Should You Offer Custom Storefronts for Smaller Customers?

A Web-to-print storefront should be more than just a place for customers to come and buy business cards. It should be a dynamic, interactive portal that empowers your customers, whatever their size, letting them manage their business on their own schedule. It is also a powerful tool for you to attract new clients and grow your business.

However, when it comes to smaller-sized accounts, most commercial printers have not offered custom storefronts because of a combination of factors:

• Relatively high cost of building and deploying custom storefronts
• Dependence on storefront providers to create additional sites
• Pay-per-storefront or pay-per-order scaled pricing models
• Time spent on the creation of each storefront
• Fear of lack of user adoption

Customer expectations and buying patterns have changed as more and more products are ordered online. Just look at how many of us order from Amazon. If you aren’t ready to meet buyer needs online, someone else will.

Find a storefront solution that makes it easy to create custom storefronts for both small and large accounts by simplifying the setup process. Once customer storefronts are launched, customers will find it a breeze to navigate through product catalogs and customize templates, get estimates, turn them into orders with a click of a button, place reorders, get shipping status updates, check their order history and much more.

Features to consider when choosing a storefront provider

• Ability to create both B2B and B2C web-to-print storefronts
• Private, group, public, and anonymous shopping
• Easy product templates (Digital, Offset, Wide-Format, Inventory)
• Fill-in-the-blank personalization of documents with real time proofing
• Capture orders 24/7 with online catalogs
• Process credit cards and capture PO orders
• Attach mailing lists and artwork to orders
• Shoppers can estimate and order unique one-time jobs online
• Multi-level permissions for order approvals
• Easy-to-use online services allow clients to track all their orders in one convenient place
• Complete “My Account” management features – online proofs, job status, billing, reordering and more
• Jobs flow to the shop floor or direct to press without rekeying

Your customers will appreciate the convenience and control that their own custom branded storefront provides. Not only are you making it easier for them to order from you, you can also set up product templates for all of your other products and services, displaying a wider range of value and encouraging additional sales on products they may not have even known that you provide.

PressWise by SmartSoft (Booth 539) offers an end-to-end Web-to-Print, MIS and Workflow Automation system.