Predicting about “bright future” whenever talking about the future development of online printing is not overconfident. The reasons for this optimism are in the fact that we observe every day such as the steadily and certainly increasing in the combination between marketing departments or agencies and print. Even an online retailer package, irrespective of provenance, containing leaflets, vouchers and discount cards is also the product of this combination; business owners apply online print on it as the technique to make a lasting impression on customers. Despite of the fluctuation development in ecommerce industry, print still can set a firm foothold on its own. Moreover, from the appearance of online printing, people believe that the “printing renaissance” stage actually starts. Most online print providers have done a good job when they enable customers to order their print products conveniently and as “master of the process” online.



Delivery reliability, service, quality, product choice as well as the reputation of the provider and even the online advisory service provided are all factors that print customers value, no matter how different they are.

Now, it is not the period when who can offer lowest price will be winner. Business owners step by step change their strategies into better-price strategies with more concentration on delivery reliability, service, quality, product choice, reputation of the provider and online advisory service. Customers look more on the value added and return rather than just price. They desire a product that allows they scale themselves at the right times. At the service provider position, you can only meet this challenge online by investing massively in human resources.

We are living in colorful world, not just the pink one, future of online printing is bright but not all providers of this service are successful. You just should consider lower price as one of your advantage, then cut your works out and have seriously to consider new strategies and services. Market leaders usually offer more products, shorter production lead times and more customization.

Megatrend always has space for not only the major market makers but also smaller providers who desire to compete with major challenges. If business owners want to go down the “mega-personalization” route using a mass customization approach, we are sure that they need to deal with chain of problems such as high-end print production, automation, lean production, product development, trend scouting, online marketing and state-of-the-art online sales architectures.

This situation is also the same with B2B portals for regular customers. There are enough opportunities in the market as well as the challenge is to leverage the gigantic sales potential that’s out there. The final goal is making every print process available to customers regardless of direct or indirect online interfaces.

All in all, both small and huge businesses are stand at the same position because challenges in selling online print will be tougher, given the extremely attractive competition and greater given the requirement for well-structured, fully automated production. However, opportunities are always available and even increase when popularity of print rises. You can see clearly that the “printing renaissance” cannot be prevented.

Source @beyond-print.de