables us to get a better picture

Zazzle's premier position is echoed by the growth in traffic to their website.  Zazzle and Cafe Press are far and away the largest competitors with traffic peaking at nearly 7 millon a month in December.  However, since last summer, Zazzle has consistently attracted more traffic than Cafe Press.

Zazzle's traffic (blue) overtook that of CafePress (green) last summer
(January 2010 - January 2011)

Red Bubble is the newest website in this competitive marketplace.  It picked up second place in the order of preferences.

Again this is born out by the compete.com chart when comparing the traffic of Imagekind and Red Bubble - where it can be seen that Red Bubble has been beating Imagekine for all of the last 12 months.

Imagekind (blue) has been consistently losing out to Red Bubble (green) in the last 12 months
(January 2010 - January 2011)

Interestingly 20% of those voting preferred another site - but rather frustratingly didn't say which!

See Print on Demand - Art for more information, advice and tips about the different websites

Print of demand publications

In the print of demand publications stakes, Lulu is preferred to Blurb.  Again this reflects the relative position on traffic.

Lulu's traffic approximately three times that of Blurb (January 2010 - January 2011)

See Print on Demand - Publications for more information

Conclusions / your views

Overall, traffic is a pretty good indicator of preference - with the exception of CafePress.  This site has extremely high traffic but is not the site of choice for most people.  One can only assume this say something about people's experiences with the site or their reputation.

• What's your preferred print on demand website - and why?   
• Have you voted on the poll? - please update the poll if you have not yet voted
  

Call for reviews - NetworkedBlogs on Facebook

I've just put my main blog and this blog on NetworkedBlogs on Facebook.

I'm thinking of doing a review of this application at some future stage - from the perspective of artist bloggers on Facebook - and wondered if anybody would like to help out by offering your views (see questions below).

NetworkedBlogs is a facebook application. Think of it as a social network for bloggers inside facebook. Add a visual blogroll on your profile, and show of your blogs and blogs you like. NetworkedBlogs also aggregates the RSS/ATOM feeds from thousands of blogs and allows you to read the latest news selected by users like you.

Please only comment if you are an artist blogger on Facebook.
Any spam will not be published.

What I'd like to know

I'd like to hear about your reviews of this facebook application. You can use my basic queries listed below if that helps you. Please respond to as many or as few as you want to.

Accessibility and ease of use on installation

• How long did it take you before you discovered this application
  
• How did you find the installation of networked blogs?
• What did you think of the verification process?
  

Practical impact

• Has networked.blogs helped you to build a profile on Face book? (Do you have any numbers?)
  
• If yes, what if any benefits has that brought you? (If none, please say so)
• Specifically, can you tell whether it has helped with the marketing of your art? (Please say how)
  
• If it has brought you no benefits do you know why that might be?

The Directory

• What do you think of the blog directory generally?
• Have you looked at and/or started to follow any of the top 50 blogs listed under any of the art terms eg art; design; illustration
• What do you think about the Directory listing being limited to 50?
  

Do you like networked blogs?

• What's your overall impression of NetworkedBlogs after using it?
  
• Would you recommend it to other Facebook users?
• Would you recommend it to other artists on Facebook?

Anything else? Do also feel free to comment on any other aspect not covered above.