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New business models keep profit margins strong for print shops
The printing and shipping industries are fairly intertwined, and this relationship can raise a number of issues. Print shops and their clients traditionally go back and forth using shippers to deliver proofs and quotes while settling on an agreed upon job order. A recent article for WhatTheyThink went into great detail about the connection between shipping and printing costs as they've adjusted over the last decade.
Printing costs pushing down while shipping costs on the rise
Economist Joe Webb used data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics to indicate the trajectories for both the U.S. Postal Service and printing organizations in terms of cost to customers and producers since 2004.
According to Webb, the Producer Price Index has been running higher than the Consumer Price Index, but printing prices are lower than both of these figures. What does that mean? Apparently, printing is becoming more affordable, in large part, due in part to the fact that computer costs are facing downward pressure. Technology is more cost-effective, and it occupies a more prominent role in today's print organizations. However, when the costs of mailing items through the U.S. Postal Service continues to steadily rise, it's going to push print shops to adopt new business models to keep profit margins strong.
Technology has helped every other industry to maintain profit margins while realizing better scalability, where does print automation fit?
Web-to-print stores offer new business models for print shops
Workflow automation tools using light information technology infrastructure - through cloud-based platforms - create an opportunity for printers to continue delivering valuable services and products to their clients. They can potentially do this with less of a dependency on cumbersome back-and-forth, paper-based communication.
For instance a Web-to-print storefront integrated with print MIS software gives printers improved functionality using digital tools that provide 24/7 access to quote generation, proofing and other touch points that are far more efficient online than through the mail.
Alternatively, it'll be increasingly important for organizations to integrate address validation and verification software to ensure contact information necessary for marketing or fundraising campaigns is accurate. Using this resource, both printers and marketers can lessen the financial cost of mailings by eliminating undeliverable items.
With shipping costs outpacing the rate of inflation, an oversight such as this can have a major impact on the financial well-being of a printer or any other organization that depends on direct mail marketing. One reason is higher mailing costs will force printers to reduce their pricing models if clients want to continue to pay the same rates. Otherwise, they'll have to increase service costs and risk alienating existing customers.
Web-to-print solutions can help printers keep costs down because they're able to work through a Web-based portal for nearly every step of the print order process, short of actually delivering items to customers. What's more, a printer can streamline its operations, meaning it doesn't need an overabundance of staff to manage client relationships to monitor every interaction. Many of the high-touch interactions are taken care of using the Web-to-print storefront, where an integrated MIS platform allows for order management and other automated function
