Can Shopify be used to set up a photo contest with paid votes?

[mreinertlnp]

We are looking at setting up a contest where users upload photos, then we will let users vote to narrow down the submissions to 12, using multiple rounds of voting. Round 1 will have people voting on all the submissions. Round 2 will include just the top 50 from round 1. Round 3 will include just the top 25 from round 2. The top 12 from the last round will be our winners.

Ideally there will be a leaderboard showing users which images are leading during each round of voting and how the order is changing as the voting progresses.

Users will get 1 free vote per day during each round, then have the ability to pay for additional blocks of votes. For example, the user can pay $1 for 10 additional votes and $5 for 100 additional votes. All of the additional votes would go to one image. So a user will need to buy two blocks to vote for two different images.

The point of the contest is to raise money for a charity, and the 12 winners will be included in a calendar sold to raise more money for that charity.

What I'm wondering is has anyone used Shopfiy for a contest like this? Would Shopify even work for a contest like this?

[Ren · Accepted solution]

Hi @mreinertlnp, 

This is an interesting idea and while it's not an existing, standard feature - I believe it can be done with a couple of third-party integrations. 

What you're describing sounds like how raffles essentially work. We have some apps specifically designed to help you run raffles online. 

PineRaffles comes with a feature that enables purchase based raffles. You can set a rule which let's you indicate how many "raffles" or "votes" a customer can buy for it to count towards your voting system. You can see other purchased-based contest apps here.

Having a purchased-based raffle app in conjunction with a contest app should in theory help you achieve your needs. SweepWidget seems to offer a big list of dynamic and versatile features including leader-boards and custom entry methods. 

Gleam Competitions specifically boasts the ability to set up a user submitted Photo Contest - worth a look!

Finally, ThumbsUp is a built-in voting app which allows users to vote on products, or in your case, photos. They don't list the ability to buy additional votes, however, they offer customer support as well as custom feature requests and they may be able to help accommodate this for you. 

As far as using Shopify to run your contest, you'll need to factor in costs such as a Shopify plan, transaction rates, domain name and the cost to use the apps above, though some do have free plans with limitations. 

You may be able to forgo the use of most apps with some workarounds that can be applied with basic account functions. For example, users would have to submit their entries manually to you which you can then upload as a "product". Users can then vote for an entry using the "buy" button which you could customize to say "vote" instead.

The initial vote would be free (you'll have to list the product/photo as free), and then an app like LimitSales can help prevent multiple free votes. You can then have a duplicate of the product which you could set up with prices as per your pricing above for additional votes.

Another alternative would be to list all of your products/photos at your priced options, and then create unique discount codes per entry (example: contestant1freevote - labeling them like this will help to keep track of the votes) to set the price to $0 for the initial purchase of the vote. You can limit discount codes to 1 per customer so it cannot be used again and any additional votes will have to be purchased at the listed prices. 

As far as a leader-board, once votes start getting purchased, you can make a collection and set it to display products/photos based on popularity. 

Ultimately, there is no fast and easy way to do it but may be achievable with the apps and workarounds above. You also have the option of hiring a Shopify Expert who can custom code the features you need and seamlessly integrate it into your Shopify store. 

If you want to give it a go, you can sign up for a 14-day free trial and most third-party apps have free trial periods as well so you have a couple of weeks to play around and see if you can make it work for you. Once you've completed your contest, you can also use Shopify to sell your calendar!

Let me know if I can help clarify any of the above and best of luck.

[MapleRidge]

We're trying to do something similar, what method did you end up using from the solution suggested?