PSPs should work with large companies or brands in order to act as a print partner whenever an order comes in from an employee or user. “A software provider and integrator like Four Pees would facilitate the implementation of the portal itself,” says Piere. “Another benefit of offering print portals is increased loyalty through offering repeat customers their own dedicated portal where they can easily reorder branding materials. Printers could market this as an extra service, and they have themselves another revenue stream,” explains Piere, concluding: “There’s no one size fits all and it’s the role of software integrators to facilitate a solution that works best for each printer’s individual need.” Building a User-Friendly Experience Another company that specialises with web-to-print and ecommerce platforms is VB Media, which works with print companies to establish an online presence and sell products and services. Wayne Bodimeade, director of VB Media, says: “Our ecommerce websites enable printers to provide web-to-print services to their customers, and are flexible enough to operate as stand-alone e-commerce sites, or to set up private storefronts, merchandise stores, or even trade websites. We enable printers to ‘dip their toe’ into ecommerce without any web design knowledge or any need to make large investments.” Speaking about modern consumers, Bodimeade notes that ecommerce is an essential part of how the public research and buy products, regardless of whether it is B2C or B2B. VB Media highlights research from Sana Commerce from 2024 that shows that more than two thirds of global B2B buyers prefer to place orders via supplier websites. Bodimeade says: “Even if not all your orders come through your website, having the ability to sell print online can decrease ‘sales friction’ by making the process easier for your customers. Being able to offer prospective customers the option of a private storefront through which to place orders from a pre-approved product range can give your business the edge when tendering for work from large corporate clients and franchises, without the need for hefty investment. It’s not just about having your product range available to buy online, either. If you are able to generate a quote that you can send to your customer, which they can then easily accept and pay for online, that is a massive benefit, especially for those smaller print businesses which rely more heavily on a positive cash-flow.” When it comes to the considerations to have when implementing a webstore, Bodimeade suggests making a website more than just a ‘digital version of the company brochure’ and emphasises giving the buyer a user experience that makes the tasks they are doing as easy as possible. Bodimeade also highlights how print providers can offer vastly different products, this means creating a system that can flexibly cater to not just different variants of products, but also customised characteristics of attribute-based products. “Beyond how your system accommodates products, some other considerations are universal, such as speed and performance, data security, and usability when it comes to editing your website and managing your online product catalogue,” says Bodimeade, who adds: “At VB Media, our platform also offers a way for users to process and manage the orders placed on their websites, as well as integrating with PitchPrint to enable our customers to allow buyers to customise designs online and create products using pre-built templates.” As evident by the way people interact with the modern world, and the answers to many of those questioned in this article, it’s evident a webstore of some level is important to a print business. Piet De Pauw, head of marketing and ecommerce at Enfocus, likens not having a webshop to saying "no" to the question – “do you want to do business?” As a provider of automation software for the industry, Enfocus has seen many of the challenges and changes that have happened online in recent years. De Pauw points out the 20% spike in ecommerce that happened during the pandemic, which has now made online shopping the norm for many. De Pauw’s advice for having a smooth running operation is to make sure equipment and processes can be integrated successfully into a web-to-print platform. “A webshop is redundant if you have to download files and manually input jobs specs as if you received them in an email. Data should freely flow from a webshop into the MIS system and out to production.” De Pauw also highlights marketplaces and websites like Amazon and Etsy as useful places to sell bespoke products, demonstrating the many options available to PSPs and SMEs. Whether it’s providing a sophisticated online store, or a simple app integration, the world of web-to-print is far more extensive and complex than ever before. Taking the advice of the businesses and individuals in this article, along with effective marketing strategies and research, will mean you can be well prepared for taking your business to the next level. 49 www.printmonthly.co.uk July / August 2025 - Issue 355 The simple fact is that without all systems of a webstore communicating automatically, a printer’s webstore will be rife with inefficiencies ▼ Tom Peire, chief executive officer for Four Pees and chief evangelist of Atomyx ▲VB Media users are able to add their own products and ranges from integrated trade suppliers SELLING ON WEBSHOPS
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