Been facing a setback of late in your online fashion stores? Tried out all strategies right from marketing to customer support and others but haven’t got satisfactory results? Well, you must understand here that you are not alone. A number of online store owners are rowing in the same boat. They are also facing a number of challenges in the ever-evolving business trends.
Small-scale online fashion store owners are among the hardest hit. They are having a hard time navigating through the cut-throat competition that big brands are giving them. To add insult to injury, Corona has disrupted the fashion retail businesses like never before. As physical stores are still shut in a number of places and demands for new apparels have plummeted with a majority of the population round the globe still confined indoors. Now the question is - Can you do something for it? Fortunately, you can! But what and how? It is time you thought of an innovative way to bounce back. If you ask - Is there ‘really’ a way to it? Luckily, there is one. And that is an Online Product Designer Tool. A ‘silver lining’ that can pull you back and give your sluggish business a ‘new’ life. Let’s understand the ways you can bring your online business back on tracks with an online product designer tool. No Customization, No Thrill - Gone are the days when customers would simply buy factory-made items available with fixed designs and patterns. Today, people have grown smarter and have an eye for creativity and innovation. They want to buy items with custom designs or texts of their items printed. They want the ‘freedom’ to customize whatever they buy as per their tastes or needs. And how can you fulfill this desire of theirs? By letting them decide for themselves what they would buy rather than imposing what you think is profitable upon them. Or say, by offering them the ‘freedom’ to become the ‘creators’. Confused how!? Well, though it is metaphorical, the reality is close for a fashion store. Let’s break it down with an example. Consider one more thing. As summers have already set in, the demand for Tees is soaring. Second thing - amid a lockdown situation still prevalent in a number of countries worldwide and physical workplaces still shut, there would be hardly anyone who’d dress up formally with shirts tucked in formal trousers and ties around their necks when working remotely! Rather, they would generally prefer to slip in loose comfortable Tees and pajamas. So, don’t you think you should hit the iron when it is hot? By integrating an online product designer tool - a t-shirt designer software to be more specific. With this designer tool added to your arsenal, you’ll be able to enable your customers the freedom to customize t-shirts the way they want. Ensure that your t-shirt designer software has got: Text Features including custom font manager, customizable text and messages, etc. Image Features including Image Editing Effects, Personal Image Upload, Image Resolution Warning, etc. Clipart Manager including free clipart library, clipart customization, SVG support, etc. Object Handler including object handlers, layer management, object grouping, and repositioning, etc., and more such cutting-edge features like to make it an ideal tool. Ease of Keeping up with Market Trends Trends are never consistent! What’s popular today becomes obsolete tomorrow. And when it comes to the fashion industry, trends are changing even more frequently! Hence, matching up your pace with the frequency of trend changes is indispensable. Consider an example. Today, a variety of custom t-shirts are in demand in the wake of COVID-19. Fundraiser t-shirts for NGOs, motivational t-shirts, thanksgiving t-shirts, and more. As such t-shirts can’t be the same for all and will vary in terms of design and text purpose-wise and buyer-wise, their personalization is a must. And a product designer like a t-shirt design software can help you with that. With such a designer tool, you can offer your customers full control over the design they want to create to print on their t-shirts as per their individual purposes or needs. This way, you won’t only be able to give your customers a strong reason to come back to your store but also keep your business aligned with the latest trends throughout. Benefit of Technology Integrating an online t-shirt design software or any other product designer tool is the step towards integrating the latest technology into your business. If you want to expand your business further, you can also integrate other designer tools like shoe design software and others to offer a wide range of customizations. There are also other ERP solutions like Print Job Manager and Inventory Manager and more that help you stay on top of your customers' experience even more efficiently. T-shirt design software or any other product designer tool combined with other productive ERP tools and add-ons make your business technically advanced. As a result, your online fashion store becomes future-ready with the latest technology features in it. Final Thoughts Online stores - especially small-sized fashion store owners are facing hard times owing to tough competition and Corona impact. Integrating an online product designer tool like T-Shirt Design Software can not only help claim back their lost positions in the market but also make their stores technically advanced and sales-driven. Original Source: https://inkish.news/article/NDAz/product-designer-tool-a-key-to-reviving-your-fashion-store
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A banner ad forms an important promotional tool for companies. Including them in your online and offline marketing campaigns can help boost your sales. While banners help B2B companies in closing trade deals, they help B2C companies in winning new customers or stakeholders while retaining the existing ones.
However, for an engaging and productive banner ad, one needs to hire a banner design professional. And a small company may not have enough marketing budget for that. So, here is the list of the top 9 banner design software that e-store owners like yourself can offer to such companies or solopreneurs. 1. Brush Your Ideas: Poster Designer Tool The USP of this tool is that it is compatible with all major ecommerce platforms – be it WooCommerce, PHP, Magento, Shopify, OpenCart, or any other. It is a cost-effective and easy-to-use replacement of the traditional CorelDraw and PhotoShop software. This software comes with umpteen user-friendly features that let customers create fancy posters and banners. Some user-friendly features for your end-customers are:
Other features like previews of all slides, soft proofing, object alignment, social media sharing, and layer management, etc. can enhance the users’ experience further. The best part is that your end-customers can use it on the go as it is fully mobile-responsive. As the admin, you get the following features:
These all features combine can make your ecommerce site an ideal web-to-print store and escalate your sales. 2. Customer’s Canvas This online web-to-print editor combines simple yet powerful features to enable your end-customers with no experience in designing graphics to create professional looking banners. Developed with HTML5 and JavaScript, it is compatible across all devices – mobile devices or desktop computers. The user interface is highly flexible that lets your clients create even the most complex designs with simplicity. Further, the users have the freedom to choose from pre-made templates or build designs from scratch as per their requirements. It also supports text, raster, vector layer, QR and barcodes. Manipulation of objects is possible either through a mouse or a touchscreen. With advanced editing features like image formats including JPEG, PNG, TIFF, PDF, and others, it easily fits users’ image requirements. They can also preview objects with their custom designs in 3-D in real time before placing the order. You can personalize this editor further by changing the language of its interface to engage international customers as well. 3. eDoc Builder by Alayant eDoc Builder by Aleyant is one of the leading web-to-print cloud-based design software. It is easily compatible across all platforms and device types including laptops, desktops, and tablets. End customers can use this software to generate templates or upload their own PDF documents and convert them into templates. They can maintain colorspace by defining CMYK, RGB or Spot Color that this tool supports for all the text to add to the template. Various text style options like CMYK or SPOT coloring, rotation and layering, outlining, text capturing, custom color ink palettes, etc. enhance customers’ experience further. Moreover, it supports a wide range of image formats including .jpg, .png, .pdf and .tiff, and more. It also supports auto-generation and management of barcodes into a form-based template. It also features an image picker that has a drop-down menu to show pre-loaded images for a template. 4. Pixopa This HTML All-In-One Online Product Designer Studio is ideal for both design artists and end-customers. It has got amazing image functions like multiple image upload support, FB or Instagram integration, low resolution warning, 360° image rotation, lock/delete image element, crop image, drag and drop, and more. Besides, several amazing text features like 500+ built-in fonts, multi-line and single line support, text fill color, text stroke color, text opacity/transparency, Text Gaussian Blur Effect, lock/delete text element, multiple-language support for Unicode fonts, and more, make this software an ideal choice for custom text printing also. It has got useful path functions like path stroke color, add/delete notes, Path Gaussian Blur Effect, Lock/Delete blur effect. It easily integrates with all major ecommerce platforms including Magento, Shopify, BigCommerce, WooCommerce, etc. Being fully responsive, this tool is easily accessible across all platforms and device types. 5. Design ‘N’ Buy Design Tool This design tool is ideal for any printable product with fixed dimensions like a banner, business card, photo book, flyer, etc. The design tool interface allows your end-customers to create their artwork within a clearly specified masked area or margins. They can also update anything editable like text and photos in pre-built design templates or add new elements like text, images, clipart, or QR codes. They can further configure background color or image, border style and color. The live pricing feature lets them calculate live costs based on the number of colors and printable sides, size of artwork, or other custom options like Margins, Rounded, Paper, etc. As an admin, you can manage color options for different products, create your own library of clipart, stock images, fonts, design templates, printing methods, pricing and more. 6. INKXE Product Designer Tool This online custom product design tool is a complete solution for businesses that deal in decorated apparel, signage, and personalized promotional products. It helps all web-to-print e-store owners in providing customization for their customers. The USP of this software is that it supports all methods of printing like DTG, sublimation, vinyl, embroidery, digital printing, heat transfer, etc. and more. The end-customers can choose various product attributes such as color, size, material, quantity, etc. They can personalize their products in several different ways. They can upload images in any format, vectorize them, give them Instagram effects like mask and filter, and more. They can also access over 1000 artworks like cliparts, templates, background, shapes and primitive arts. They can also choose from unlimited font options, change text size and color, create word-cloud and even more. 7. Multiple HTML 5 Designer Tool by OnPrint This HTML 5 Designer Tool is ideal for designing a wide range of products. These products may include single or multiple pages, promotional products like dye-cuts, gifts, apparel, custom size products like banner, wide format, label and signs, and even CSV-based variable data printing. This tool also gives end-customers high-end designing experience with multiple themes, option to upload or design images online, and multiple design preview options (JPEG, PDF, etc.). It also lets customers convert their designs into Online Templates along with complimentary templates, rule-based advanced and form-based personalization. Further, this tool has got CMS, theme library and configurable user tools, custom color palettes, RGB and CMYK ready output, and offers editable high resolution files. Besides, image personalization features including image resolution check, masks and borders, text shadow also help them personalize images easily. Besides, it also supports creating custom calendars, photo books and more. 8. No-Refresh Product Design Tool The sign and banner design software gives your end-customers an advanced design interface. This helps them achieve rich-quality sign and banner design results. Some features of this banner design tool: Product Selection: End-customers can select the desired product and other relevant attributes in terms of size by assigning width and height. They can also select template or background color ranging from solid to gradient color. Edit Text: They can also add multiple text lines allowing all sorts of formatting. They can also change font size, image, color, scale, rotate image, and do much more. Upload Image: End-customers can upload their images to beautify their banners having image formats like TIFF, JPG, PSD, BMP, etc. of up to 20 MB. They can also upload clipart images, shapes, background to make their banner stand out. and more that make this software valuable. 9. iDesigniBuy Banner Design Tool The iDesigniBuy banner design tool lets your customers create, design, and customize banners easily. They get a highly interactive interface where they can personalize ready-made banner templates or build their own from scratch. With a responsive mobile layout, this tool works seamlessly on all types of devices. It also supports multiple languages that makes the interface easy-to-use for people of various nationalities. End customers can also select banner material (like vinyl, fabric, mesh, etc.) as per their preferences. They can also select the size of the banner. It also offers text editing and customization in terms of formatting like fonts, alignment and incorporating personalized texts on products. They can further upload a wide variety of shapes and design them by applying color, flip, opacity, etc. It also offers its end customers pre-designed templates, multiple images and design which they can customize further easily. It also lets them erase designs, start afresh and preview them before finalizing them. Conclusion So, you see that the demand of web-to-print design tools has increased tremendously of late and more and more e-stores are looking for them to offer their end customers a high degree of personalization. If you are also an e-store owner, it is high time you integrated a design tool. You can analyze the above-mentioned top 9 banner design software thoroughly and then pick the one that suits your requirements the best. Good luck with offering personalization! Original Source: https://cllax.com/top-9-banner-design-software.html There are over 24 million e-stores on the internet and still counting…
And you want to stand out? Offer Product Customization. Product Personalization or Product Customization is not a new concept in the market. “Personalization is not only about consumers who are aware of their needs, but is about offering them what they are actually exactly looking for” For example, Tesla allows customers to design their own cars. With Nike, you can customize your shoe the way you want. Household goods seller Nutella added customization, allowing customers to add their name onto the jar. The reason why we love it even more! Today’s buyers have their research buddies Internet and Google. Hence, when they spend, they are more informed and conscious. And as an individual, if they get customization options for things like iPhone covers, your brand will get a lot of attention from them and substantial bank balance! Hence, here are 4 reasons why offering Personalized Products can align your business goals and also help you reach new heights in 2020. You will be offering something for every age A consumer review by Deloitte reported that 1 in 5 consumers is willing to pay 20% more for personalized products. Further, it also reports that those who are over 55 years old are more likely to purchase a personalized holiday gift item than those in the 16-24 age group. So as a store owner, it can be profitable and can open more revenue sources for your business. Additionally, offering customization is far cheaper than offering new products. Because you can bulk buy products without needing to customize them. And guess what, for each customization made on the product, you can charge more, and still they will happily pay. 10x Customer Engagement Customization is like what a user can do himself. Whenever a business is able to offer it, they are giving them an opportunity to be unique. After all, not all customers want the same thing. When they receive their product in the mail, in their color, size, and designs that they made, they feel a different type of ownership for the product. It increases the feelings of brand loyalty too. Hence, if there is a way to customize your offerings, try it! Here are some of the industries where customers demand customization: Apparel: Clothing, footwear, shirts lends itself to personalization because no two bodies are alike. The online MTailor relies on scans using smartphones to make customized shirts, suits, and jeans. The best way of offering customization from your store is by setting a web-to-print store. It will let customers design products the way they want with easy design interface and place orders. Once you receive the orders, you can send it for Printing and then deliver! Gifts: The industry with a lot of opportunities. People like gifts but love customized ones. Whether it is a Mug, pillow, bottle, keychain, or a frame like Hollywood walk of fame. Photo books & calendar: A product becomes personal to customers when connected with memories. Especially in the time of a pandemic like COVID-19, people would rediscover their old memories and would want to store them in a special way. And with customized options, they can also choose the size, color, and every little detail. Hence, offering Photo Albums & Photo Calendar will only give your business new heights. Stationery: From visiting cards, greetings, notebook covers, to pens, every product has a printable surface and a high-demand for customization. Posters & flyers: Whether it is a new business or a marketing campaign, businesses would want unique and attractive flyers and posters. These products are some of the highest profitable products. Hence, if there’s a way to customize your product offerings, try it! And to expand the experience even better, there are tons of ways to customize the customer experience for a better impact. So let your customers get creative, and look for ways to heighten the brand experience for each of your customers. ROI is GOOD Whenever venturing into a customization business, it is important that you get more ROI than your conventional offerings. So, even if your store does not have the products that can offer customization, you can get started with new ones at low costs in this business. For example, if you already have a website, you need a Product designer tool integrated into the store, to allow the customers with the ability to customize. If you are a total novice with no web presence, you can get started with a complete web-to-print store at $400! Then you need a few months, good UX/UI of the website equipped with pretty graphics and customization options to settle in! After the break-even period, you will start getting ROI that you anticipated if everything(Printing, Marketing) falls into place. Branding through Word of Mouth People love looking around and noticing different things. Do you remember asking your friend that, “Hey from where did you get this t-shirt from? Haven’t seen this around before!” In the same way, people are intrigued by the idea of their personal name, quote on their clothes, mug, or any products. They get excited. So, if you have got anything that can make them curious enough, you are doing things right. What’s your take? Even after being there in the market for years, businesses are still getting started in the customization industry. So what about you? Because it is never too late to start something over. Original Source: https://www.brushyourideas.com/blog/product-customization-multi-millionaire-business-idea/ The constant evolution of the printing industry has made no longer dependent on physical stores. It is growing in different ways after marking its presence into the digital market, it has opened the doors of endless opportunities.
And people are loving it! Because it provides them the freedom to be creative and has things of their choice through Web-to-print stores. Whereas, on the other hand, the growth of Magento is phenomenal in recent years. In fact, Magento is currently the most preferred e-commerce platform for e-store owners. If you are considering starting your online store in the printing industry then I recommend using Magento as an e-commerce platform and integrating it with our product design tool. Here, I will be providing some guidance on things you must consider before investing in a Magento product designer tool: Mobile First: This is the current demand of the market. Tech giants like Google are promoting the concept of mobile-first experience. A recent study shows that 84% of users face difficulties in completing mobile transactions. And that's a huge number. But, as a vendor, there is a huge opportunity for you to generate plenty of revenue by providing these users with the mobile-first experience. Hence, providing your users with an interface that is compatible with mobile, it will be perfect. You can make sure that your users can easily do even the smallest of the task from your mobile-friendly design. Support SEO: The marketing of your e-store is the most important part of your business. While purchasing a Magento product design tool you want to make sure that it has SEO features. Thinking, why is it important? If there is no visibility of your printing e-store on search engines then you won’t be getting the traffic->clients and this will not help your business to flourish. So, in this era of the digital world, you need to make sure that you have a strong online presence and grow your business. Make sure to check that they provide you with the features like targeted keywords, SEO title, meta description, etc. Making your store full-fledged and optimized technically will help you to grow your digital presence on various platforms and make sure that your customers can find you easily. Customization options: This is the most crucial part. When your vision is to encourage your customers to design and create their own products. To prompt them to purchase and provide them the freedom to personalize their products by designing things that are not available online. So, to make sure that all these needs get fulfilled you need to make sure that your tool provides great customization options. Example: Multiple design areas, custom clipart options, custom design templates, etc. more the option, the better experience you can provide to your customers and grow your business. User Experience: We live in a fast-paced world. Today no one wants to wait and we all want things to happen fast around us. Similarly, we want websites that we visit to load fast. So, while setting up the website make sure that it does not take more than 2-3 seconds, otherwise, your website may lose potential users. Simultaneously, also make sure that the tool you are purchasing is providing quick and is easy to learn and play around. The best part of integrating it with Magento is its high tech and speed. All you need to do is find the perfect product design tool which can work with the high speed and easily integrates with your e-store. Storing downloadable file: As a store owner, you have the majority of the tasks related to management. You need to make sure that the files which you have are at a proper place and are easily accessible. Sometimes, you will be having many customers who are using your own services, in such scenarios you need to make sure that they don’t get mixed, delivery of the product is on time and your customer is happy. Easy order/reorder facilities: Ordering and payments needs to be easy. You should also check the “My Design” section for your customers to easily check the design they create or purchase. You can also provide the tracking or reordering feature. These two features will make it easier for your customers to track their order like is it dispatched or by when it will deliver and if they have loved some particular design then they can easily reorder it as well. Conclusion: To make your e-store stand out in this competitive market, you need to make sure that you are moving ahead with time. You also need to make sure that you are using the correct tools to the fullest of its potential and providing your customers with the best service. Original Source: https://inkish.news/article/Mzcx/tips-before-investing-in-magento-product-designer If you have to define “What is ROI?”, you would simply say - Net profit divided by total investment. But it’s actually a lot more than this simple formula you have known so far. The calculation of ROI becomes much more complicated when you own an online printing business. Your investment might encompass several costs like printing costs, website maintenance cost, material sourcing, and product designer tool (in case you deal in custom printed articles, machinery, salaries, etc.) The first thing to understand when calculating your ROI is your net profit. Calculating your net profit can be a tough job and if you have a retail e-store, only ‘Euclid’ could calculate your ROI. However, today there’s no doubt that several software and apps may help you, but you will still need to fix deciding parameters to calculate your net profit. Hence we have cracked down a simple formula to calculate the ROI of your business. Before you start calculating, you need to set benchmarks to consider multiple aspects of your business. Setting ROI for Your Printing Business The first thing you need to calculate for ROI is the profit margin by dividing your gross profits by total revenue. Let’s say if you sell an article Y for $250, and the actual price of the article is $200, the gross profit will be: $250-$200=$50 And your profit margin will be: $50/$200 = .25 Converting profit margin into percentage will give .25 x 100% = 25% The final number should be your benchmark. Your business can be successful if your investment in product Y can achieve 50% or more of this target. Before setting your ROI benchmark, you need to consider the following things also:
Considering these things in your strategy will help you anticipate the course of your business. Now, let’s understand the procedure for the actual ROI calculation for your business.
Let’s assume you earlier used to run a simple fashion online retail store. But now you have added a product designer tool to offer your customers the freedom of customization. This is a big change as your target audience changed, you added a new asset and a few additional vendors like printers or designers, etc. So, ideally, you need to calculate your return on investment for such a major change. For this scenario, take data for a particular period. After that, divide the total number of orders by the total number of days. This formula gives you the average number of orders per day. This number will directly reflect whether your pricing strategy has succeeded or failed. Average Order Value To calculate average order value, you need to divide the total revenue with the number of orders. This number will give you a better idea of your online marketing efforts and will also help you evaluate the performance of your pricing strategy. You can set this metric as one of your KPIs to analyze your printing business. You can evaluate your strategies and set future goals with this KPI. For instance, if you have decided to keep your AOV at $250, but in real-time, it’s only $50, which means your products are not reaching your targeted audience. They are possibly more acceptable among lower-income groups. And accordingly, you can tweak your strategies and produce content accordingly. Once you are clear with the average order value, the next thing to understand is the total number of orders. Bifurcating the Average Number of Orders (Going to get a bit more complicated) This step includes bifurcating your average number of orders - those from the recurring customers and the others from the new ones. For this data, go to Google Analytics and note down the unique purchases against the total number of purchases. Also, ensure you are analyzing data of a particular time period only. Calculate the ratio of new users to return users and consider the goal conversion values against these metrics. After calculating the ratio, apply the same to the average number of orders. This procedure will give you two numbers.
With these two numbers, you can easily track and compare the ROI of your traditional and online marketing efforts. For instance, if your sales went up greatly in the last one month, try to figure out what you did differently in your sales or marketing efforts for that. Post this, by dividing the cost of investment with the total number of increased orders after you have implemented a particular strategy. This number will give the cost per acquisition. Subtract the total cost of increased orders from the total revenue. Let’s assume, your total cost of implementing an ABC strategy is $1000, and in the last quarter, your orders went up by 100. So, your cost per acquisition (CPA) will be 1000/100=$10 Now, let’s subtract the total cost of extra orders from the total revenue of those orders. Your revenue from 250 customers totals $3000 including the extra 100 dollars. Revenue from an individual customer would be 3000/200 = $15. So, total revenue from 200 customers would equal $3000 including those extra 100 orders. Revenue from an individual customer would be 3000/250 = $12. Hence, the total revenue from your newly acquired 100 orders would be 12X100 = $1200. Profit = Total revenue - Total cost = $1200 - 1000 = $500 This is the way you can calculate the ROI on your marketing approach and gauge the success or failure of your pricing strategy. Conclusion Calculating ROI is a tedious job yet very valuable for analyzing your ROI on your combined marketing and sales efforts for your business. So, just do some math and grow your business. Original Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/calculating-your-printing-business-roi-pratik-shah/ The wedding season has already set in. This season is a great opportunity for online card retailers to tap into the attractive wedding invitation card design industry.
This is because a wedding invitation card is not just a piece of paper, it’s way more than that. It represents the sender’s (the wedding couple’s) personality and is the first impression they make on invitees. The better the wedding card design, the better the impression of the sender. Further, it invokes an emotional connection to the couple. So, you should always consider listing wedding cards as attractive as possible. Let’s walk you through some design tips for the wedding cards you can use on your retail store. You can also take customers’ custom orders or let them customize the wedding card themselves as per their requirements using a product designer tool. Let’s walk you through some wedding card design tips you can incorporate to boost wedding card sales, especially custom ones, on your retail Store. 1. Choose a visual theme A visual theme is one of the most important things to consider while designing a wedding card. Its color and imagery should match the couple’s style and personality. Nowadays, color schemes for the wedding ceremony are trending. Start with reflecting that color scheme on wedding invitation cards. However, you should also ensure that the color scheme doesn’t affect the card’s readability. The second thing that might help you decide the visual themes is different wedding styles. The wedding style can be modern or classic, casual or formal, etc. See that your visual themes go with the trending wedding styles to give the guests the ‘feel’ of wedding when they open the card. 2. Use an appealing/attractive typeface Beautiful and attractive typefaces form a crucial part of a wedding invitation card. A suitable typeface not only enhances the readability but also adds to the overall appeal. Here are some common typefaces people often opt for their wedding cards – Calligraphy – The fonts of this typeface mimic the traditional calligraphy writing style. While some fonts have connecting letter designs, others don’t. But they give the same feel as you would get after seeing a handwritten piece of calligraphy writing. Script – The fonts of this typeface resemble the formal writing style dating back to 17the century. These fonts have a flowing connected style with most of the characters adjoining through connecting strokes. This is a semi-formal writing style. Brush – The fonts of this typeface look heavier and resemble the letterforms that one has painted using a brush. They also have a connecting style but they make a bigger impact due to their block-style. Highlighting names using an accent typeface like scripts may be a better idea to create a great contrast with names and the other content. 3. Don’t Let Customers Miss Out the Vital Content Though quite unlikely, a customer may miss out on including vital details while focusing too much on only the design and look. And it is an unaffordable mistake. So, always check and ensure that your customers have included all the vital info like: Names of bride and groom Wedding date Wedding venue. Theme or attire (if applicable) through visual clues or explicit mention RSVP details, etc. Send a copy of the wedding card for them so that they can proof-read it for wrong spellings or incorrect grammar before finally dispatching it to the print vendor for stock prints. At times, wrong spellings or incorrect grammar may ruin the entire impression and lead to embarrassment later. Save your customers from that embarrassment by showing a copy before stock prints. 4. Link to Your Customer’s Wedding Website No more does a wedding confine to mere celebrations. Rather, people consider them big celebration events and promote them by creating a website or using a hashtag on social media to engage guests. You can ofcourse suggest using techniques and make sure to include these elements in their wedding card design as well. This helps people engage and involve in anyone’s wedding from the beginning itself. 5. Use a Dashing Ampersand There is hardly any wedding invitation card with ‘And’ between the names of the bride and groom. Tweaking the design of this ‘And’ to turn it into a stylish ampersand may work wonders. A stylish ampersand can form a great design element and you may also find experimenting with different designs a fun. You can either go for the same typecast as that of the couple’s names or an altogether different typeface. Caslon, Candara, Chopin Script, Franklin Gothic Medium, etc. are several good ampersand font styles you can choose from. 6. Let Customers Pick a Template Nowadays, there are a number of online stores that offer wedding card design software. You can research your options and pick one that suits your business the best. You can then incorporate into your store backend to let customers use ready-to-use templates easily. If they don’t find the pre-built templates suitable, they can even customize them by changing colors, typefaces, and design elements of a default template to make it fit for their card. 7. Let Them Finalize the Finishing Touch When they have done everything right, their finishing should also be perfect. You can offer different finishing options like UV coating, embossing, or letterpresses to help them create a standout invitation. Your customer’s customization budget also plays a vital role in this decision. 8. Offer Invitations that Can be Kept as a Keepsake Often, people open up invitations, read them, keep them up till the date of wedding and throw them away. However, if you want your client’s guests to keep the invitation as a keepsake, you can include the couple’s image. To enhance the look, you can combine a simple typography to make people hold on to their wedding cards as a great showpiece of a design. 9. Don’t Miss Out the ‘Packaging’ Part Once they have designed a beautiful card, you should ensure that its packaging is also beautiful. The envelope of the card should resonate with the look and mood of the card itself. Make sure that you include all the details before finally dispatching their cards. Matching the design of the return(RSVP) card with that of the invitation card may also go well for customers. 10. Choose a Good-Quality Paper for Prints Last but not the least, the paper you use for printing cards also matters. To choose the right type of paper, you should first assess your customer’s requirements. For instance, a gloss UV paper may be the suitable choice for sharp graphics with richer colors if graphics have a major role in your card design. While a silk laminate paper may impart a more luxurious and prominent look. In a Nutshell So, you see that as an online card retailer, you can extend your store’s services by offering custom wedding invitation cards to your customers with the help of a product designer tool and the above-mentioned tips. Original source: https://customerthink.com/offer-your-customers-wedding-invitations-that-stand-out/ Smartphones are a rage today. And the more smartphones, the more the rising need for smartphone cases. While some people use them for protection, others use them for aesthetic purposes. Yet some of them use them as a symbol of their personality.
Traditional phone cases have taken a backseat as people prefer something beyond that - a personalized touch. If you are a mobile store owner who also sells phone cases, mobile cover printing software could be a game changer for your business. You can offer custom prints, generic designs, or crafted wooden cases to your customers using it. However, you need to understand the steps you need to follow to set up a store to sell phone cases alongside gadgets. Create a site We live in the digital world. Seeing the present scenario, your business may take an eternity to grow without an online presence. So, if you want to establish your brand, the very first step you need to take is to create a website. A plethora of ecommerce platforms are available in the market to create your webstore. But you can’t pick just any random one. You should thoroughly analyze the options and decide the ecommerce framework that would suit your requirements the best. Two factors that you should take into account are your business needs and cost-effectiveness to decide the right platform. Install Mobile Cover Design Software To offer customization in your phone cases, you need to install mobile skin design software in the backend. One important thing here to ensure is that it should be compatible with your ecommerce platform. Several companies today deal in such software. Research all your options well, compare prices, functionalities, and features to reach an informed decision. Choose Which Mobile Models to Support As there are a lot of phone companies (like Apple, Samsung, Nokia, etc.) you need to be specific about the models you want to support. Providing support for all models may increase your overhead expenses. To control your expenses and maximize your profits, conduct research about the popular phone models. Find out which new models people are eagerly waiting for. Try gathering info about their size and shape and start designing phone cases for them. So that when these new models get launched, you are ready with custom covers to pitch for. For example, the launch of Samsung Galaxy S20 is currently making rounds. So, if you are able to get the information about its size and specifications, you can design a phone case for it in advance. Select the Phone Case Type Once you have selected the phone models, you need to select the right phone case type. Some of the popular case types available in the market are as follows: - Slim/Basic Cases - Slim cases are slightly thinner but stylish. They cover phone edges and back and protect them from scratches or damage from falls. They come in a variety of colors you can choose from. Folio/Flip/Wallet Cases - These cases are stylish yet cost-effective. They not only protect your mobile well but also act as mini-wallets you can carry cards or IDs in. These cases support the sleep-wake cycle. This means that when you cover the phone, the phone will be inactive, and it will come back to life after uncovering it. Battery Cases - Battery cases are for dual-purpose. They not only protect your phone but also your mobile power. They come with an in-built battery and can prevent your phone from discharging in the absence of a power outlet for a long time. They are a little bulkier yet very useful. Tough Cases - Those who need extra phone protection due to the nature of the job (mining, labor, on-field salesmen, etc.) may find these cases useful. They have two layers that provide your phone with extra durability and protection. The cushion layer in them protects them with almost any major impact. They are almost indestructible. The best part is you can customize all these types as they have a printable surface. One can print anything like a photo, monogram, artwork, school, business or team logos, favorite characters, or more. Be Prepared with What You Need Plan everything properly from the beginning itself. Decide whether you want to carry on with an in-house printing setup or transfer the print job to a print manufacturer. In the first scenario, you’ll need to buy a printer, sublimation ink, designing materials, etc. You’ll also need to confirm that your vendors maintain a continuous supply of materials. Even in the second scenario, you need to take timely updates from your printer to ensure that your customers’ orders are met on time. Run a Promotion Campaign For the audience to notice your e-store, you should first make them aware about it. Social media platforms today are a rage and you can use them to your advantage. While Facebook gives your brand possibly the largest visibility, LinkedIn enhances its professional value. Twitter is a great way to seek influencers’ recommendations to build your brand image. Other innovative marketing strategies you may implement are a free limited-period trial, timely giveaways, online contests, etc. These all combine to help promote your brand well. Conclusion To start selling phone cases online, analyze the market properly. Ensure that you follow the proper steps to set up your store and use good mobile cover printing software to boost your phone case business. Original Source: https://whattheythink.com/news/100093-how-sell-your-phone-cases-online/ Over the past decade, the printing industry has witnessed huge growth. As per the statistics, the web to print market was valued at USD 867.3 billion with an estimated growth rate of 7.62% until 2025.
It is high time all Magento Web-to-Print store owners start catering ever-increasing customer demands. Adopting the latest trends in this web-to-print industry to survive and grow has become a must. To stand out in the printing industry here is the list of trends any e-store owner can look forward to: Trends Worth Welcoming in the Web-to-Print Industry
To cater to customers’ demands in a better way, the industry has come up with ‘Automation’ of almost every process. Fully automated strategies and programs are improving both owners’ and consumers’ experiences gradually. For instance, now consumers don’t have to manually place an order. They can simply load and send photos via any channel. All these automated programs or strategies reduce dependency on manual processes. They not only help you auto-create designs but also automate manufacturing and production processes.
3-D printing can not only be speedier but also more accessible. And a Magento printing extension or software design tool has boosted its potential further. Healthcare, automotive, robotics, education, etc. all are tapping into the potential of 3-D print technology.
For example, your consumer sent a print request for invitation cards. However, a few minutes later, they realize that they’ve made a typo in the venue address. In order to correct that, they just can simply update the file at their end. The Magento Web-to-Print software will recognize the update and make edits accordingly. This is why the variable data interface can be useful. A requestor or consumer doesn’t have to go through multiple channels and operations. They can simply change their information in no time. Hence, variable data interface saves both consumers’ and business owners’ time and adds to their convenience.
Personalization isn’t just about customizing design. It also includes customizing format, specs, and other details as per customers’ preferences. These personalization options are easily accessible for customers these days. They just have to input their preferences and the W2P technology will recognize them. With a Magento printing extension, customers can even design their products.
As a result, the importance of having a reliable shipping partner has increased. The W2P software transmits the shipping request to ship designs to customers to a third-party just after the click of the ‘Order Now’ button. Real-time connection between shipping partners and business owners is a fairly new concept. It can go far ahead in the coming years. Live Tracking can also come in handy. This feature keeps a customer informed about the status of their orders through text messages.
Such voice integrations reduce the time and effort that go in manually typing all print specifications. Customers can simply mention their print specifications through voice commands. This new-age technology is a giant step towards making print job orders more customer-friendly.
Therefore, several online printing portals have flooded the market. Online store owners have given full-fledged customization freedom to customers by providing a web-to-print storefront to them. By partnering with an online printing portal, you can give your consumers more convenience and ease of transaction. Exploring this new option in the coming future may bring in more new customers for a steady flow of business growth. Original source: https://customerthink.com/trends-to-look-for-in-the-web-to-print-industry-in-2020/ Lately, Digital disruption across the globe has affected the printing industry largely. High-end technologies are posing greater challenges to the printing industry. Besides emerging new digital technologies, rising environmental concerns are also raising questions on the current print methods.
Therefore, it’s imperative for printing companies to overhaul their current printing practices. And make them fit enough to stand new challenges. While several major players have already acknowledged the elephant in the room, the others haven’t. Let’s see what all printing industry trends print companies should adopt this year. Internet of Things (IoT) The Internet of Things has brought a huge revolution in the industry. Nowadays, smart printers are in great demand among almost all printing service providers. They help save both paper and resources. Besides, they can alert you about possible breaches and predict paper usage too when combined with AI. This way, the printing environment becomes more efficient and reliable. Personalization The growing popularity of personalization has generated new opportunities for the print industry. Printing service providers can help create personalized marketing copies for and personalized products. Demographic targeting, retargeting, location-wise targeting, life-event targeting are some ways printers can customize marketing copies for companies. Similarly, they can print personalized products for different e-store owners letting customers use Product designer tool. So, personalization of prints is a trend to go a long way towards revamping the printing industry in the years ahead. Security in Printing Securing printing work has become the need of the hour. Print companies must ensure that their printing services are cyber-secure. Big print companies have to deliver large print orders to their customers. Thus, securing their customers’ sensitive data is safe from leak or tampering is of utmost importance. They can install security software and implement other major security measures to ensure printing security. As this is a way they can gain their customers’ trust and upkeep their rapport. Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence is an emerging wave of change you can’t ignore in any industry. Print management software using smart algorithms to:
On the Go printing or cloud printing is becoming highly popular these days. Cloud printing eradicates the need for on-premise servers and employees. No matter where you are, you can carry a print job easily. It also eradicates the need for a software driver to connect a device to a printer. Which means you can carry out driver-less printing with it. Linux, Lexmark and other major print service providers have already started offering Cloud Managed Printing Services. However, small companies are yet to provide them for customers. Print on Demand Print on Demand is one of the most popular printing industry trends today. In this method, only ordered copies of a document, book or any item are printed. This leaves no scope for wastage unlike in stock prints. Further, business owners do not have to worry about the ‘Out of Stock’ issue and can always take orders and deliver them. A printing business owner can also earn huge profits and rise in popularity as a printing service provider. So, adopting this new emerging trend will prove fruitful to the printing industry. Moreover, this type of service can become a new source of income for print companies. Sustainability Sustainable practices are very crucial in today’s world. People are now getting more and more concerned about the environment. And are switching to more environment-friendly practices. Hence, printing service providers must convince their customers that their printing services and products are eco-friendly. It is up to an individual company owner to decide what they can do to make their print services environment-friendly. Of course, people aren’t going to dictate the way one makes their printing services eco-friendly. But are definitely going to prefer an eco-friendly print service over a non-sustainable one. Therefore, it is high time all print service providers switch to sustainable printing practices. And consider them a necessity rather than a luxury as earlier. Only then will they be able to retain their loyal customers for longer. Low carbon printing by HP is one such initiative. Looking up to HP and other major players is a must for all print companies to reconsider making printing practices sustainable. 3-D Printing 3-D printing technology is not that new. It’s been there for several years. However, its full-fledged adoption by the printing industry still remains. 3-D printing is necessary as it can serve a plethora of industries like automotive, firearms, aerospace, furniture, arts, and more. This implies that if all printing companies, whether big or small, embrace this trend whole-heartedly, they can benefit a lot. They can even cater to more custom orders from different industries and earn huge income. Conclusion The change in the printing industry is in the air. A number of printing industry trends are knocking on the door. If a print service provider wants to survive and flourish, they must readily adopt these trends. Or else, they can get knocked out of the competition sooner or later. Original Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/printing-industry-trends-embrace-2020-pratik-shah/ Big companies produce tons of stock and store them forever. However, such is not the case with small company owners and new startups as they can’t risk wastage of product stocks due to low sales.
Is there any solution to it? Yes, Print-on-Demand is the one. One more luxury big companies enjoy is that they can innovate new designs and imprint them on their products. Unfortunately, this luxury is again out of the reach of small business owners. They can’t risk investing big sums into printing new designs and facing rejections of those designs by customers. Again, is there a solution to it? Yes, Web-to-Print Software is the one. If you see, these two solutions combinedly can help new businesses grow sales exponentially with a minimal risk. What is Print-on-Demand and How It Works? ‘Print-on-Demand’ method is a printing technology or business method to sell custom products. However, unlike in the traditional method, the business owner does not need to stock custom products and wait for customers to buy them. Rather, they can easily tie up with a manufacturer or distributor to print products as per the orders. After receiving the request, it becomes the responsibility of that manufacturer or distributor to take care of everything from printing, shipping, and handling product returns. All you need is to market your products through the right channels. Who All Can Benefit from Print-on-Demand Method? Entrepreneur A business-minded person can always make the best use of this method to analyze the response of their new launches. It is especially useful for companies that deal in print products and items. Graphic Designers/Illustrators They are already well-equipped with knowledge of the latest design trends in the market. All they need to do is sell those designs to their audience and followers through various sites. Artists Their artistic approach to different things and a huge fanbase can help artists notch up their sales. Writers Writers can get their quotes, excerpts from their popular books, novels, or poems printed on different products. Such custom products are in high demand nowadays and can bring in huge returns on investments for writers. Gift Shop Owners Offline gift shop owners can cash in on this business method. All they need is to launch an online gift store with web-to-print software. Letting customers design and order their custom designs can help them stay on top of customers’ satisfaction always. For that, they can choose a suitable manufacturer or distributor who can fulfill order requirements. Steps to Start the Print-on-Demand Business Research Designs If you are an artist, this step is not that important for you. Because you are already well-acquainted with what designs are trending. However, if you are an entrepreneur, you need to collaborate with good designers and artists to get the hang of current trends. It is better to test a sample of each design for your product before bringing out the other. This way, you, as an entrepreneur will get the hang of what designs people like more. Accordingly, you can plan further designs and release them. Research Products Besides researching designs, researching products is also essential. A few products popular these days to print your designs on are notebooks, mugs, t-shirts, hoodies, pillows, etc. However, you still need to research and find out what product(s) has the highest profit-giving potential. Use Google trends to understand customers’ behavioral patterns. Also ask your friends to form a general opinion of which custom item they like to buy the most. Conducting a small survey can also help you decide on the product(s) to customize for your business. Tie Up with a Manufacturer/Distributor/Printer Now that you already have your product and design ready, find a competent manufacturer/distributor to print your custom orders. Always try to build a long-lasting bond with your manufacturing or distributing partner to succeed. Prepare a Catalogue of Items to Sell This step is crucial as it involves clicking photos of all products to go for sale. You can either click photos of your products yourself using a decent camera. If you aren’t sure of your photography skills, try to find a friend good at photography to do it for you. The last resort is to hire a professional photographer to click snaps for your product catalogue. Pro Tip: It is recommendable to not invest much and use a high-quality digital camera to click photos yourself. Or else, you’ll have to shell out a significant sum of money in hiring a photographer. Register on Different Sites The next step is to create a seller account on different sites like AliExpress, eBay, Amazon, etc. These sites give more visibility to your products and people start acknowledging your products more. So, conduct proper research to find out the best possible site for your product. Upload Your Catalogue After registering as a seller, upload your products on the site. Also, some keyword research is foremost to get customers to notice your products. Adding USPs of your products would also be a good idea. Start Marketing on Social Media Social media marketing is a great marketing tool today. Set up your Facebook account and Instagram account. Remember that these accounts must be business accounts and not personal accounts with all creator tools. Setting up a respective ads account for each social media channel is also recommendable. See to it that your logo goes with the product(s) you deal in. Fulfill Your Orders Timely In the beginning while testing your samples, you can try fulfilling orders by partnering with a delivery service. But as the orders start inpouring in large numbers, it is better to switch to print-on-demand sites. Various sites like Zazzle, Printify, Printful, etc. take care of everything from taking orders, shipping them and handling their returns. Launch Your Own E-Store Once you get along with suppliers, a big audience, and profits from orders; you can launch your own e-store. The challenges still don’t end. The biggest challenge is competing with the leading brands in this industry like Hallmark, Archies, etc. As they already have a huge audience, they can produce products in large stocks. Despite knowing your products have succeeded, you can’t go for inventory management straight away. So, it is better to integrate web-to-print software with your e-store. This software will let your customers customize your products themselves by using creator tools. This will save you from risks of loss wastage in bulk production of custom products. As customers will create only what they intend to buy. Once you get enough popularity, you may venture into producing products with custom designs in huge stocks. In a Nutshell Starting a new business is never a cakewalk. You have to surmount so many hurdles to eventually ace the business. The same goes with this print-on-demand business. Right from producing and testing custom designs to launching your own e-store with web-to-print software, every step poses new challenges. Nevertheless, stay calm and be patient. Take every step judiciously throughout your journey. Success will eventually knock on your door. Original Source: https://whattheythink.com/news/99825-how-start-print-demand-business/ |
Author
Mr. Pratik Shah is the Creative Head of Brush Your Ideas, a Web-to-Print technology solution offering consisting of magento product designer extension and readymade Web-to-Print Storefront. He is a tech enthusiast and an avid blogger and writes about ecommerce and web-to-print industry. Archives
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