Solved

Can Shopify accommodate user-uploaded images and post-processing?

pantich
Visitor
3 0 0

Hi all, I've been watching videos for hours and I'm still not sure if I can use Shopify for my business idea.

I am building a website where users can upload their pictures, the pictures are sent to a server for some post processing and shown back to the customer. This back and forth from the website and server could happen multiple times as the customer could request more changes to the pictures.

When the user is happy, they can download the picture or order a print of it on a canvas or a photo album. This means that I have to be able to store multiple images under a specific user's account. Also that if I use a print app they need to be able to accept an image that the user pics. Optional the user should be able to crop the image from the website interface and build the album from there.

Do you think that this kind of website can be built in Shopify or should I find a different solution?

Many thanks in advance

Accepted Solution (1)
gina-gregory
Shopify Expert
742 51 211

This is an accepted solution.

I'm guessing some of the existing print-on-demand apps have their own image editing capabilities. If you have something unique you want to do here, you'll have to build it yourself as a custom/private Shopify app and hook it up to your store.

View solution in original post

Replies 4 (4)

gina-gregory
Shopify Expert
742 51 211

You can use Shopify to host the shop, but your image editing, management, & printing would require an app. There are some print-on-demand apps in the Shopify app store already, so you may want to look at what's out there to see if one of those will work for you, as custom app development is quite labor intensive.

pantich
Visitor
3 0 0

Thanks for the quick reply.

I saw there are many option for print on demand and I'm evaluating which ones would work for me.

I'm more concerned about making the Shopify shop talk to the server where the editing happens.

Here how things should work:

- The customer would upload it through the store

- The image gets uploaded and processed on a different server connected via API

- The image goes back to the store where the client can see the result

- If they are not happy they will resubmit the image with selecting some options (in the Shopify store)

- When they are happy with the result they can store the image in the store under their user until they check out (either download the digital version or build an album that will be printed on demand)

Is that too complex for Shopify? I'll need the editing to happen on some specific servers, cannot use an app on Shopify for that

gina-gregory
Shopify Expert
742 51 211

This is an accepted solution.

I'm guessing some of the existing print-on-demand apps have their own image editing capabilities. If you have something unique you want to do here, you'll have to build it yourself as a custom/private Shopify app and hook it up to your store.

pantich
Visitor
3 0 0

Thanks I appreciate your insights. That clarifies what I need to do