Frequently Asked Questions
Questions
What is Magnolia Soft?
Is Magnolia Soft easy to use?
How much does it cost?
How long does it take to set up?
What does Magnolia Soft come with?
Who hosts my website?
Do I need technical experience?
Can I see a Magnolia Soft demo?
How is Magnolia Soft different?
What is Art on Demand?
Do you have an email marketing solution?
How do you store personal information?
How secure are the online payments made on the site?
Do I need my own SSL certificate in order to take payments?
Do I need my own merchant account?
How will I receive payments?
Can you help with our Search Engine Optimisation?
How do I find out further information?
Answers
Magnolia Soft is the name of Magnolia Box’s e-commerce application designed to help Artists, Photographers, Galleries, Museums, Publishers, Picture Library's, Printers, Picture Framers and online retailers sell art and image based products online via their own dedicated e-commerce shop. Our art software provides art, image and print based businesses with a simple out-of-the-box application that can rapidly be deployed to sell fine art prints, framed prints, paintings, posters, canvases and a vast range of additional image based products over the Internet.
We do everything we can to make Magnolia Soft as easy to use (from both a customer and administrator perspective) as possible.
For customers, the website layouts have all been designed by analysing best practice usability and user interface requirements. We know they are successful, generating almost £2 million of online transactions so far, with overall sales values increasing rapidly every month.
For website administrators, the online administrative tools provide full control over all pricing, product and reporting information. You can edit your categories and control all your Search Engine Optimisation from the same simple interface. For further information, you may access our online admin using the following:
Username: freedemo
Password: giraffe
A standard Magnolia Soft website such as the Basic solution costs only £300 per year. In many cases, this charge provides you with absolutely everything you need to operate a successful online art, print, photography or framing website. Our more sophisticated Professional Products begin at £1,200 per annum and Bespoke work such as Website Design is charged on a case by case basis as dictated by your budget and requirements.
How long does it take to set up?
Project builds typically take between 1 week up to a month depending on the complexity.
All of our partners benefit from a fully managed hosting solution on one of the fastest and most reliable IP networks in the world. All sites reside on a fully redundant and scalable server architecture which provides lightening fast response times. Click the following links for further information about our Technical Architecture and Data Centre.
Do I need technical experience?
Not at all. We're here to assist you through every step of the process and your dedicated Account Manager and Developer will be on hand to help whenever you need it.
What does Magnolia Soft come with?
Magnolia Soft comes with everything you require to sell art and prints online. You will receive a fully hosted e-commerce website with full administration tools to manage and maintain your account. The solution comes complete with everything required to operate a successful online art and print business, hosted on your own domain.
Can I see a Magnolia Soft demo?
You can visit anyone of the following client sites if you wish to see a live demo of the Magnolia Soft application:
You can also visit our online admin demo using the following information:
Username: freedemo
Password: giraffe
How is Magnolia Soft different?
Flexibility is our key differentiator. We are able to simultaneously integrate with a very wide range of print partners, manufacturing partners and content partners whilst dynamically managing all of these relationships according to your specific requirements.
Our solution has also been exclusively designed to assist individuals and businesses sell art online. We have not redesigned a generic e-commerce application, instead we created an e-commerce solution designed to exclusively to sell fine art prints, photographs, original paintings and framed pictures.
Magnolia Soft is also extremely cost effective; our charges are deliberately kept as low as possible to aid our client's return on investment and profitability.
Magnolia Soft enables our clients to leverage our Art on Demand infrastructure, thus helping you produce high quality single or limited edition fine art prints and your customers can even upload their own photographs to your website using our photo to art application.
Finally, Magnolia Soft continues to evolve. We are always adding unique features with new improvements and upgrades being released every single week.
Art on Demand (or Print on Demand) describes the process of transferring a high-resolution digital image from its digital form into a physical form such as a photograph, fine art print or canvas. This transformation is only initiated once a customer orders (or demands) a reproduction of the digital image. Art on Demand also often facilitates a greater deal of flexibility in that the customer is usually able to specify their preferred choice of media and the overall size of the product.
Do you have an email marketing solution?
We do not have an email marketing solution as part of the Magnolia Soft application. Whilst we do have tools that allow your website users to subscribe online and record their email details, we have decided that there are numerous excellent third party applications that can be used to deliver your e-marketing campaigns. Our blog contains a brief summary of our recommendations: Email Newsletters Made Easy & Fun!
How do you store personal information?
When data is entered into Magnolia Soft, for example a customer’s delivery address or email address, it is stored in a secure database, in our secure data centre. That data is yours and you own all the rights to your own client data. There are also several levels of administration security that can be setup to ensure your team are only presented with the data that is of relevance to their role.
How secure are the online payments made on the site?
Magnolia Soft is a recent and sophisticated platform, built using best practice methods and the latest technology. We use high-grade encryption for all credit card transactions and process all payments securely using Sagepay (formerly known as Protx and part of the Sage Group PLC). Sagepay has achieved the highest level of compliance under the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI). We adhere to the most stringent levels of fraud screening, ensuring that your customer's details remain secure throughout the transaction process.
Do I need my own SSL certificate in order to take payments?
No, you don’t. We have our own SSL certificate that is used during the checkout process. You may, however, purchase your own SSL certificate if you require the website checkout URL to use your own domain name rather than our secure checkout domain name.
Do I need my own merchant account?
You do not need your own merchant account to process e-commerce transactions using Magnolia Soft. For many start-up clients, it is more cost effective to use our merchant services facility. The main drawback with using our merchant services account is that all transaction funds will go initially into our bank account until they are then transferred into your own. There is also an administration charge of 3% for performing this service.
Alternatively, if you want payments to be issued directly into your own bank account then you will need to get a merchant service number and to register with Sagepay, our preferred payment gateway. We can help provide assistance with each stage of this process and all the technical details required.
If using your own merchant id then you will recieve all payments directly into your bank account. Alternatively, you'll receive either a BACs payment into your bank account or a cheque. If you are a non-UK resident or business then you will be paid via an international transfer. Where we are receiving payments on your behalf there will be a processing fee of 3%. All fees associated with International transfers will borne by the client.
Can you help with our Search Engine Optimisation?
Yes, we can. There are a whole host of SEO tools provided within the core Magnolia Soft application and we also offer an SEO Packages to help launch your Search Engine Optimisation strategy.
How do I find out further information?
Please click the links to learn more about our software packages, features, benefits or printing services, email us at enquiries@magnoliasoft.net or call +44 (0)870 300 1171.