The Internet changes the sales model of the printing industry
2023-08-15
With the popularity of the Internet, it has not only become an important channel for customers to discover new suppliers, but also a channel for the traditional printing industry to integrate with consumers and brands. From initial business cards to birthday cards, consumers and brands can now choose to customize printed products through online portals, private websites or e-commerce platforms. The Internet has become an important part of the growth strategy of the printing industry.
However, the biggest risk for many printers is not participating in web printing and expecting consumers to proactively find them to place orders for prints. Ali Ridha Jaffar, promoter of web printing, says that opportunity is gone forever.
"It's never too late to invest in web printing," he points out. "Not only can it further scale the business, but it can also get orders from competitors that don't offer web printing services. If you're still in the print business and want to remain competitive in the future, then you have to embrace technology. Otherwise, you could lose customers, especially in the B2C business area, because increasing website traffic is very expensive. In this case, seeking partnership opportunities with existing customers is the best option."
The B2C market is tied to leading players such as Vista, Solopress and Where The Trade Buys, which can attract fragmented print buyers. However, the bigger opportunity lies with B2B customers, who need more than 500 flyers at the lowest price. "Customers love the convenience of web printing, and printers need to understand that," says Jaffar.
There are many similar cases. For businesses with branches in multiple offices, the key is to build a website and sell it as a technical service to other branches. "Managers worry that using web printing technology will disempower them, but that's not the case," explains Jaffar. "It frees them up for real work."
Jaffar chose this world-renowned company in partnership with eProductivity Solutions, not because other systems were bad, but because he wanted to hand over his customers to a stable and reliable company that could provide technical support. He believes that web printing will only strengthen the partnership with customers, so that salespeople are no longer just order managers, but can provide more value to customers.
Currently, transactions in web printing are mainly focused on existing products, functional prints required for the business, training course print packages, event and exhibition print packages, etc. Over the past few years, driven by the pandemic lockdown, there has also been an increase in demand for online purchases of more complex items, such as cartons and packaging.
However, online quoting of cartons is relatively complex. Consumers want to be able to view 3D items visually to ensure that the carton design can be properly adapted to their needs. At the same time, the carton structure also needs to be visualized to ensure that the packaging achieves the desired effect. Therefore, cloud software is required to store