"EZ" Print Commerce – E-Commerce and Web-2-Print Resource for Printers – Digital Storefronts, Online Catalogs and W2P Technologies

This is one of the most commonly asked questions and is fundamental to online print success. However their is not a single, sure-thing answer. It clearly takes a combination of pricing, ordering availability, product quality, offline marketing and continued online web-marketing initiatives. Over the last 3 years we have seen and worked with over 100 different types of print providers. From graphic designers, print brokers and marketing firms to full-fledged, high-volume gang run printers, we’ve seen it all. The part that they all share is pricing. Print buying is highly sensitive. If you can compete at the pricing game you’ve got a shot.

One of the most commonly asked questions we get is, “once we have a digital storefront, how do we ensure product sales?”

When it comes to print procurement, the situation becomes even a little trickier. Print products are a combination of a product and a service.  Add on top of that, the complexities of the product itself, quantity, size, paper types and you have a very complex database with a vast number of products to manage.  If you happen to be a “gang-run” print provider, you will certainly have a number of options and the products and their pricing gets even more complicated.

One of the most fundamental rules that we see time and again, is to follow the “Keep It Simple” rule.  Review your orders from the last year and determine what are your best sellers.  From that group, determine what are your most profitable products and build upon those for your digital storefront.  After 10 years, we can confidently say that conversions of sales is higher for digital storefronts that have a very concise set of products and services.  Try to avoid the mistake of  offering too much for your print buyers.  More options lead to more questions and lower conversions.  To also offset some of concern of not being able to capture every order, utilize a “custom request” form.  This will allow your print buyers to request an item perhaps not listed in your catalog and serves as both a form of lead gen and online ordering.