Podcast Episode 11: Web to Print ROI
On The Web and Print Podcast, informal conversation delivers real understanding about the software solutions enabling print ecommerce (web to print). Mobile learning in 10-15 minute increments of engaging conversation about the topics you care about. The anti-PowerPoint approach to building your knowledge base! Hosted by Jennifer Matt and Ruth Jordan. Music by Amit Heri.
ROI’s and W2P are often about generating new revenue streams and winning business by offering the savings to the customer by giving them a self service model – all important aspects – but one area I find most people forget is the savings internally at the print shop. It is important to work out what it costs to process a job from an existing customer with regards to sales, customer service and accounting and what effect it would have on margins if the W2P solution handled the admin (order confirmation, job ticketing, invoicing etc) and some of the prepress activities (delivering a print ready file) that are required on a job by job basis.
Calculating ROI on web to print is vital. The printing industry is not renowned for its dedication to marketing and I hear the cry of “I spent a fortune up-front for my web to print service and the returns don’t justify it.” There are far more sensible ways to “dip the toe” into ecommerce at no cost whatsoever and little effort. Just try printsum.com, for example. There is such a thing as a free lunch.
Norman,
Many printers make an investment in enabling technology before they have figured out “what” they are intending to enable. Buying technology doesn’t create a strategy or execute on that strategy – its actually the easy part. What I find more frequently than not, printers go to technology vendors and dive into the weeds of features before they have clearly defined “who” they are targeting and “what” products they want to sell online. When you approach vendors without a strategy, one will be created for you (and not surprisingly, it will fit nicely into whatever that particular product strengths are). So if you want to get ROI, get crystal clear on your strategy FIRST, then shop for technologies that can support that strategy.
Liz – I agree, there are advantages on all sides of the equation. I think printers are jaded to the “workflow savings” pitch because it has been oversold in a lot of areas. As an industry we’ve been stuck on this “we’re special because print is a custom manufacturing process which requires high customer touch.” I will agree to that statement but only for a % of your business, there is a % of your business that can be transacted in a self-service fashion.
Again, go back to the bank analogy, we are our own bank tellers (self service ATM machines), the bank reserves high touch for higher value transactions (mortgages, loans, etc…). For printers to stay competitive – automating the easy transactions is a vital first step because extending your products and services requires labor, transitioning a portion of your business to self service frees up labor to delve into new areas.