As a female who may just like to go shopping a little too much, I can never tell you how much online shopping has saved me from the worst experiences of shopping. Now, if I really wanted to, I would never have to deal with crowded mall parking lots, perfume soaked stores with eardrum breaking techno music, and the awful letdown of not making a satisfying purchase.
Online shopping is a super source, or a “one-stop shop,” for everything you could possibly want. Amazon and other large online retailers knew what they were getting into, and since then has dominated in nearly all aspects of the retail market. They have made life easier for millions by giving them access to what they need at their fingertips.
What if your marketing materials could be the same way?
As you evaluate your printed marketing materials, look beyond basic printing. Print quality and efficiency should be a given. So consider the services offered that save you time, money, and hassles.
Surveys have shown that processing a print job order carries internal costs that are more than twice as much as the price you pay for printing. How can a printer help you reduce those internal costs? Could you add more value to your organization if the ordering process were more efficient?
Likewise, consider how much money you spend internally on printed jobs before they reach their final destination – warehousing, handling, and shipping. If you warehouse printed products centrally and ship to your branches, are you ever caught shorthanded when a branch places an order?
Printers who are leading the way in the 21st Century are finding ways to provide service and add value from the very first step of the print procurement process all the way through until the piece is on its way to its final destination.
Web2print applications are the essential storefront.
This includes decentralized ordering of your standard printed products. Those whom you designate can order letterhead, business cards, brochures or any piece you place in your storefront. You maintain control over logos, colors, fonts and anything that affects your brand image.
Storage and Fulfillment is your basic warehouse, where all materials you could want are stored to save you space, labor and shipping.
This is where there is a slight difference between retailers and printers. I’m sure once you purchase an item, like 50,000 stuffed teddy-bears, you’ve got to figure out where those bad boys are going.
Web Enabled Inventory Management Services provide the information you need without having to maintain cumbersome spreadsheets.
What’s really neat about print inventory is that you have the option of online tracking of ordering trends by product and by location. This can be compared to alerts that Amazon sends to notify you when your order has been sent. You’ll also be notified when an item hits the minimum level you establish, and you can replenish with just a simple mouse click. Isn’t that easy?
In the age of the Internet, every organization needs to concentrate on value added steps. Analyze the steps you take to manage your printing process. Consider whether your printer can help you provide more value to your organization. If online retailers made the lives of shoppers easier—like mine− think of what these solutions could do in the lives of those who “shop” for marketing materials.
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