Understanding Web-To-Print From Customers Point of View

Even though web-to-print software is often looked upon as a need of the printer looking forward to sell his products online, it is not meant for the printers to use it themselves, first hand. It’s their customers who are to use the web-to-print software to design their desired products. There are three parties typically involved around the web-to-print software whose perspective you need to understand to able to succeed in the web-to-print industry.

What does the customer want?

Customers don’t care about technicality behind the software as long as it works for them. Most of the bulk orders come from companies ordering their marketing merchandise, so their employees just care about the product, their business requirements, promotions, and other priorities. All in all, they want their work/order process to be easy, cost-effective, convenient, and timely.

What is your role as printer?

As a printer, you are responsible for ensuring that your customers are getting all that they are looking for. You need to create more differentiation in the market and be efficient in all terms.

What does the software provider want?

Pretty much obvious, their job is to sell as many software as they want. They are selling their product to the printer so they emphasis on all the features their software has to offer. Printers often get carried away by the lure of features and lose focus on what their customers really want.

If you also plan to plunge into web-to-print business, it’s important for you to know whether or not your customer is able to use the software as best as they should. When you are set to invest on web-to-print software for your store, you need to be in the customer's shoes to decide what works best for them. For that, you will first need to understand web-to-print from customer’s point of view. In the rest of the blog we have tried to cover the aspects you need to look at to understand customer needs better.

What are the Customer challenges that need to be taken care of?

To find the solution to any problem, you need to figure out the glitch first. Try to understand what problems your customers are facing. Don’t guess problems and blindly launch the solution for it. Customers’ feedback can be useful in figuring out the shortcomings. Try to involve your employees and close family and friends to point out where you are lacking or what might be done to make the work easier. Make sure that every day functions are easy enough for your customers, which includes the ease of ordering and tracking order history even when it’s a personalized item.

Is the software user friendly?

Now the most important point, how easy is your software to use? Would your customers be able to design their products without going through a manual or a set of instructions? Don’t get hundreds of features into your product designing tool without checking if your customers even want or can use those features. Designing a product shouldn’t be posed as a challenge in front of them. It should be easy, fun, and interesting at the same time.

Customers are the ultimate source of your income, hence it doesn’t matter how you find the web-to-print software or how the vendor advertises it. The only thing you need to keep in mind while you invest in your web-to-print software is the requirements and capabilities of your potential customers.