Buying over the internet became popular very quickly and today we cannot imagine life without it. Around two billion people buy products online. More than half of them would rather buy online than in a physical shop. Because of the various conveniences online shopping offers, its popularity is expected to grow further in the coming period and to become the dominant way of buying.
But what is the situation in printing companies? Do they need a webshop too, given the complexity of the products they offer?
Our answer to that question is that printing companies do need a webshop today. In this article we try to explain the advantages a webshop gives you.
The convenience of a webshop
Most customers today want to get to their products as easily and quickly as possible. They also often want to avoid direct contact with a salesperson, and a webshop is the ideal solution for them. Ordering in the shop or over the phone has to be done at a particular time, that is, during the printing house's working hours.
A webshop offers the possibility of ordering products at any time of day and from any location. All available products can be viewed in the webshop. The whole ordering process is much simpler: when choosing a product in the webshop, all the necessary data is entered right away, with no need for further communication.
Given the time saved, it is no surprise that most customers are turning to this way of buying. For many customers the existence of a webshop will be the deciding factor when choosing a supplier, and they will always prefer to order from a printing house whose website carries all the necessary product information.
Illustration 1: Example of a webshop for printing companies
A wider reach of customers
One of the main advantages of a webshop is the ability to reach a wider audience. Unlike other sales channels, where you are usually limited to a single city, a webshop lets you extend your customer base to other cities or even countries where competition may be weaker. That opens up many other markets and allows the printing house to grow further.
Competition in the graphic industry grows every year, and increasing the customer base in other cities and countries is essential in order to stay competitive.
Advantages of the Toscana webshop for printing companies
The graphic industry is quite specific because most products are made to order and rarely repeat. That is why Toscana designed a special webshop for printing companies which almost completely automates the ordering process on the customer side. The webshop already contains calculations for customers that offer all the parameters you need in order to prepare a quotation. The calculations are greatly simplified and built so that every customer can place an order without much trouble. The Toscana webshop holds calculations for most printed products: flyers, letterheads, business cards, brochures, labels, calendars and many others. Once an order has been placed it is immediately available in the ERP system, and if all parameters have been entered it can go straight into production. This way you can process far more orders received through inquiries than if the inquiries arrived by e-mail or phone. The customer knows which parameters to enter as soon as they select a product, which considerably shortens the time you need to process the order.
Illustration 2: Example of a flyer calculation in the webshop
For wholesale customers who periodically order the same products, Toscana developed a dedicated customer interface through which they can order and follow their orders in real time. Besides a catalogue of their products, they also have access to their complete order history, so they can easily repeat an order or place a new one from the catalogue created for them. This tool lets you process a large number of inquiries in a single day and be far more efficient in communicating with customers. You will build a better relationship with them because the process makes buying and following all the information related to an order easier. There is no need for calls and e-mails, as everything is available in their own interface.