The growth of the Internet has opened up multiple avenues for startups to enhance their business offerings and increase revenue from online channels. Web-to-print is one of the industries that is still in its early stages, slowly gaining momentum as more and more offline printing companies are embracing the Internet.

However, it is growing at a fast pace. If you’re starting a web-to-print business, or thinking about expanding your brick-and-mortar print shop to provide online services, you need to clearly understand what you’re getting into.

Let’s look at the pros and cons of the web-to-print process.

Advantage

ease of transaction

There’s no need to take time off to go to the print shop and order your goodies. Web-to-print allows customers to buy what they want with just a few clicks. It also becomes easier for the print shop as they don’t have to explain everything to every client. All the information, templates and products are online. They just have to order the orders accordingly.

Reduce costs

Printing cost is reduced without compromising product quality. The printer can now focus only on the products instead of renovating his shop and other things that are required when dealing face to face with the customer.

faster process

The printing process becomes much faster when everything is managed automatically. The printer receives the order, prints it, and sends it to the customer. There are no intermediate processes involved. The printer does not have to accumulate orders until the customer picks up his order.

wide market

While offline printers can only reach nearby customers or a few fixed customers, web-to-print allows the business to transact across local, state and international boundaries. Printers can accept orders from anywhere in the world, as long as they can manage the proper shipping facilities.

Disadvantages

Although printing from the web certainly increases your sales and generates incredible income, there are also some disadvantages associated with the process of printing from the web. Let’s see the main ones:

Lacks the expert touch

When a printer is offline, the customer can go and work with the printing software professional to get the desired design. Because the printer is an expert publisher, the work is much more refined and desirable for many clients. On the other hand, web-to-print can only offer templates that customers need to modify accordingly. There is a lack of expert recommendations on designs in web-to-print processes.

Expensive for small printers

The web-to-print service often requires the use of digital systems. Also, your limited access to the server system software and solution could end up being a hindrance. Given the cost of resources it takes to run a successful e-commerce business, it may not be a better fit for small-scale printers.

simple products

The entire process, including the products on offer, has to be easy. For more complex custom items, it would be difficult to estimate the costs of the product given the finishing and additional charges that the job might incur. Web-to-print businesses can only be successful for companies looking to sell simple products like mugs, t-shirts, stationery, clothing, etc.