In 2024, I celebrated my 11th year of working on Sunshine Photo Cart! I want to thank everyone using it and all the customers new and old who have helped it grow to what it is today.
New in 2024
This was a great year for new releases! Some long awaited features have been brought either to the core plugin or as new add-ons. There were 39 releases to the core plugin this year alone. Some of the more prominent ones included:
- 3.1: Custom order numbering, gateway fees, product quantity limits
- 3.1.10: Easier onboarding, more order filtering options
- 3.1.11: Improved order search
- 3.2: Improved Checkout customization features
- 3.3: Per image pricing
- 3.4: Enhanced image security
- 3.4.7: Per image watermarking
- Sunshine also went through an accessibility audit and that information was used to help make sure Sunshine is significantly more accessible to more of your website visitors.
- I also set up a new central spot for translation contributions.
- So many small enhancements there are too many to list which have helped improve the functionality and made it easier to use
I also released new add-ons this year:
- Many new international payment gateways: Mercado Pago, Payfast, Paystack, Quickpay
- Sell Anything Add-on: Sell any kind of product beyond photos you want, allowing you to use Sunshine Photo Cart for nearly anything
- Session Fees Add-on: Use Sunshine before your shoots by letting customers pay their session fees and automatically give them included products for when their gallery is ready
Of course every single add-on also had many improvements that continue to make Sunshine Photo Cart the most comprehensive, customizable client gallery system for photographers.
What's coming in 2025
The only thing I can confirm right now is just the biggest integration ever: WHCC Print Lab integration! I am still working with the WHCC team to finalize some details as our integration will be new for both them and us. I hope to have it out in the first quarter 2025.
Health of Sunshine Photo Cart
I hope to be more open and transparent about Sunshine Photo Cart going forward and that includes financials. While coding Sunshine 3 from the ground up has made it significantly more versatile and easier to continue development of new features and add-ons over this past year, it unfortunately has not resulted in increased revenue. In fact, revenue in 2024 decreased 1.7% compared to 2023. My hope is to make Sunshine Photo Cart - along with my other products under my WP Sunshine brand - my 100% full time job. The growth of my other products this year have helped but I am still looking to double product sales to go full time. Until then, I continue to balance my work with custom development projects throughout the year.
I appreciate you taking the time read all this info and look forward to working hard to improve Sunshine Photo Cart and helping everyone reach their goals with their photography business and my own.
