The Amazing Trend of Web to Print Technology…
Web-to-print or Web2Print, also known as remote publishing, is a rapidly growing publishing business today. One reason aiding and promoting the growth of the industry is the improve access to the internet and, the increasing IT inventions that are currently transforming the way interactions are being undertaken in the web2print industry.
Online web to print refers to the utilization of the online web-based solutions and web-to-print software to generate prints and printing-related materials. Simply put, Web-to-print is used to refer to a business model in printing where a buyer accesses a printer’s store online and makes his or her order along with a custom printing requirement, and the printer then proceeds to print the requested design after which the work is shipped to the end-user.
Modern trends in the web to print industry are becoming highly sophisticated. The mechanism and systems involved transcend the conception of the idea, creation, designs, review, production and distribution of print-based materials with the aids of web2print software online. The system brings a whole of complex and multi-facet processes in a simple way and deploys them for the users.
Web2Print – The Simplicity and Efficiency of Web to Print Technology
Many times, depending on the materials used, the results from the web—to-print solutions are comparable to the best quality available in the print industry anywhere. It is gradually becoming one of the few most effective, quick and efficient ways through which printers and creative artists interact with customers and clients as they work on executing brilliant print jobs.
For web2print to happen, a user would need to login to an online interface that is secure, then choose a particular print product from a predesigned catalogue, after which he or she has the luxury of selecting and customising a pre-designed template by editing relevant parts of the work. The customisation can be achieved by entering custom text messages and uploading personal graphics and images. When a piece is finally accepted and approved by the user and web2print company, a delivery method is then chosen, and payment is made via a credit card.
Ultimately, Web2print will also need to incorporate an E-commerce template that will drive the business and serve as the interface to ease payments and other necessary tangible exchanges between the two business partners.
To affirm the growing acceptance of web-to-print solution, World Digital Market analysis recently reported that the industry will land 187.7 billion dollars in 2018, as against its 131.5 billion dollar value in 2013. And, with the looks of things, this will only get better.
The questions, what are the technology, the solutions and the practices that are driving the web-to-print industry?
Web and E-commerce
The web is undoubtedly the biggest technological influence that led to the development of the web-to-print format today. The web brought with it the ability of people from all around the world to connect over an internet network, and this provides immediacy. This immediacy of feedback is one of the driving factors behind web2print businesses as with other online solutions.
The web provided what traditional offline printing has been struggling to provide for a very long time; the ability for customers to get an immediate response to their inquiries and demands without having to go through the hassle of sending the design back and forth. Imagine that it typically took days, if not weeks for customers and print houses to agree to a particular design before sending it to print. And, that could as well just be the beginning of the whole mess.
With the possibilities created by these two solutions, printers saw an opportunity to cut off a lot the cumbersome processes involved in traditional business, and more importantly, increase their reach, efficiency and profits, and they took it with both hands.
Web2print software
Even though desktop publishing provided the framework for the web to print to work, a lot of input was needed from web2print software providers. These solution providers have created software that makes the administration of the web2print storefront easy. Typically, a print company buys or subscribes to web2print solution providers software which they now integrate with the company’s e-commerce site to help create a flawless operation. Development of this software was and is still very crucial to the emergence and growth of the web-to-print industry today. Some of the popular software providers for web-to-print companies include Webtoolsforprint, Red-Tie, Printsites, Aleyant, Efi, Design’N’Buy and a host of others.
Today, the speed of the trends is going crazy. There are technologies and solutions like the Google Cloud Print that connect your printer to the web. Even more, you can choose to print through your printer from anywhere across a range of devices. The limits of space and time are completely removed.
Technology trends that has changed the web to print industry prospects. A cloud based printer from Google.
CRM Softwares
Alongside the development of e-commerce and web-to-print solutions, customer’s relationship management software ranks as one of the highest contributors to the advancement of the web to print business. Customer relationship software is a class of software that is designed to help companies and businesses to manage customer data, customer interaction, automate sales, provide customer support, track leads, support vendor and partner relationships and so on.
CRM software is useful for the web to print companies in the aspect of maintaining customer to business relationships. The flexibility and adaptability of these are also redefining the trends in the industry. Some CRM software providers include Salesforce.com, Piledrive, Teamsupport, Infusionsoft and marketing 360 just to mention a few.
On-demand printing
On-demand printing is a technology that has simplified book distribution on the internet. The technology utilises information from its database to respond to book orders. The system means that it only prints the number of books that are ordered thereby eliminating the risk of wastage to a very high degree. This trend in technology encouraged printers to go into web-to-print knowing that their papers would not be wasted by just clicking to print.
Web-to-print has grown to become a very integral part of the modern-day print industry, and it will continue to grow even bigger in the coming years according to industry projections. But the industry did not grow on its own; it has been due to the development of several technological concepts that the web-to-print industry has grown to become the vibrant industry that it has become today.
The onus now falls on the modern-day printer to understand that technology does not stay stagnant. In the coming years, trends will occur, and they would revolutionize the print industry as a whole, and web2print in particular as we know it today. The wise thing will be to stay abreast of events, occurrences, and trends so that when they eventually come, one can take advantage of their impact. The ball is now in your court.
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I learned lot from this technology. Thank you for this useful information.