Polls

Concerned over the Printech cancellation?
 
Happy with the Results of Your Yellow Pages Advertising?
 

Monthly e-Newsletter












IPEX - Hot Videos

And a Social Media Video
Double-click to enlarge

Home arrow Digital Storefronts
Feb 15 2007
Digital Storefronts - Prints' Future E-mail
Thursday, 15 February 2007

We make no secret of our passion for efficient workflows and sales processes. We believe a good Digital Storefront is a key strategy to rejuvenate print sales

Quotation a good Digital Storefront is a key strategy to rejuvenate print sales Quotation
Industry has slowly realised that these special eCommerce Web sites, is the easiest, most cost-effective way to help salespeople generate leads, streamline sales processes, enter new markets, offer new services and raise credibility.

Firstly though, what is a Digital Storefront? Isn't that just a Web site?


store_fronts

Most web sites today are like an online brochure. It lists details about the company, products, services, address and perhaps a simple form to take in inquiries or quote requests. But like a brochure, it doesn't actually DO anything tangible.

It doesn't process information. It isn't interactive hence can't provide customer-specific information. It's not intelligent. It doesn't encourage customers to take the next step either, like placing an order.

A good analogy is purchasing a motor car without an engine. It can look fantastic and all your friends say WOW!  - It just won't take you anywhere. 

In contrast a 'Digital Storefront' is an advanced, highly modular, interactive website that is very sales-focused. It actually DOES THINGS for the customer, based upon who they are and what they want. For example, in our industry we really need most the following features:

  1. Fulfillment and inventory management  - 'Pick-n-pack' ordering/tracking of 'virtual' or real, pre-printed items, with smart approval mechanisms.
  2. On-demand customisation via online templates for business cards, brochures, even direct mail jobs, with PDFs sent direct to prepress.
  3. Online assets management tools and libraries to help Designers and Marketers select appropriate materials for their next campaign.
  4. JAWS Courier web-to-press options for Designer Mac/PC customers, solving file delivery and prepress processing issues. (Click here)
  5. Ground-breaking tools like self-service Quoting, billing and payments through a simple, highly accelerated sales process -  (Click here)

N.B. Most NZ web developers have very little knowledge of printing workflows, so would have difficulty implementing more than one or two features on the above list. Even then, it would be an expensive, unproven, one-off development.


websitesforprinters But the bottom-line difference between having a pretty 'Web Site' and an intelligent 'Digital Storefront' is the business it generates.

A beautifully designed web site will certainly raise your credibility, which is important. However sales results are often disappointing, seldom contributing more than a handful of new jobs per month.

A Digital Storefront on the other hand has full Print eCommerce and Web-to-Press tools, opening up new markets, new opportunities to save time and costs. The sales and efficiency benefits are often huge. (click here)

Savings for customers are significant too. On average, online ordering provides them an amazing 23% cost saving. (taken from Printing world Magazine, Jan 07)

Typically, within a year of a fully featured Storefront going live, these online Printers have 80% of their work arrive via the net, halving sales overheads, and print volumes are up by 30 to 50%

Quotation online Printers have 80% of their work arrive via the net, halving sales overheads, and print volumes are up by 30 to 50% Quotation
- Not bad for a $15,000 investment...

For full feature and pricing details on our Digital Storefronts, email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it


Comments (0)Add Comment

Write comment
smaller | bigger

busy
 

Into Marketing?

If you're after new ideas, visit my Marketing Blog at Digitalmarketing.co.nz

Phone Kevin at:

09 8890954

btn_myprofile_160x33.gif

Hot Web2print / VDP tools

presslogo.jpg
designmerge.gif

Trouble with the
videos or podcasts?
 

get_flash_player

Problems with IE Flash? Download here

Don't like IE7?
Upgrade to Firefox.
Firefox 2
Web Analytics