All businesses are impacted by the shift to cloud computing and the internet. Web-2-print solutions are also necessary for small and medium printers to market their goods and services and stay competitive. This is due to the fact that more and more clients anticipate web-based services like online printing, e-business printing, and remote publishing. What distinguishes a contemporary web-to-print shop and what are the potentials of web-to-print?
For you as a print service provider, why is web-to-print so crucial? It allows you to lower expenses, boost productivity, and differentiate your services from those of your rivals, among many other benefits.
What benefits does web-to-print offer for commercial printing?
Both printers and their clients can benefit greatly from web-to-print shops. They provide:
- To boost sales, all print shop goods and services should have an online site.
- 24/7 order access for customers
- Ordering process transparency to cut down on customer support inquiries
- Online payment methods that are integrated and enhance cash flow
- Ordering, payment, and accounting process automation
- Savings of time and money for customer marketing departments
The AccurioLabel and AccurioPro Flux Label Impose-related software are part of Konica Minolta’s label printing portfolio, which helps companies use automation and cutting-edge technology for more environmentally friendly labeling and packaging. Businesses can customize their printing on demand and cut expenses and waste with the AccurioLabel solution.
What interfaces are necessary for a print shop to be future-proof?
Web-to-Print Store: Changes to systems are inevitable. They must be able to be linked into IT system landscapes and be flexible enough to adjust to the procedures that are currently in place in a print shop as well as those at the print shop’s clients. This means that in order to be future-proof, web-to-print shops must have interfaces that allow data to be instantly and economically exchanged with other systems. Interfaces that are helpful are:
- Prepress interface: This allows print data produced in the shop to be sent straight to the prepress process for data verification, ideally containing article details such format, paper type, finishing, print run, and delivery date. This interface should ideally be two-way. After that, the web-to-print system can initiate the proper follow-up procedures, e.g., sending a mail confirmation to the customer.
- Connect to clients’ eProcurement platforms, including Oracle, SAP, and Navision. Common standards for all communication channels are made possible by the bidirectional transmission of task information, which also streamlines the ordering and billing process.
- An interface for web-based, automated contact with shipping and logistics service providers, such as for all pertinent order and shipping details.
- Interface to payment systems: One of the most important success factors is the payment methods. Paypal and Klarna are two examples of common payment systems that need interfaces. You can offer direct debit, cash on delivery, and invoices from the web-to-print business without the need for an outside payment system. Your consumers’ preferred methods of payment are the deciding factor.
- Interface to factoring systems: Sales can be greatly boosted by offering the “purchase on account” option. can be greatly raised. putting in place a factoring structure to reduce the risk of nonpayment.
- Import interface for altering printed matter: Using design templates is a crucial feature for web-to-print firms that offer online printed matter design. This entails modifying graphic designs to allow for editing via the web-to-print technology.
- Image databases and image personalization: This interface allows the user to access and import external images. Interfaces that address PIM (Product Information Manager) and DAM (Digital Asset Manager) systems are utilized, for instance, in the business-to-business (B2B) setting.
- Marketplace: Connecting the web-to-print system to a marketplace may be beneficial, depending on the business model. -system to an industry. For instance, there are interfaces to Google and Amazon for this.
- CO2 calculator: Under sustainability objectives, it makes sense to offset the resources used in the climate-neutral manufacture of print goods. For this reason, the Web-to-Print system can provide a direct interface to a climate-neutral printing partner that determines the order’s CO2 emissions and manages the reimbursement through approved climate protection initiatives. approved climate protection initiatives.
- Interface to MIS/ERP: It offers APIs to import the process status back and permits the transfer of job and invoice data to a MIS/ERP system.
What kinds of online stores sell prints?
Limiting the online store makes logical based on the target audience. Consequently, a distinction is drawn between open shops and closed shops (also known as closed online portals).
Closed Stores
Businesses, organizations, public institutions, and industrial corporations are the target groups for closed shops. Closed stores are online portals that are exclusively accessible by specific user groups, such as regular customers. It is frequently possible to designate several sections for various clients, each with its own CD-compliant user interface and costs that are specifically stored.
Open Stores
The sale of printed materials and other products to a broad user base in the B2B and B2C sectors is made possible via an open online portal, also known as an Open Shop. Gaining new clients is made possible by this.
Web-to-print has immense potential. Print service companies can increase the variety of print products they offer, develop innovative online solutions, offer round-the-clock services like remote printing, and expedite order processing. Additionally, web-to-print automation helps internal print departments as well.
Learn how to maximize the performance of your web-to-printshop using Accurio Press hardware and AccurioPro Flux Ultimate software.
