How Does the Web-to-Print Business Model Work?

A web-to-print business somehow adds a wing to the traditional desktop printing business. Here, traditional printers or new ecommerce printers let their customers design their own products, or choose from one of the templates already present in the online store. The customer gets to order online and without any face to face interaction, the seller ships the product(s) to the buyer. So, that was web-to-print described in a gist but still more clarity may be required on how the model actually works. In this blog, we have dealt with the same subject matter. Let’s see how the web-to-print model works and how you can build a successful web-to-print store.

Deciding on product categories

Like every business, you need to decide on the product categories you are going to offer to your customers. If you are new in the business and launching entirely new set of products, study the ongoing trends and popular products in the segment. Traditional business are already dealing with these products offline, so it gets easier for them as they can almost skip this step unless they don’t want to entirely alter their product choices. Web-to-print is more popular for stationery, t-shirts, caps, mugs, cushions, etc. You can also go for a niche business.

Finalizing a web-to-print software

That’s probably the most important part to take care of. As your business depends entirely on how your customers are able to design their own products, the product designing tool is of much importance. Go for web-to-print software which is user-friendly and provides a lot of features for your customers to design their products.

Launching the online store

Now when everything has been decided, you need to work on your store launch and publicity. It’s an online store, so people aren’t going to just drop in while passing by. Taking care of the SEO and other promotional activities is very crucial for a smooth take off of your store.

Managing logistics

Efficient management of logistics plays a vital role for the success of any online store. Being a web-to-print business, you have to produce personalized goods and make sure they reach their correct buyer on time. Therefore, you have to be more vigilant with the logistics if you are investing in a web-to-print business.

Comparatively, the web-to-print market is still safe to plunge as there are less competitors and significantly increasing customers. The above steps form a typical model of how the business works. If you already have an online store and want to extend it to web-to-print, you can just skip the steps you have already exploited, and you are good to go!

Mr. Pratik Shah is Creative Head at Brush Your Ideas, Web-to-Print technology solution provider that offers Custom Product Design Software as well as Web-to-Print Storefront Solutions.