

Show HN: Review my startup - Posterhaste - Custom art prints and posters - samwillis
http://www.posterhaste.com/

======
samwillis
Hi everyone!

I have been working on this idea for a few months. I had hoped to get it up a
little earlier in order to get some more Christmas orders, but it took a
little longer than expected to finish it. HN isn't exactly the target market
for it but has been such a great help and inspiration for me that I thought I
would ask for your feedback. So, what do you think?

I have started with just some simple designs but have the infrastructure built
so that it is possible to add more designs very quickly. There are a lots more
'clever' designs in the works, such as those that utilise maps using D3.js
(i.e. you could create a print that shows your world trip on a map with flight
paths) and more intelligent layout of type creating word cloud images.

To give you an idea of the technology stack:

\- Django running in Gunicorn (using Gevent for long requests while rendering)
behind Nginx

\- Celery (with Redis) for a task queue and for talking to the rendering
backend

\- PhantomJS is used as the renderer for all current designs but its easy to
add different backends for new designs

\- The awesome Pwinty API (<http://www.pwinty.com/>) service for printing and
fulfilment. Tom has been a great help!

Take a look around and hopefully it won't crash...

~~~
chopsueyar
I see Pwinty has US shipping, but seems to be based in the UK.

Are US-bound prints from pwinty mailed from the UK?

~~~
samwillis
Yes, currently all items are shipped from the UK but I believe Pwinty are
close to partnering with a US based printer for US orders.

Our plan is to eventually show pricing to US visitors in USD and ship from the
US for quicker delivery.

~~~
chopsueyar
Can you estimate or do you know (approx.) how long it takes for an order to
arrive in the US once payment is made?

~~~
samwillis
Our estimated delivery times are:

\- United Kingdom: 2-3 working days

\- Western Europe: 4-5 working days

\- Eastern Europe: 6-7 working days

\- US and the rest of the Word: 7 working days

We hope to be able to improve upon the US delivery time early next year.

~~~
chopsueyar
Personally, 7 days is acceptable to me for a customized product coming across
the Atlantic ocean.

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listaware
One small comment. When I buy from stores, especially from niche ones, it's
nice to know where they are. Like "All items are designed in our cozy office
in Stamford, Lincolnshire, right in the heart of the UK country side".

The lack of contact details, really doesn't encourage me to buy from you.

Also, when I tried to buy something, I was surprised how clunky it was. It's
possible that I may want the same poster as the one you present, I'd love to
see the option to add that in (or have it in by default).

~~~
samwillis
Thanks, thats great advise. I will put our address and phone number on the
site.

The option to purchase the example designs is there, but I agree its a little
clunky, I will look into improving it.

Was it the checkout that you found clunky or the process of placing an item in
you basket?

~~~
listaware
The cart process was fine. Maybe more visuals like "buying now without
registration", which I think is possible, would be good. Decrease people's
pain as much as possible !

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bdfh42
I like the Lat/Long idea - and that looks well supported on that page.

Do you think the customer might in the future like control over the paper
stock and (maybe) the print process? If I have a great photo - can I get it
turned into a classy print? This might be a complete side-track so you should
probably ignore me.

~~~
samwillis
It is something I have considered, adding simple photo printing, but I think
it could distract from the main purpose of the site. Photo printing and
enlargement is a very competitive business and has relatively low margins
compared to the current product line.

I may add more printing options later but for now I think keeping it simple is
better. We do effectively have three printing processes, lab printing for
smaller sizes, large format inkjet for the posters and inkjet on canvas for
the canvases.

THanks for the feedback!

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cocoflunchy
I couldn't find on the front page how to make a custom poster... I had to
click on a premade one to see that I could edit it (and I only did after
checking the comments here).

Plus I had to read the very long introduction text to know what this what
about. My advice: let me play with the interesting stuff right away, or at
least tell me clearly in one sentence what I can do on this site. It will most
certainly improve your conversion rate.

Great stuff, but a little too hard to figure out !

~~~
samwillis
Thats great feedback! Thanks.

I will experiment with how to better describe how to use the site on the
homepage and make it a little more obvious how to customise a design once you
have chosen a design.

------
girlvinyl
Start adding these to Pinterest. I think you'll get a lot of traction there.

~~~
samwillis
Thats the plan, we have placed pinterest buttons on the site but should start
'pining' the stuff ourselves.

------
sksksk
I have a feeling that my sister might have ordered something of that site for
our father's christmas present. If it is the same site, she was very impressed
with the service and the product.

