The eCommerce world is fast-paced and highly-competitive – if your business is to expand in such environments it will need to be adaptable and innovative! The print on demand services offered through eCommerce is rapidly transforming the way online businesses operate, offering efficient and flexible service to all manner of business sectors. Here are some of the features and benefits of print eCommerce for you to consider:
ECommerce
The term eCommerce is most-commonly associated with the purchase and sale of services and products through online facilities such as the internet and other media platforms. The market leaders we will all know – Amazon and eBay – and are standing proof of how eCommerce can mean successful business.
There are continually growing numbers of smaller, independent online businesses that are constantly expanding and becoming a bigger presence – but the marketplace is universally large and there appears to be room for everyone willing to offer quality and flexible services and products!
Benefits
There are many business benefits associated with eCommerce including:
Larger Target Markets
Your online services have no geographic restrictions or boundaries which allows you to market and advertise to audiences around the world! You are not subjected to the same restrictions as if you were operating out of individual physical locations – your business can trade online with any business sector anywhere!
Using ecommerce does not mean you have to ‘abandon’ your existing, established local customers or clients though – a well-marketed print website can dominate local web searches in your immediate area, but add access to the larger towns and cities in the region spreading your brand, name and influence to swell your local regional appeal and presence.
Enhanced Business Presence
Whilst trading from physical locations you are restricted by size and influenced by location where bigger, more established competitors can offer stern competition through resources alone – but eCommerce is a great leveler! A professional and technically proficient website provides a great platform to sit alongside even your largest and fiercest competitors.
In the print industry marketplace people are looking for great, professional service and competitive prices – regardless of how big their provider is or how large their premises! A professional website that your customers can access quickly and efficiently can match your rivals and will capture and retain business even if your overall marketing budget is less substantial than your competitors!
Repeat Business
One of the big advantages of eCommerce is the opportunity it offers to capture information of both existing and potential customers. Highly optimised online advertising, coupled with an eCommerce website, enables you to target special offers and new products directly to your previous customers along with anyone who may have casually visited your website online and seen what services and products you provide. Search engines, email and social media platforms allow you to constantly re-market your services to wide audiences and grow your customer base.
Cost Effective
Costs are always an important consideration across all aspects of your print business – a real benefit of eCommerce is in reducing overall costs, along with the opportunity to ‘share’ these costs with your customers thereby further increasing your overall revenue. Traditional advertising methods can be somewhat ‘random’ and assume a ‘scattergun’ approach relying on reaching a general audience – eCommerce can refine and replace this practice with targeted marketing through accurate search engine optimisation, pay-per-click and social media advertising.
Business operations man-hours can be greatly reduced with fully automated sales processes, as your online platform naturally expands your business without incurring the further costs associated with having to open further physical outlets to grow your business. Once set-up and operational, the initial investment for your eCommerce functions will pay for itself many times over whilst constantly presenting opportunities for further increased growth without additional outlay.
Permanent Access
Any physical trading location needs to be staffed and is, therefore, an inconvenient – and expensive – financial overhead. Your print shop will most likely have standard opening and closing hours which, obviously, restricts access to your print services for your customers – eCommerce removes those restrictions by providing a 24-hour, 7-days a week service that offers your customers the opportunity to process their print requirements entirely at their convenience. This permanent access can be an important feature for a business suddenly hit with an urgent deadline or pressing timescales – the flexibility of your 24-hour service will allow them to fulfil their commitments and almost certainly guarantee repeat business from them!
Increased Volume Handling
Most print businesses will experience lulls during the year where orders are a little slower coming in and maybe smaller than usual, and you can learn how to handle and negotiate the quiet periods – but the ‘flip’ side of that is those periods when the phone doesn’t stop ringing and you are inundated with large orders and too many of them, and those are the periods when the business can really suffer through lost opportunities because the demand is too much for your business to handle!
In those times, not only do you not manage to fulfil your customer needs because you are too busy, but that affects future business with those customers who had to take their order to one of your competitors – that is where an online print shop really comes into its own as such!
With your ‘around the clock’ online service, your customers can process orders and upload artwork and content themselves, whilst also taking advantage of your automated sales administration processes to cater for the invoicing and delivery aspects of their order. Your online print shop will ensure your customers receive a professional and efficient service with highest quality products.
Niche Products
The print sector can be a difficult marketplace for buyers to locate suppliers for lesser demand niche print products. The standard print items will always be in demand and is the core market of any print business, but if your business can provide some of the more niche print items then you can create a whole new marketplace for your print company – your online website can provide you with that opportunity to showcase the more unusual print items.
Popular Print Items
There are many product items that lend themselves to print on demand – and in a fast-paced and ever-changing competitive marketplace, staying abreast of the current trends is an important consideration! Clothing items such as sweatshirts, T-shirts and hats are ideal – and popular – vehicles for print, whilst you constantly see people with tote bags, mobile phone covers and other personal accessories emblazoned with either known brand names and logos, or individual creative designs!
Home decor is another area that offers great opportunities for eCommerce printed accessories – from curtains, pillows, mugs, and the ever-expanding pet accessories market, to wall art of various types, printed products can be found in just about every home! Alongside these are the more ‘traditional’ print products for individuals and businesses alike – notebooks, business stationery, and corporate marketing and advertising materials. ECommerce provides the opportunity to create brands across all these varied market segments!
Businesses can target different marketplaces while minimising costs and maximising profits – so why wouldn’t you want to include YOUR business in that! Contact us today.