Web 2 Print – A Print Revolution
The last Decade has seen a boom in E-commerce as retailer and service providers compete for business using the Internet. The print industry is no different and the term Web 2 Print was coined to describe this new workflow.
The Internet is widely understood to be a great marketing tool to promote your business to a wide rage of prospective clients. A good web site allows customers to discover your business and then explore your products and services with minimum effort for both your staff and the customer. However this is only the beginning of the Internets possibilities for the printing industry.
Web 2 Print describes a completely new work flow, where the customer interacts only with your website from research, through payment to delivery the customer never need to pick up the phone a speak to your staff in person.
Print service provider offering small format services such as business stationary pioneered such services. The ability to automate such services reduced the overheads for the print shop allowing them to offer barging prices that non web based services struggled to compete with. Most business with time on their hands will now shop online for their stationary, and only approach local printers when they are rush for time or have special requirements.
As Web 2 Print matures more services are now being offered with an online workflow. The popularity of domestic art has seen a flood of seller offering an Image to Canvas service. A print shops london customer can select an Image taken on their digital camera or mobile phone and upload it directly to the print shop and a few days later there is a knock at the door…..decorating a room without leaving the sofa, now that impressive!
So with all this choice definitely drives down the price but how do you guarantee quality? This is the golden question, as I have seen my share low quality products arriving at my door. The best advice applies to many products and service, get a referral or ask to see samples.
Many online businesses have sample packs that they are only too happy to send to you, and usually free of charge. Businesses expect people to enquire as to the quality of their products, and if they do have a problem with this then you have a good reason to avoid buying from them. Getting a reference from a friend or college is always a good idea and with the growth of online community’s why not ask about on your favourite forums?