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5 of the Best E-Commerce Plugins for Photographers

Photography is a satisfying hobby for a lot of people. You might be wondering how you can turn your passion for pixels into a business.

Fortunately, the open-source foundation of WordPress means many plugin developers have created solutions specifically geared toward online image sales. For example, NextGEN Pro from Imagely is a great example of the power of plugins for online photography businesses.

In this article, we’ll take a look at the unique needs of photographers in regard to e-commerce. Then, we’ll review five of the best e-commerce plugins for photography. Let’s jump right in!

Understanding the Unique Needs of Photographers

There’s a lot more to running a photography business than lenses, lights, and smiles. In fact, photographers have to consider a myriad of elements and tasks. Such as appointment scheduling, password-protected digital galleries, and much more.

Just some of the elements you might need to consider when building a photography website or online shopify store meant for e-commerce include:

  • Watermarking your images to protect your intellectual property.
  • Creating password-protected galleries to protect your client’s privacy.
  • Building exclusive proofing galleries for client or event shoots.
  • Providing a variety of file download and purchase options.
  • Ensuring a simple checkout process for clients that works well on mobile devices.

Even if you operate your business outside of Europe, we also recommend becoming familiar with the European Union’s enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and how it might impact you. For photographers, it’s important to know that GDPR does view photography as ‘processing personal data’. This means for you as a businessperson, it’s a grey area that depends on the level of and type of photography you undertake. It’s best to consult the experts, however, and study up before you make a costly mistake.

5 of the Best E-Commerce Plugins for Photographers

Now we’ve covered a few of the unique aspects of online photography businesses, let’s take a look at some WordPress plugins that can help bring those specific elements of functionality to your website.

1. WooCommerce

Wocommerce

WooCommerce is a giant among e-commerce plugins and really is packed with user-friendly functionality for a base price of $0. While there are beneficial add-ons you might want to explore for various premiums, what you get out of the box for free is plenty to get you started.

As an open-source plugin WooCommerce is extremely customizable. Additionally, there’s no limit to the number of products or users you design your e-commerce site for. Lastly, it’s equipped to help you sell just about anything.

2. Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads

Easy Digital Downloads is a plugin specifically geared toward making your life easier if your niche market is digital photo products. While this plugin can handle any digital file download, it’s definitely a great solution if you just need a plugin for managing digital download sales.

Easy Digital Downloads is compatible with a wide variety of payment gateways. PayPal and Stripe come standard with the free version of the plugin as do many others. You can also offer gateway options like BitPay, CoinBase, and Authorize.net through additional free and premium extensions. For even more features, you can check out the four pricing levels offered by the developer.

3. NextGEN Pro

NextGen Pro

When it comes to learning about NextGEN Pro, the question is: How much time do you have? Honestly, we could talk about the features offered in this plugin all day! Most recently, the plugin has added an automatic print fulfillment extension to its pro plugin. After viewing proofs online, customers can choose to purchase prints and have them delivered to their door without you ever having to intervene.

NextGEN Pro is a premium plugin with several price options. Starting at $99 annually for one site, and ranging in features up to $499 for a lifetime license on unlimited sites, there is a plan for nearly everyone. This plugin comes stocked with 30 extensions to help you protect, display, sell and promote your photography.

4. Envira Gallery

Enriva

The Envira Gallery plugin stands out among other gallery plugins primarily because it offers a drag-and-drop gallery builder. This means you can be up and running with a beautiful gallery of images, designed to your liking, in roughly five minutes.

This is the ‘lite’ version of Envira Gallery Pro, so it has fewer features – but is still an excellent choice for fledgling photography sites. This is a highly extendable plugin and if you like what you see, you can upgrade to the pro version starting at just $29 a year.

5. Modula

Modula WordPress

Whether you’re a beginner or a professional photographer, Modula is the perfect match for everyone. It provides all the whistles and bells you’d expect from a gallery plugin. And the best part? Gallery creation takes less than 2 minutes. You can enjoy powerful gallery features, add social icons to your images, choose between 4 grid types (creative, custom, slider, and masonry), and much more.

As any other WordPress plugin from this list, Modula comes with two versions: Modula Lite (freemium), and Modula PRO (premium). If you upgrade to Modula PRO, you can take advantage of more features and robust extensions intended to make your galleries look professional – pricing starts at $39. 

Conclusion

There’s a lot to think about before uploading your best shots to your website and hanging out the virtual ‘For Sale’ sign. As such, it’s understandable that photographers have some unique needs when it comes to creating an e-commerce presence.

Now we’ve gone over some options, you’ll be able to get started with your photography sales by remembering these plugins, including:

  1. WooCommerce: An all-around e-commerce workhorse with a reliable reputation.
  2. Easy Digital Downloads: This is a solid, niche plugin designed to manage digital download sales.
  3. NextGen Pro: Feature-packed – and our overall recommendation for a photography e-commerce plugin – this is a premium, high-performance solution designed by photographers, for photographers.
  4. Envira Gallery: Build gorgeous galleries online in minutes with a drag-and-drop gallery builder.
  5. Modula: The best gallery solution on the market – Fast, customizable, hassle-free gallery creation without touching a single line of code.

Here at WP Tech Support, we can help you keep your WordPress site up and running. Plugin security is one of our specialties. We have monthly plans for any budget, so you can rest easy and focus on taking breathtaking photos.

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  1. See, if you are looking for the best eCommerce plugin for your company then this article is for you.

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