“This hands-on approach supports our online proposition to guarantee that the customer’s vision is brought to life with precision and expertise.” With this focus on user experience in mind, Tasker adds that an e-commerce website is never truly ‘finished’ as user expectations and technology keep evolving. Because of this, continuous development and optimisation are essential to stay competitive and meet the ever-changing needs of users. Being a trade-only printer, Tasker says the company listens to its print partners and builds online solutions and services that support them to increase their portfolios and sell more print. Describing its website as more of a “Partnership Platform”, Tasker explains: “We’re set up to be agile when it comes to managing our online offering. From launching products that print resellers feel there’s a demand for to pulling together marketing packs that benefit both those in the trade and print consumers – no two weeks are the same for our online team.” Away from the technicalities of building a successful storefront, Tasker also highlights the importance of investing in print technology as the only way to futureproof your business. At Route1Print, its LANDA machine is built to digitally integrate into its print workflows and ensures compatibility across common file formats and its own bespoke software. “At the moment we’re focusing on optimising our digital platform even further,” Tasker explains. “From exploring user-friendly interfaces, intuitive design, and robust technologies, everything we develop further enables customers to navigate through our online print services with ease. “By eliminating unnecessary steps and reducing complexities, our online offering supports our entire process from order placement to final delivery.” Improved Design Tools Over to the end-consumer side of online print services and instantprint, also part of the Bluetree Group, services businesses of all sizes from clients running a consultancy business, and boutique or retail stores, to restaurants and bars. Through the instantprint website, customers can update their existing marketing collateral or event signage and use a range of design templates. This can be for business cards, branded merchandise, roller banners, exhibition stands, flyers, leaflets, and posters, all needed to brand a business and cut through the noise of competitors. Jennie Hopkins, e-commerce manager at instantprint, explains: “Our web-to-print offering provides clients with a product on a fast turnaround, for a good price, without compromising on quality. With our free 10-point artwork check and continuous investments in the latest print technology, our clients can rely on us to deliver a consistent product, no matter what their requirements.” The company has recently made it even easier for customers to order print with the launch of its new and improved Design Online Tool. Using this, clients can make use of hundreds of pre-made templates, saving time and money. According to Hopkins, instantprint has some big plans in the pipeline for making its web-to-print offering even more personalised than before. “Clients will soon be able to view artwork and products specific to their industry, helping to create a journey that is bespoke to them. Going forward, we want to create an online space where clients can truly experience the final product before it’s even printed.” For instantprint, there are three key points that contribute to a strong online storefront for print. The first is a strong user experience with clients able to easily access the products they need right from the homepage. To achieve this, instantprint regularly conducts ‘product findability’ tasks to ensure the entire product range can be easily found through search, website navigation, and landing pages. Secondly, Hopkins says the company values transparency. “At intantprint, we take pride in providing our clients with clear pricing transparency. Our prices include VAT and we explicitly state our delivery costs to eliminate any hidden surprises at the checkout.” Finally, Hopkins says high-quality product images and detailed descriptions are essential. This is to provide the customers with comprehensive information to aid their online decision-making process. “We believe in constant monitoring and improvement through customer feedback,” In print, more so than in many other industries, hand-holding is quite an important part of the business, especially with newer customers ► Jennie Hopkins, e-commerce manager at instantprint 63 July / August 2023 - Issue 343 email: news@printmonthly.co.uk BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES / WEB-TO-PRINT
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