Building on our article on eCommerce, let’s highlight the fundamentals of an effective web to print eCommerce platform.
- It will provide each client with a private branded area, based on a secure login, where they will gain access to previously agreed products and prices. Unless they have administrative access, they will only be able to select from pre-approved templates and designs (thus reinforcing and protecting the brand guidelines).
- Notwithstanding these guidelines, these templates will be editable to a limited degree by individual users for personalisation (for example, names and contact details on business cards).
- The functionality will be designed to keep it simple. The users, in the main, will not be designers, they will be business people or administrators wanting to order some print material quickly and easily.
- Thus they will not be designing in the classic sense – this work will have been done by experts separately.
- The system should be available 24/7.
These fundamentals are at the core of a web to print eCommerce system.
Pricing
Once again, unless the user has the correct level of authority, they will not be able to negotiate pricing; in fact, they may not even see the pricing. It will have been negotiated and agreed centrally, and as a result the flow of the operation will not be influenced by price points or try to highlight how competitive the products are. Contrast this with a classic print webshop where the pricing is often highlighted as a differentiator.
Workflow
The workflow will therefore progress something like this:
LOGIN > DASHBOARD > BROWSE > EDIT > CONFIGURE > ORDER
On the surface it seems so straightforward, yet many printers struggle to maximise the returns from their web to print systems – and some never even get them off the ground. There are any number of reasons why, but chief amongst them is that they probably chose the wrong system. It may not have been flexible enough, it may not have adequately highlighted the products, or it may be even more basic – the website never got found in the first place.
It’s simply not enough to get the workflow right and have a brilliant website – it needs to be ranked in Google.
Creating quality web to print eCommerce solutions is what we do, and we’re good at it. Come and talk to us and find out how we do it.
Flex 4 have been providing best-in-class W2P solutions and digital marketing services for print and graphic design businesses since 2004. We have numerous satisfied customers right across the country. We are UK-based – all of our team work out of our office in Kendal. We pride ourselves on our customer service, flexibility, and desire to please – we would love the opportunity to show you what we’re capable of.
If you’d like more information on our company please click here, or here for our contact page, or call us any time on: 020 7952 8160 and as always we will be delighted to answer all of your questions and give you all the help that you need.