E-commerce is changing the way the world shops for products and services. With the benefits that it reaps to both the sellers as well as the buyers, the global e-commerce market is growing exponentially. In a survey from Statista, it was estimated that online retail sales will reach $6.51 trillion by the end of 2023, and e-commerce websites will take up to 22.3% of total retail sales.
So basically, irrespective of your industry, one out of five customers is buying products online, and all the surveys indicate only one thing: e-commerce sales are the future, and their market share will increase eventually.
Talking about the print industry, having a personalized e-commerce website brings not only monetary benefits but also operational excellence. With the introduction of technology solutions that can automate entire business processes, having an e-commerce website for the wide format print business not only brings additional sales but also improves the overall profitability of the business.
Because of such benefits and statistics, the majority of large-format printing businesses have been developing their personalized e-commerce to reach out to these untapped potential customers. If you decide to embark on the journey of digitalization, you could not only get increased sales and profit but many other operational and financial benefits that are mentioned below.
Benefits of personalized e-commerce for wide-format print businesses:
1. Access to the global market
One of the most common and talked about benefits of having an online business is having access to the global market. But, with the large format print businesses, this opportunity is more attractive than the others.
Since wide format printing business is usually a local business, there are only a few brands that can create a global brand presence. Less competition means there is a potential to create a global market share with fewer efforts and resources.
2. Process automation capabilities (web-to-print)
Web-to-print online product design tools allow customers to design their wide-format banners, posters, standees, and other such print collaterals. In today’s market, where businesses have increased demand for brand-personalized designs, you can provide customers complete freedom to design their own products without any prerequisite for graphic or technical proficiency.
To put it from a business perspective, your customers will provide you with ready-to-print designs that are pre-approved, and that too without the need for a designer! Thus, you get an order where your order and design phase are completely automated. Also, an ideal web-to-print solution provides real-time quotations, so the pricing part of the process is also automated.
3. Increased customer engagement
With an online presence, you not only get a 24/7 sales window, but your customers also get access to your business from anywhere and at any time. The e-commerce platforms not only generate sales, but with marketing automation tools and general ways of communication, they can also directly connect your customers with your brand.
The customers get information about the brand, and if you have customer chat support (which is highly recommended), they can share their queries and concerns easily and make an informed decision. Apart from that, having your own e-commerce platform also means you can understand where and how customers connect with you and gain actionable insights to improve your customer experiences.
4. Reduction in preliminary costs (inventory and infrastructure)
A universal benefit of having an online presence is that you can enter a new market without having any physical presence in that area. All you need is an e-commerce platform and a delivery partner that can help you deliver your products to your customers.
But in the printing industry, you can not only save preliminary expenses of infrastructure development, but you can also save inventory costs! When you have an e-commerce platform that is integrated with a web-to-print solution, you can ask your designers to create virtual product designs and upload them on your e-commerce without the need to create an inventory first.
With the help of web-to-print software and digital printing technology, you can incorporate a print-on-demand business model where you only print after you have received the order! This means no preliminary expenses for creating inventory and storage.
5. Unconventional marketing possibilities
When you have your e-commerce platform, you can employ cognitive intelligence to serve your customers. This means that based on their search and activity on your platform, Artificial Intelligence can provide personalized suggestions to your customers. One of the best ways is cross-selling and upselling.
In this, the customers get suggestions of products and services that complement the products that customers have selected or give a better higher value suggestion that can benefit both the customer and the business. Also, if you have e-mail and newsletters used in your e-commerce, you can connect with personalized promotions with your customers and gain increased business with various guerrilla marketing tactics.
6. Analytical capabilities
The AI that we talked about in the last point can not only provide the customers with personalized suggestions, but it can also provide you patterns and insights that can help you better understand your customers.
At the click of a button, you can get data like the product that customers most visit, the category or product page where customers bounce to your competition, which time of the year you get the most orders, and other such actionable insights. With these insights, businesses can make informed decisions, better serve their customers and also deliver them products and services that are custom-tailored based on their preferences and behavior.
7. Target the next generation of customers (Gen Z)
The internet and the experts are calling the next generation of buyers “the internet generation” or Gen Z. This is one such generation of customers that has shattered the previous customer behavior and has their own preferences and needs.
One of the most common traits of Gen Z is that they rely highly on the internet to make their purchases. Even when they make in-store purchases, they first use the internet to research the brand, compare their products with others, and then, based on their findings, make a purchase. So, with Gen Z entering the corporate market, they will soon have the highest purchasing power, and thus, you must have a strong digital presence that can attract this new target market.
You are never too late
It is never too late to make a start, and in the printing industry, we are still in the transition phase, which means any business can still make a strong digital online presence and capture a big market share.
Also, with the growing technology, there comes a reduction in cost, as we saw, and that also means increased profits with minimal effort. To put it in a statement, if you are looking for long-term sustainable development of your large format print business, having e-commerce is essential.
