What's In Store for Online Print?

According to Forrester Research's U.S. Online Retail Forecast, 2011 to 2016, the e-commerce market is expected to grow from 167 million consumers in 2011 to 192 million by 2016. That's a big jump, but the projections only quantify what we already know: E-commerce is changing the way people shop.

Just look at the print industry.

Online printing, or web-to-print (W2P), has maintained a steady ascent in popularity over the past decade or so, thanks to increasing Internet speeds and availability, reduced costs for W2P technology, and mainly, the gradual shift in customer preferences from brick-and-mortar to e-commerce. Updated statistics are hard to come by, but a 2008 InfoTrends study, E-Enablement: The Future of Graphic Communications, noted that 66.5 percent of print buyers used web-to-print services that year, compared to just 11 percent in 2000.

It's no longer a question of whether or not web-to-print will catch on—it's about where it will go from here, and how the industry will take advantage of the ever-growing e-commerce market. We asked some of the industry's top online print providers for their thoughts on the state of web-to-print, and what advances, innovations and challenges to expect for the future. Read on for their answers.

THE EXPERTS:
• Edward L. Dignam, senior vice president, ASAP Printing Corporation, Salt Lake City
• Daniel Gaugler, vice president, marketing, Printing For Less, Livingston, Mont.
• Varaz Gharakhanian, business development, 4over Inc., Glendale, Calif.
• Matthew Jay, director, business development, Growll.com, Greenville, S.C.
• Peter Posk, president, BCT Inc., Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Print+Promo: How has the web-to-print industry changed over the last few years?

Varaz Gharakhanian: One of the biggest changes in W2P over the past few years has been the expanding scope of the products offered; it's not just plain, vanilla business cards and postcards anymore. 4over continues to be a pioneer in this area, developing and offering competitive pricing, fast turnarounds and high-quality print on an array of products from large format to plastic cards and foil printing (AkuaFoil). An increasing need to embrace the very latest technology is another significant trend; if 4over can't find what we need, we develop it ourselves. This allows us to operate more efficiently and produce superior-quality print.

Matthew Jay: Today's W2P client has become more critical and demanding, while W2P solutions allow for better integration and reporting capabilities. This ground-zero meshing of educated users and better solutions has allowed many businesses to pursue opportunities that take them where their customers are—online. While the W2P world will continue to blossom, whether or not this means your business will do the same depends on your ability to ask the important questions (Can this W2P solution talk back and forth to my management information system [MIS]? If so, what specific information is accessible and what will it take to build that conduit?), and to understand what the W2P solution does for your customer (in their opinion, not yours) and what amount of resources (marketing, operations, human capital) it will take to provide this solution.

Daniel Gaugler: Product line expansion. Not only will you be a able to buy the basic products like business cards, postcards and brochures but the more complex products and documents. Software combined with customer service will make it easy to design and order unique marketing materials with custom finishing options. This combined with technology advancements in the printing industry will open up new cost-effective solutions for creating unique marketing materials on new substrates and finishing techniques to the broader market. [Also,] personalized marketing. Instead of taking the one-size-fits-all approach and sending the same marketing piece to everyone on your list, businesses will be able to create a unique piece for each individual. While the printing technology for this has existed for years, it's getting easier for businesses to collect data and to create the dynamic artwork.

Print+Promo: What's the most exciting, interesting or innovative thing happening in web-to-print right now?

Edward L. Dignam: Aside from e-commerce apps on your phone, automated workflow is really big now. Small printers that rely on traditional means to produce work will become extinct because of this, and larger, more automated web-to-print enterprises will rule. We think that 50 percent of all print will be done using completely digital means within just the next few years. The entry point for print is certainly going all digital, and the output of print will mean all presses have to become digital as a result. The workflow between the in stage and out stage will have to become automated or digital as well.

Peter Posk: Without a doubt it's integrations. Companies like ARIBA, Oracle, SAP and others all vie to be the front-end of a company's procurement process, among other MIS functions. Years ago a company did not mind if [its] employees had to access several systems to order from various vendors. [...] But having all those systems is expensive. It's expensive to train employees, it's expensive to process orders. It's just not efficient. Today, companies want one front-end for all ordering and they want all vendors to comply with back-end standards for billing and such. However, companies such as ARIBA have no interest or expertise to develop all of the web-to-print and e-commerce technologies used by each vendor. So, companies have adopted standards, like cXML, so that one front-end system can be used by an end-user.

Varaz Gharakhanian: The vast array of products available and the speed and efficiency at which orders are processed is incredible. The quality of printing has improved significantly as well, to a point that it is equal to or better than traditional printing. For example, here at 4over we are now offering 500 LPI printing. Combining this with our North American footprint means our customers get their finished product faster, at higher qualities and at a lower cost, thus maximizing their profits.

Print+Promo: Has the proliferation of mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.) affected the web-to-print industry in any way? Have you taken any steps to cater to the large number of mobile-device users?

Matthew Jay: We see businesses harnessing these devices and technology to improve their internal operations and communications, while also providing mobile-oriented solutions that enrich the customer experience. Growll is currently developing solutions that will allow us to take advantage of the mobile interface. While we do not have a mobile-specific application in use today, we have spent a significant amount of time and money on building the infrastructure that will serve as a launchpad for these types of improvements. We saw the growing demand for mobile communications and understood the shifts happening in the web-to-print market and made the decision at that point to begin building a solution that could support growth in those directions.

Edward L. Dignam: In the same way that FedEx overnight delivery changed everything, so has mobile technology. The normal pace of business is now 24/7 and on weekends, from home or office, and in my case from my boat whenever possible. You have to be everywhere, all the time, to compete. I wake up and check my email from my bedside iPad before coffee. The ASAP Printing website we built is very mobile-friendly, but we are designing new stuff in the background for better direct mobile access. It turns out that even though I'm on the Internet constantly, I rarely go out on the Web. I just use an app like Facebook, Skype, weather, YouTube, Pandora and so forth. A browser doesn't fit my needs as much anymore except to search for an app that I can interact more directly with.

Print+Promo: What do you see in the future of online printing moving forward?

Matthew Jay: There will be an opportunity for online printers to become more than just a place for print procurement. It'll extend beyond the "quality, turn time, price, variety, etc." that is commonly touted—all those things are already expected by people buying online. Online printers will become major areas of operation for their customers, possibly replacing entire workflows and MIS systems. I envision something like an Amazon.com, but for the communication industry and on steroids. These larger e-commerce hubs will allow a customer to manage cross-media marketing campaigns and customized reporting, perform all data cleansing and filtering, procure all product and service transactions, and offer back-end customer account management and plugins.

Peter Posk: Long term, we are seeing the convergence of media. Print, email blasts, social media, video, websites—the larger graphic design schools are churning out graduates skilled in all of these mediums. So I'd speculate that web-to-print, as we know it, will evolve to allow people to put together communications campaigns across a wide variety of mediums, not just print.