Self-fulfilment is most useful when your product requires an additional editing, production or fulfilment step before it is ready to be delivered to your customer.
When would I use self-fulfilment?
For standard digital downloads that don't require any additional work, we generally recommend using Photohawk's automatic fulfilment. This allows the purchased files to be delivered directly to your customer without any additional steps from you.
Self-fulfilment may be more suitable if you want to:
Edit or retouch the customer's selected photos before delivery.
Apply additional colour grading or other post-production.
Create personalised artwork using the customer's selected images.
Create custom digital products, such as digital race certificates.
Produce specialist or unique print products yourself.
Use your own preferred print lab or printing process.
Manage the production and delivery of a custom product yourself.
This gives you greater control when the finished product isn't simply the original photograph uploaded to Photohawk.
How does self-fulfilment work for digital downloads?
When a customer places an order for a product you're self-fulfilling, you'll receive an order notification containing the order reference number.
You can then:
Go to Orders within your Photohawk account.
Search for the order using the order reference number.
Open the order to view the order details, including the customer information and filenames of the images they've purchased.
Use the filenames to locate the original images within your own workflow.
Complete any editing, retouching, artwork or other production required.
Send the finished files directly to your customer.
Do I need to download the photos from Photohawk?
Not necessarily.
If you already have the original files stored locally, you can use the filenames shown within the customer's order to identify which photographs they have purchased.
You can then work from your own original files, complete any required editing or production, and deliver the finished files directly to your customer.
Should I use self-fulfilment for normal digital downloads?
If you're simply planning to send the customer the same digital files that were uploaded to Photohawk, there's generally no need to use self-fulfilment.
With automatic fulfilment, Photohawk can deliver those files directly to the customer for you, removing the additional manual steps involved in finding and sending each order yourself.
Self-fulfilment is better suited to digital products where you need to edit, personalise or otherwise process the customer's selected images before delivery.
Can I self-fulfil print products?
Self-fulfilment can also be useful if you offer specialist or custom print products that you want to produce yourself or fulfil through your own preferred printing process.
Rather than Photohawk handling the final fulfilment, you can use the customer's order information to identify what they've purchased and then manage the production and delivery yourself.
Who is responsible for self-fulfilled orders?
When you choose to self-fulfil a product, you are responsible for completing and delivering the finished order to your customer.
We recommend making sure you have a suitable process in place for regularly checking order notifications and completing self-fulfilled orders promptly.
Self-fulfilment allows you to combine Photohawk's galleries, AI-powered photo search and ordering tools with your own editing, creative or print production workflow.