Web to print, as a technology, has grown in leaps and bounds in printing industry. Web to print has gone from just becoming a technology to a printing business process. With web to print becoming prevalent in industry, mobile to print is no more a choice but a necessity. Customers are getting on mobile to place orders, design products, tracking orders etc. thereby increasing mobile sales percentage.
As per a study by Outer Box Design, during last year’s holiday shopping season, approximately one third of all online purchases are done using Smartphone. Nearly 40% of sales on the brick and mortar stores came from a mobile device, which is almost more than 10% up from the last year. The statistics suggest how increase in mobile shopping adoption doesn’t spare printing industry to adopt mobile to print.
Mobile compatibility for printing ecommerce websites is not just about website appearance and faster loading time but also about placing orders and using design tools flawlessly. One of the study suggests that 40% of the users will switch their brands after a bad mobile experience. More than 84% of mobile users have faced difficulties in completing a mobile transaction. And for web to print the same can be in terms of difficulties in terms of designing products and assessing design tools. This shows that is the great opportunity for companies to capitalize on consumer experience and conversion by creating mobile responsive and user-friendly web to print sites with mobile compatible design tools. In this article we will talk about why mobile to print is most relevant in this age and what features to look for when choosing right mobile to print.
Why Mobile to print is most relevant now for printing industry
Mobile to print is most relevant now in printing industry because of the competition arising from the digital mediums. Mobile to print is a differentiator for printers that are looking to sync with the digitalization. Here are few reasons why printers need to adopt mobile to print -
1. Mobile to print are compatible for short run jobs - Mobile to print may accelerate the trend for small run print jobs for print products. When the size of print orders decrease towards there’s need to eliminate multi point “touches” giving the room to automation of workflow. Mobile ready
online design tool can automatically bring orders from mobile storefront into production process integrated with designing, preflighting, imposition, ordering and shipping management. Thus mobile to print design tool can reduce turnaround times, increase profits and take advantage of web to print and mobile to print opportunities.
2. Rise of comprehensive business suite for mobile to print - Mobile to print is picking up for corporate customers for providing mobile printing solutions that are specifically designed for them to boost productivity. Providing mobile ready design tool feature for specific corporate customer can be a differentiator in terms of managing their own account with brand assets, approval workflow managing creating accounts for employees, providing user permission and reducing to and fro of designs etc. Customers having permissions can use mobile ready online design tool and can do the changes to directly put the artwork in the production while they are on-the-go for any business meeting.
3. Demand for personalized products - Imagine a customer forgets an anniversary or birthday anniversary gift and is looking for gifts at the last moment. He searched for apps over google to let him personalize a photo frame or mug or pillow cover or mobile phone cover and he found your mobile to print app with easy to use design tool, some already available customized templates and all the design options such as uploading pictures, change font and colors, preview the design etc. And this is not an imaginary situation, this has happened with all of us and with such a big printing market, this situation is common. Thus, mobile to print with mobile ready design tool can lead to customer delight and retaining them for long-term added with word-of-mouth marketing.
4. Print On-Demand - No one can deny about how printing is shifting towards environment friendly techniques, usage and less wastage in terms of resources. Mobile ready design tool are easy to use and can be used for printing on demand rather than maintaining inventory that can go wasted if design or artwork changes.
rnWith some of the reasons why mobile ready design tool is a must have feature in your web to print or mobile to print initiative, here are few features to look out for when choosing web to print that claims design tool to be mobile ready -
1. Check their design tool thoroughly - Mobile ready design tool needs to function seamlessly between mobile and desktops. Ask vendors if they give demo of design tool on mobile explaining all the features such as text changes, upload images, image editing, changes in clipart, color changes, change in shapes, font changes, 2D and 3D preview of products, Image health monitor for print quality check, image masking and other effects. There’s a long list of advanced features that web to print software providers provide these days. Do not fall for them and create a list of features that your customers are looking for or create a list of standard features that are must haves in your mobile ready design tool.
rn2. Ordering workflow - Most of the customers are not happy about completing the orders from mobile phone. The reasons can vary from loading time to slower transactions, broken links or lack of seamless order workflow, unable to save products or going through lot of steps between designing and placing orders. These are few examples of how your ordering workflow ‘should not be’ if you are providing mobile ready online design tool feature.
Being mobile ready business - Being mobile ready is more of a necessity than a choice. In the digital world, your customers are using lot of screens and mobile being very indispensable among them. Right from ordering food to booking cabs, shopping, booking doctor consultation, every business we can think of is providing suitable solutions to customers to interact with them over mobile. Printing industry should not leave behind in wooing customers with their mobile capabilities in terms of placing orders, designing products, checking order history, providing them with customer accounts etc. It’s high time to realize and innovate around mobile ready design tool to increase customer retention and sales.