The Photo Finale platform is designed to expand and shift as your business grows and the website is no exception. Products and pages are easy to add and change, so when you decide to move outlab products in-house, or expand to offer shipping, the website can change right along with your business. 

New? The items in blue text are action items for dealers just getting started with a PF site.

The Basic Building Blocks:

The core components of every website setup include:

  1. Product Catalog: The Product Catalog contains the prints and products you offer and is generally grouped by product type: Prints, Enlargements, Photo Books, Cards, Calendars, Gifts, Wall Decor, etc. Setup details:
    1. Get Started: Send us your product list. Include these minimum details: product name and output size/info required.  (If your 11x14 Metal needs an 11.25x14.25 image for production, we need that detail.)
    2. Print products are set up by size, and are not orientation-specific. (You only need 4x6 print, not also a 6x4 print.)
    3. We recommend to offer various surfaces as different products: 4x6-Glossy Print, 4x6-Matte Print. Depending on how many you have, you may like to group these separately.  
    4. For print products, you get the largest version uploaded by the consumer. If they have adjusted the crop, we will crop it to-aspect, but not to a size. If they have not adjusted the crop, you will get the full image and can assume a center-crop.
    5. For creative (template-based) products, most items render to a specific size. Items larger than 16x16 at 300dpi are scaled down. There are some select large, image-only type products where we output the original size, cropped to-aspect instead of rendering. 
    6. Products can have one multi-copy price, a discount on a print or product of the same image/size. This is helpful for any product where a second copy yields some efficiency so as to make sense to discount. Ex: a labor-intensive setup is needed only for the first one but not each item after the first, or shipping is built in, but adding an extra to the package is far less. 
    7. Products can also have tiered discount prices. This is common for prints and cards. If you want to incentivize a larger quantity purchase. Having a price of $2 but a price break at a quantity of 25 for $1 would mean that if they purchase 24 of the item they pay $2 each, but if they purchase 25 or more they pay $1 each. Pricing structures where the first 24 are $2 and the next qty added would be $1 would be handed as as promotion rather than as qty pricing. 
    8. Creative products that have a vertical and horizontals orientation, however, would be two products. We generally name these WxH, and some dealers prefer to also clarify by using horizontal/vertical, or landscape/portrait. (5x7 Metal Print and 7x5 Metal Print). 
    9. Any product can have a single-level of product "upsell" options. These can carry a first item price and a second-and-beyond item price. $0 is valid as a price. These options can also carry a unique product ID, so that you can tell based on the ID what was ordered.
  2. Landing Page: This is the first page users see for your online photo ordering website. Regardless if you have additional shopping pages, this page is where we begin! The landing page contains a header, body, and footer. The header and footer carry through to the rest of the site, no matter which type of site you have. The body contains your main product groups, services
    1. Get Started: Send us:
      1. Logo (In a horizontal orientation; vector preferred, or png with transparent background)
      2. About (A short paragraph for the bottom of the page)
      3. Social media accounts (whichever you want in the footer; if they are not active, we do not recommend to include)
      4. Services (Optional; we have a section you can customize for in-store services. The most common items to include here are passport photos, scanning, film development, portrait shoots. If you would like this section, please let us know name, 1-line description, and if it should link anywhere)
    2. PFE/More Pages: Need more than just one single landing page to show off your products? We offer a multi-page with mega-menu site called PFE (PR Enterprise) that turns a single ordering page into a full shopping site. Many dealers choose to start with PFE, but you can always upgrade from PFSR, too. If you purchased PFE, we will complete the product catalog before we build the site (so we know what pages to build!) 
  3. Lab 50 / Print 50: For production, you can choose to run either Lab 50 or Print 50. You get both--they are both in the Lab 50 installer, they go on the same machine and you can switch between them when they are installed...it's essentially a different way to view the same information. 
    1. Lab 50 and Print 50 are installed at the same time and use the same credentials and activation. Windows is required, and only one of the two software tools can run at a time. This is the piece that collects your orders for production and sends them to the printer or to a hotfolder.
    2. There are some pieces of functionality found only in Lab 50: create new user accounts, setting up triggered emails (new member email, order confirmation email, etc.), setting service fee, rush fee, payment settings, featured products, setting up coupons/promotions. Lab 50 also allows for product catalog setup, but we recommend using myLab as it's faster and more easily accessible. 
    3. Get Started: Install Lab 50. We will provide you with a link to the software installer and license and activation codes. This is a licensed product, so the "Lab 50 / Print 50" may only be installed on one computer. If you have a large lab with multiple production centers, you may like to purchase additional copies. 
  4. myLab: myLab.photofinale.com is an admin website for your photo site. You will use your same Lab 50 credentials to log in.
    1. Customer care tool: allows access to orders, customer info, account info.
    2. Order tool: You may mark orders complete here as well as cancel and refund orders. You can view and download files for orders.
    3. Catalog setup: The main function of myLab is as a product catalog and pricing tool. This is what we use to set up your product catalog initially, and where you will go if you want to add or remove a product, a group of products, or adjust pricing. 
    4. Reports: You can run many types of reports from myLab (sales, product, customer).
    5. Marketing: myLab has a basic emailing tool you can use to send targeted html messages to customers.
    6. Get Started: Log in to myLab. There's not much you need to do with myLab at the start, but once you have your login, we recommend: 
      1. Add your store info and hours to the Locations section. This info will get pulled into your landing page.
      2. Add email contacts to the Dashboard for various types of communications from Photo Finale. 

Growing Your Business:

  • Using Wholesale Fulfillment: Outlab products are a great way to offer item that you do not have equipment, labor, or desire to produce in-house. If you currently submit output products from your store by hand, or through third-party sites, let us know, we may already have that wholesaler on board and can add it to your site.  
  • Add Products: We have a huge library of products you can add to your online site. When you add a new product line, size, or piece of equipment to your business, we can work with you to make sure you can take orders for it through your website. 
  • Add Merchandise: Do you have frames or accessories? Did you know you can add any product to your PF site? It doesn't need to be photo-based. You can even have upsell options along with it.
  • Add Services: Do you do scanning, passports, film development, courses? We have many dealers successfully offering these products on their Photo Finale sites as prepaid/mail-in services. 
  • Add Prepaid Plans: Prepaid plans are one of the best ways to sell prints. Your members can purchase a pack of prints up front for a discount. The print credits get stored in their account to use when they wish. Once you set up your print products, this should be next on your list. 
  • Promotions: Coupon codes and promos are set up in Lab 50 and are a great way to pump up sales. When you have a promo that is not restricted (by needing a code, or restricted to members), it shows up in red with a strikethrough on your site–great way to draw attention to your great deals!
  • Customize Your Communications: Lab 50 has emails that are automatically sent when a customer orders, signs up, when the order is ready, etc. What do your emails look like?! This is a good line of direct communication to your customers, make sure they are on-brand. They are html files (like a web page), which means they can be adjusted precisely–you can include a promo, give info about your new product, communicate how your curbside pickup works, etc. 
  • Expand Your Site: We offer two levels of PF sites–the single-landing page "PFSR" site, and a fuller, multi-page "PFE" which starts with a similar landing page, but adds a mega menu and unlimited shopping pages to your site. This helps users navigate your site, and is great for SEO. 
  • Add Bundles: There are many extras you can add to your site: expanded shipping communications, our new video series, user interface enhancements, extra marketing pages... They are detailed here: https://www.photofinale.com/bundles/
  • Kiosks: If you have a brick-and-mortar storefront, adding our kiosks is easy. Having everything on on platform will make the experience consistent and seamless for your customers and mean super-easy setup for you. 
  • iPhone App: We have an iPhone app that uses the same catalog as your website and kiosk. The app is branded for your business and works on the same platform as your kiosk and website, so users can access and order their account from whichever device they want.  



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