Printers everywhere are embracing Web-to-Print solutions, and for good reason. Web-to-Print storefronts provide an avenue for printers to streamline their production processes, offer enhanced customer relations capabilities, and drive business to their digital presses. Most importantly, Web-to-Print can open up new lines of business and generate new revenue opportunities.
One of the many appealing qualities of Web-to-Print is the relative ease of set-up. With little technical experience, a printer can construct their web storefront and quickly begin to see revenue generated from the site. At Pageflex (a division of Bitstream), we’ve seen many printers dive into Web-to-Print by building a storefront for their business customers. These sites are rapidly established and initially offer a basic line of products, including business cards, stationery, sales sheets, ads, and signage.
Once the printer starts to earn money from this solution, they often look to expand their storefront into other areas. A new and potentially lucrative area many of our customers are moving into is the direct-to-consumer market. Consumers are increasingly looking to personalize their own printed items, such as photobooks, calendars, and stationery.
Business and consumer sites share similar qualities, but there are important differences to keep in mind when setting up a website for the consumer market. The rest of this article will help you decide: is your storefront ready to accommodate this growing market?
Web Storefronts for Consumers—What to Know
Creating web storefronts for consumers can launch a printer’s business into a whole new market. It’s a chance to build upon the success of your business-to-business site and mine a new source of revenue. But creating a web storefront for consumers is different from a business-to-business site. A few key points of differentiation to keep in mind:
First, the site itself needs to be designed with the consumer in mind. While a business-to-business site can look fairly nondescript, in the case of a consumer-facing site, the design or “look” of your site takes on added importance. Using colours, graphics, and fonts that appeal to your market can help you differentiate your services. For ideas, look at websites that are designed for your target audience, but offer different services.
Consumer sites should be easy to navigate. If it is arduous for consumers to find their way around the site, frustration sets in and a quick departure from the site becomes highly likely, no matter how high the quality of the services and products offered. Be sure to include helpful navigation tools such as buttons, links, and menus that can help site visitors know where they are and how they can proceed to the next step. The path from locating desired products on a page to purchasing these items should be clear, easy, and fun.
A portion of your revenue will come from selling additional products to your existing customers, so you will want to include messages that promote your entire collection of products and services. Be certain to use space on your site for these types of promotions. Supplementary screen space can be used to create banner ads that promote other products and services. You can create content that is specifically customized for your audience and their shopping interests. Through this type of highly-specific customization, a web storefront allows inclusion of promotional messaging from your business.
Use the catalog itself as an opportunity to promote your services via a classic retail maneuver: the add-on upsell. Once the customer is choosing from your catalog of products, offer them examples of other products they can purchase.
The consumer market is ripe with promise. Taking the time to set up your web storefront the right way ensures that your business can capitalize on this opportunity.
