As a school, sports, dance, or event photographer you can now collect payment for prints and products before picture day. Starting today, you can set up pre-order packages and sell them to your clients before the shoot from within your Zenfolio account. Preselling packages online provides a simple and secure way to process payments, and can complement or replace paper order forms. It streamlines the process, saving you time and eliminating the need for your clients to wait in line to pay or send kids with money on picture day.

The new Pre-Order feature is available to Advanced accounts and includes tools to track and export order data. Even better, the shopping experience is completely mobile-friendly, allowing your busy clients to pre-order on the go.

Create Pre-Order Packages

• To access this feature from within your account, navigate to the Dashboard, click on Selling, and select the Pre-Order button that appears at the bottom (If you don’t have an Advanced account, you won’t see this feature.).

• Click on Create a New Pre-Order and start building your packages by easily populating them with any items you sell. You can give the Pre-Order a name, such as Smith High School, and you can name each package (for example, “Platinum” or “Package A.”) You can list the items included in the package description such as one 8”x10”; two 5”x7”s; 16 wallets, etc., and then set the price for each package. You can also upload a thumbnail image to represent each product package.

• Once you have your first package set up, you can create additional packages by duplicating the first one and adjusting the names, descriptions, and prices for the others. There’s no limit on how many packages you can create!

• If you want to arrange the packages in a different order, simply click on the arrows to the left and drag and drop the package in its new position.  

Include Add-On Items

• Add-on items can provide you with an additional source of revenue. Include add-on items, which can be either products or services, in your packages (clients won’t be able to order add-on items a la carte.) Or you can use this feature to offer a free gift with the purchase of a package. The choice is yours.

Build a Customer Information Form

• Next, create a form to collect customer information including the school name, the customer’s first and last name, and other fields that you can customize, for example, jersey number or team name. Your clients will complete this form online when they place a pre-order.

Client Ordering

• After you have set up the packages, add-on items, and the customer information form, you can share a link with your clients and request that they place a pre-order before the session. You can also set an expiration date to encourage immediate action.

• Once the client’s checkout process is completed, they will receive an automated confirmation message.  A new tab called Pre-Orders in the Sales Report dashboard allows you to see the order.

• After the session, you can place and fulfill the order.

Want to know more? This Support Article walks you through the steps of creating Pre-Order Packages.