Full Speed Ahead

When it comes to wholesale printing, always keep in mind rapid turnaround times, availability and the ability to change 
and adapt.

Zarik Megerdichian, CEO of Glendale, California-based 4over, said those are the things that count today in the wholesale printing arena. So, according to him, forget the tradition of extended press checks and proofing of jobs. Those are dying trends.

"Speed, convenience and innovations are the name of the game today," Megerdichian said.

Extended presses aren't the only things to abandon. Companies also must change the way they think in terms of quotes.

Lisa Hoffman, product manager for Arlington, Texas-based PrintPlace.com, said the mentality of taking two to three days to return a quote for a printing job is dying out due to the instant and any time accessibility to online printing companies.

"Even if a project can't be 100 percent configured online, PrintPlace.com and UnitedGraphics.com return custom quotes within four business hours. [Another trend] dying is the mentality that online printing is only for gang-run business cards, and [the idea] that quality is secondary to price."

No surprise, stationery products also are on a steady decline due to the increase of e-mail and other forms of communication, explained Daniel Gaugler, director of business development for Livingston, Montana-based PrintingForLess.com (PFL).

"The trend of just providing cheap, glossy card stock with little or no service is going away," Gaugler noted.

Instead, companies should be changing and developing new strategies and products on a regular basis.

Sam Vignjevic, director of Greenville, South Carolina-based growll.com, said his company is always striving to improve its equipment and processes. "While we emphasize keeping costs down, our focus stays on the customer and what we can do to improve their experience," he remarked. "Automation plays a key role in giving our customers the ability to service themselves as much as possible without having to wait for an answer. Customers not only can do their own proofing and tracking of orders online, but they are even automatically notified if they have forgotten to upload or approve their artwork once their order is placed. This automation also has allowed us to utilize our customer support team to become more dedicated to unique or custom orders. We are able to provide custom print shop support with wholesale pricing to our clientele."