4 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Adopting a Web-to-Print Solution

You might be a commercial printer looking forward to help your clients by producing marketing materials for them or an ecommerce store owner wanting to offer customized products to your customer. Choosing a web-to-print solution can prove to be quite daunting. Especially when you are a start-up firm, a lot of considerations have to be made before investing into a solution like this. Pricing for these software is not always transparent. Some providers ask for monthly fees whereas others help you start with a basic plan and then move forward to higher pricing plans.

While choosing online web-to-print solutions, you need to discuss with your team and some of your end users and know their opinions about your decisions. Given below are the questions you need to ask yourself.

1. What basic features do I need?

Before you mull over the price packages, you need to know if the tool befits your requirements. You definitely do not want to end up with a good for nothing software just because it was cheap and you wanted to have one. Technology keeps evolving with each passing day and hence you not only need to know how it will help you today but also have information about how it will meet with your requirements in future. Hence, you need to make a list about features that you can’t do without and rank them based on your priorities.

2. Does it offer a good user interface?

Different web to print solutions have different user interfaces. So make sure you do not overlook this aspect. If you are integrating a web-to-print solution with your ecommerce store it must be easy for your customers to work around it. In case of complications, it can result into cart abandonments and people never visiting your web store again. Hence, you must make sure that the workflow is simplified for your users and the experience you provide lives up to their expectations.

3. Is the tool flexible?

With tools like this there is no “one size fits all” kind of promise. So if you are integrating a web-to-print solution to your ecommerce store, you would definitely want it to be flexible. The tool might have some basic features like design templates, cliparts, colours and text management but you should also be able to customize its features as and when your business grows. This will help customers design what they want and they are likely to keep coming back to your store.

4. Which web to print solution can I afford?

Once you have explored ample amount of options and have shortlisted two to three models, you need to decide on the costs based on what kind of pricing structure would be most suitable to you and your clients. There are some web to print software providers who offer models which start at low prices and increase their prices as you grow your client base. This means you pay based on the number of orders taken per month. Printers and marketing agencies can begin with customers that need such solutions and estimate as they go. Ask yourself questions like, “Do you have any up front capital?” or “Do you want to choose a SAAS subscription model.”

Once you get a satisfactory answer to the above questions, you can buy the online web to print solution you like. Can you think of any other considerations that should be made? Feel free to share with us!