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What You Can Do With E-Commerce

I pay the majority of my bills online. When I first made the transition, I set up the payments through each individual account. Each month, I’d log into my phone and credit card accounts and submit a payment. Finally, the bank I use sent notices indicating that I could do all of it from their website. What a relief to log into one website instead of several.

There’s a similar tug-of-war going on among now printers, distributors and end users. Who controls the point of purchase for your online ordering systems? (What? You don’t offer online ordering to customers? Uh-oh.) Is it you? Is it the printer? Many printers offer to set up online storefronts for their distributors, but in most cases, the distributor is locked into that vendor, which defeats the purpose of being a distributor. Plus, if you do that with several vendors, then your customers are like me, logging into numerous websites to order each product they want.

In this issue of Print Solutions, we explore the relationship between e-commerce and web-to-print applications. Credit card processing is a critical component of successful e-commerce programs. In “Running on Credit” (page 26), we survey the options and strategies for printers and distributors.

In “Friend or Foe?” (page 10), we look at companies whose entire model is based on e-commerce, the so-called internet printers. These companies have made it easier for end users—and resellers—to purchase print by offering a range of inexpensive products online. They’re at the forefront of the printing industry’s
e-commerce community. Printers and distributors should pay attention to how these companies execute their models, because they’re ahead of the curve.

The ultimate goals of web-to-print are interoperability and seamless integration. The good news: Industry companies are working together to make those goals a reality. The bad news is that too many printers and distributors still think investments in e-commerce are optional, that they can maintain customers without offering technology solutions. We consider affordable, scalable options for distributors who know they should explore e-commerce options to offer their customers in “W2P Your Wallet Likes” (page 20).

Andy Brown
Managing Editor
abrown@PSDA.org