Phil Winter , Oct 12, 2006; 06:02 p.m.
Although I don't use a cart on my photography site, we do use a cart on our three e-commerce sites, and we've set up carts for several of our clients. Check out either 1shoppingcart or Professional Cart Solutions (www.profcs.com) either way, they are both exactly the same. We have set up several clients selling hard goods, and the cart works well. Profcs will handle digital media, but I've never tried to use that feature. It should automatically email the image when the order is complete, but like I say, I've not used that feature.
The product database and the shopping cart reside on the Profcs servers, but the cart and checkout page can be customized to resemble your site. Here's how it works - You add products to the database. The system automatically generates HTML that you put on your pages with a "buy now" button. When the customer on your site clicks the "Buy Now" button, they are taken to the Profcs server, which displays their item in the cart. If they want, they can go back and shop some more. When they're done, they click "Checkout" and fill in the normal shipping, billing, and credit card info, then click submit. It works well. And it is secure.
For the differnt licenses, you can set "options" on each product so that each different option has a different price. Using bird houses as an example, the standard house might be $35. If you want a copper roof, you select the copper roof option that might be $10 more.
Loading the database with products is easy, but pasting the HTML code into your web site can get tedious. I think they offer a free trial. So you can see if it will work for you.
The cart will work with Paypal. Make sure you get the service that allows payment by credit card. While more difficult to set up, I recommend you get a merchant account with your bank and a payment gateway, such as Authorize.net.
If you want to see what the cart looks like, we used it on this site: www.finishlinepro.com. This site has only three products, but the cart will handle an unlimited number of products.
You don't say what resolution you plan to provide - will it be just enough for web use, or will it be high enough for printed use? From personal experience, it's just about impossible to control the use of the image once someone else has it, other than limiting resolution for web use.
If I sound like a shill, I must admit we are affiliates of Profcs/1Shoppingcart, in the spirit of disclosure. So I want you to be aware that you can purchase (if you decide to do so) the cart through our site, www.webdesignpartners.com. End of shameless commercial!
Good luck, and let us know how it works out.
Phil