What Problems Can Be Solved By Implementing Web-to-Print Solutions?

To help printers and print enterprises understand why they must opt for web-to-print solutions and services, listed below are the problems faced by printers and print customers and how web-to-print solution solves these problems.

What is web-to-print?

Web-to-print (W2P) is user-friendly product design software that allows users to customize products with multiple design options. The solution can be integrated into the majority of ecommerce platforms and it provides a seamless and delightful experience to end customers. To completely understand the impact of the online printing software, we have listed the problems that printers and print customers face if the platform doesn’t have W2P software.

What challenges are printers currently FACING?

1. Higher turnaround time

Since it’s the designers that have to interpret the custom design requirements of the clients, the overall turnaround time of the process increases. Not only there are multiple to and fro between the client and the designers' team, but there’s also uncertainty whether the designers will be able to deliver the expected custom design to the customers. Because of this, there can also be a lower lead conversion ratio.

2. Limited business opportunities

With designers being entrusted to create custom designs, the scope of business is limited to the number of designers that a printer has hired. Also, since a designer’s salary is a fixed cost, businesses have to let go of business opportunities due to a lack of resources. On top of this, if you don’t have designers for all the shifts, your business hours are limited and so are your business opportunities.

3. Higher administrative and designing costs

As the entire process is manual, the printers have to create a big infrastructure for resources such as administrative and designing staff. Also, printers have to invest in the machines and software solutions that designers use for designing purposes.

4. Lack of product innovation

With limited resources and manual processes, there’s little room for product and design innovation for the designers and printers. Since innovation and updates are a part and parcel of the designing industry, there comes a threat of being obsolete for printers in the long run.

What challenges are print customers are facing currently?

1. Explaining design requirements:

Getting your desired custom design is a tough task, especially if you have brand-specific design requirements. Since most of the printers have their own designing team, explaining specific custom design requirements becomes a tough job for marketers and decision-makers.

2. Design quotation ambiguity

Most of the businesses don’t have standard custom design rates and the cost of custom design can only be determined if the marketers have defined design requirements. Thus, if the print customers aren’t certain about their requirements, they have to wait till the first draft and the changes that they require to be made in the same.

3. Premium charges for custom designs

Since most of the printing businesses have to invest a lot in the preliminary set up as well as the designer’s salary, getting a custom design can become an expensive endeavor - especially if your quantity requirement isn’t huge. You might even have to pay a premium for your custom designs.

4. Bulk order requirements

If the printer that you choose doesn’t have a digital printing method, getting smaller orders printed might not be feasible for a customer economically. Since flat printing and screen printing technologies don’t support smaller quantity printing assignments, printers usually have a minimum print cost and quantity attached to custom orders.

10 most common problems of printers solved with W2P:

1. Design automation

With online product design software at their corner, printers can empower their customers to create their own custom design and place a ready-to-print output file with the respective printers. Not only can they get their desired designs, but they can also get them quickly and without any human intervention.

2. Instant quotation

With an ideal W2P solution, printers can provide instant quotations to their customers as and when they select customization. With this feature, printers can help their customers deliver custom designs within their desired budget and increase their overall lead conversion ratio.

3. Faster turnaround time

Online product designer software also comes with a vendor and data management system. It also provides personalized offerings and functions like a one-click reorder. Thus, right from designing to checkout, every step of the process is managed, resulting in a faster turnaround time.

4. Faster transactions with design templates

For those customers that wish to place a quick print order with the business, the W2P tool provides design templates that designers can place on the platform and customers can choose from to make quick changes and place an order.

5. Centralized data management

With customers placing their orders on your platform directly, administrators can get a centralized view of the order placed and their status from the system itself. Thus, with centralized data management decision-makers can analyze the business situation with a few clicks and can make informed decisions.

6. Product innovation

With extensive customization capabilities such as emojis, fonts, colors, clip arts, images, logos and others, customers and designers can create unlimited design options and thus, you always have something new to offer to your customers.

7. Grabbing market trends

With the print industry experiencing frequent changes in customer requirements due to social media and the constantly evolving market, conventional businesses can’t tap all those trends as the process is manual. But since printers can create virtual designs without the need of actual inventory and execute with a print-on-demand business model, printers can easily grab these trends with design templates and cash in on the opportunity.

8. Personalized product offerings

Since an ideal W2P software will be user-friendly and won’t require much design skill, printers will be able to deliver desired custom designs every time to their customers without actually investing in product innovation. 

9. Multiple revenue streams

With W2P solutions comes multiple business revenue streams. You can make your ecommerce platform a multi-vendor platform by inviting different brands and providing custom product offerings on the same. You can also render your W2P software as a service to enterprises and designers.

10. 24/7 business

An ideal W2P solution will always be mobile responsive and thus, not only can your customers create and place a custom print order with you anytime and anyplace, they can also get access to your platform from any hand-held device, meaning printers will never miss a business opportunity.

Create a competitive edge with W2P solution during this pandemic

Not only can you automate your entire business process with a print store and W2P software, you can also make your business remote and automated with these solutions.

If you’re looking for a futuristic, cost-effective and automated print business model, integrating a W2P solution is a must.