Guide on Magento 2.X Migration for Product Designers and Printers

If you run an online print business or offer product decoration services on a Magento based e-store, you must be aware that Magento will end its official support and new security updates for Magento 1.X from June 2020. And it is June already!

As a result, online print stores with a Magento Product Designer embedded still using Magento 1.X are likely to become more prone to performance-related issues and vulnerabilities after starting from this month. Therefore, rather than using the old version, Magento 1.X users should switch to Magento 2.0 to keep business uninterrupted and glitch-free.

Advantages of migration to Magento 2.0

There are several advantages of migration to Magento 2.0 as:

The page loading speed increases by up to 50%.
The speed of the checkout process increases by 38%.
The platform scalability rate of your web-to-print store increases up to three times the current rate.
The Magento 2 admin panel is easily usable and all-inclusive. Whether it is tracking orders and revenues, reviewing lifetime sales and delivery statuses, calculating taxes, or anything, you can do it all right from your store backend.
The advanced technologies including CSS3, HTML5, Require.JS, etc. simplify the installation and update of new extensions on the platform.
With rich snippets on catalog pages Magento 2.0 features, it helps improve SERP rankings.
Magento 2.0 has got more advanced security and customization features.

A Guide on Migration to Magento 2 for Printers and Product Decoration Service Providers

Migration to Magento 2.X can help you increase the count of your online shoppers by up to 200%. If you want to switch to Magento 2.X, below are the seven best practices to follow for the successful switch.

1. Enhanced Front-End Architecture

Magento 2 offers a number of built-in features for online businesses. The three major ones are as follows.

Responsiveness

Magento 2 makes your online printing storefront responsive that can fit any screen – be it of a mobile, laptop, or desktop.

Advanced Admin Interface

The admin can personalize the backend as per their requirements, manage and retrieve the important information in real-time. This version has also got enhanced import capabilities.

Checkout Process

The buyers’ journey becomes faster by 38%  and also smoother. This helps in reducing the cart abandonment rate that is often a common problem in ecommerce.

2. Improved Technology Stacks

Magento 2 offers updated versions of tech stacks to Magento 2.X developers that help them deliver quality work promptly. And it lets online printers avail of flexibility and customization unlike in Magento 1.X.

3. A Systematic Base for Optimized Codes and Modules

Unlike Magento 1.X, Magento 2.X doesn’t support and manage non-optimized codes as they don’t contribute to the improvement of the user experience and don’t optimize storefront speed. Therefore, this latest version works best with support for optimized codes only and increases efficiency.

4. Progressive Module Development

The open-source eCommerce platform lets Magento 2.X developers use the default code and override it as required to develop modules. This specific functionality is one of the major reasons behind adaptation to this latest version

The sophisticated module development is highly beneficial for online businesses who want to get started quickly as it saves their time and effort. Additionally, it is also possible to compress images directly on the server-side using the built-in tools on Magento 2.
The open-source eCommerce platform lets Magento 2.X developers use the default code and override it as required to develop modules. This specific functionality is one of the major reasons behind adaptation to this latest version

5. Smooth Extension Integration

As your customers grow in number, the add-ons you need to manage them will also increase in number. That is why your storefront should be easily integrable with advanced APIs and off-the-shelf extensions to improve efficiency.

But extensions must be updated periodically to avoid multiple crashes on your store. Magento 2.X makes third-party integrations seamless and glitch-free.

6. Enhanced Technical Capabilities

Ensure to enable your Magento 2.X developers to test the code before they finalize it for the migration process. This will help them find out if any part of your online store needs fixes in how it’s working. The testing framework it offers includes performance tests, static tests, unit tests, integration tests, and more.

7. Easy Varnish Caching

In Magento 2, a varnish cache behaves like a web accelerator that speeds up your online printing store and optimizes your performance. Moreover, it also uses browser caching to make sure all storefront assets are stored properly.

What Magento 2.X Constitutes?

1. Data Migration

It includes moving data including customer details, store configurations, product information, sales, and CRM data, and basic SEO set up like meta-description, titles, or redirects.

2. Extension and Code Customization

Magento 1.X extensions and code customizations aren’t transferable to the latest version. However, you can fully or partially re-create custom inbuilt functionality on your online printing store to run them better.

3. Design Migration

Despite Magento 1.X themes not being directly transferable to 2.X, creating a new theme or recreating an old theme from scratch is easily possible.

4. Advanced SEO Migration

You can recreate advanced SEO settings including custom URLs, meta titles and descriptions, cross-links, formats, markup tags, redirects, etc. on Magento 2.

To Wrap Up

Migrating from Magento 1.X to Magento 2.X is the need of the hour as the latest version will help make your online store more productive and interactive. There are several solution provider companies that can guide you on transitioning/switching seamlessly from Magento 1 to Magento 2.

Original Source: https://bestcmsplugins.com/guide-on-magento-2-x-migration-for-product-designers-and-printers/

Share:

Read More

5 Ways to Sell Greeting Cards Online

The annual estimate of greeting card retail sales is above $7.5 billion! It proves that
people still prefer greeting cards over GIFs in this high-end digital age. As it gives a personal touch to the feelings you convey!

While buying greeting cards and gifts offline is still existent, online card shopping has also emerged popular of late. To compete with the leading brands like Archies, Hallmark and other big fishes in this industry is tough. But it is possible though!

So, are you ready to launch your new online card retail business? Or to expand your offline card retail store into an online one? Below are some good ways to sell greeting cards online.

How to Sell Greeting Cards Online (Highly Recommended Ways)

Print-On-Demand Sites

Print-On-Demand is highly trending nowadays. The reason is, customers can not only purchase products but also customize them. They can select different images to keep on their products. The companies then print these products with images on them.
You can upload images on greeting cards and other products and sell them on such print-on-demand companies. Being a designer, you can set a base price and add the commission you want to earn. Generally, it is around 10%. Zazzle, Red Bubble, and Cafe Press are some good print-on-demand companies you can tie up with.

Trading your cards through these sites have various advantages viz:

No big investment in products as the company takes care of printing and requirement fulfillments.
No shipping charges as the company pays for shipping.
No need to deal with enquiries or complaints from customers.
The company handles them all. However, you can allow your customers to contact you for their design requests if you want to.
Hassle-free payments. The company handles all payments and pays you via PayPal or check depending on your location.
Continuous selling of your designs for years making it your source of passive income.

Sell Handmade Cards Online

If you are good at innovative artwork and craftwork, you can go for selling handmade cards online. However, the cost of making such cards is higher. It’s because you have to be ready with all crafting materials with you. You may require cards, rubber stamps, stickers, ribbons,, ruler, die cutting machines, etc.

Moreover, you will have to handle shipping charges also. Nevertheless, handmade cards are in great demand. Therefore, higher card-making costs will bring you higher profits.

Most of these sites either charge you monthly or ask for a commission on your earning from sales.

If you are selling handmade cards offline, you can upload them on various sites to sell them. This way, you don’t only get to sell your cards but also promote them. Some popular sites where you let you sell your handmade cards are:

Amazon
Etsy
Shopify
iCraft
Artfire
Supermarket
Folksy (UK based)
Dawanda, and more.

Launch Your Own Website

If you are financially sound and can invest huge amounts, your own card retail website is a good idea to go for. You have to take care of everything from taking card orders to dispatching them. But hold on!

First, your site is not the ‘lonewolf’ of the online card retail industry.
Many major players like Hallmark, Etsy, Zazzle, etc. are already a tough competition. So, your site must be visible enough for people to view, notice and visit.

For this to happen, you must learn SEO skills. Or hire someone who would do that for your site. So that your site shows up in top search results.

Second, you need to choose a feature-rich Card Design Software that lets your customers customize cards.

Freelance Sites

‘Freelance sites’ is yet another good way of earning income through online sale of cards. This option has its own advantages some of which are:

Unlike other options, you don’t need to create cards and wait for others to buy them. On the contrary, you just need to work on specific design requirements of customers. This puts you at a relatively lower risk of low sales and profits.

You don’t have to take care of uploading card designs timely, managing orders or shipping order. Just take orders as they come and fulfill them.

Also, you can earn a pretty good amount by catering to multiple customers monthly or yearly. If your designs go down well with clients, your popularity escalates. And you can get more and more orders. Again a bonanza for you!

Card Design Ideas

Though not directly related to selling cards, this way that fits here somehow. If you are good at innovation, sell it to card companies. Some card companies pay you for their submission. But before submitting your idea to a site, analyze the style of cards they sell thoroughly. If they like your poetry, quotes, sayings, design and theme ideas; you can earn anywhere between $25 to $300. To tie up with such companies, you first need to sign a statement. And confirm that your idea is original and you won’t use it anywhere else.

Some good companies that pay you for ideas are:

Oatmeal Cards
Blue Mountain Cards
SNAFU Designs
Smart Alex
Warner Press
Comstock Market Place, and more.

In a Nutshell

Thus, you see that the greeting card business will never go out of fashion. So, you can always go for it. Just start selling cards online besides selling them offline. And boost your card retail business!

Share:

Read More

TIPS BEFORE INVESTING IN MAGENTO PRODUCT DESIGNER

The constant evolution of the printing industry has made no longer dependent on physical stores. It is growing in different ways after marking its presence into the digital market, it has opened the doors of endless opportunities.

And people are loving it! Because it provides them the freedom to be creative and has things of their choice through Web-to-print stores.

Whereas, on the other hand, the growth of Magento is phenomenal in recent years. 

In fact, Magento is currently the most preferred e-commerce platform for e-store owners. If you are considering starting your online store in the printing industry then I recommend using Magento as an e-commerce platform and integrating it with our product design tool. Here, I will be providing some guidance on things you must consider before investing in a magento product customizer:

Mobile First: This is the current demand of the market. Tech giants like Google are promoting the concept of mobile-first experience. A recent study shows that 84% of users face difficulties in completing mobile transactions. And that's a huge number. But, as a vendor, there is a huge opportunity for you to generate plenty of revenue by providing these users with the mobile-first experience.

Hence, providing your users with an interface that is compatible with mobile, it will be perfect. You can make sure that your users can easily do even the smallest of the task from your mobile-friendly design.

Support SEO: The marketing of your e-store is the most important part of your business. While purchasing a magento 2 product designer you want to make sure that it has SEO features.

Thinking, why is it important? If there is no visibility of your printing e-store on search engines then you won’t be getting the traffic->clients and this will not help your business to flourish. So, in this era of the digital world, you need to make sure that you have a strong online presence and grow your business. Make sure to check that they provide you with the features like targeted keywords, SEO title, meta description, etc. Making your store full-fledged and optimized technically will help you to grow your digital presence on various platforms and make sure that your customers can find you easily.

Customization options: This is the most crucial part. When your vision is to encourage your customers to design and create their own products. To prompt them to purchase and provide them the freedom to personalize their products by designing things that are not available online. So, to make sure that all these needs get fulfilled you need to make sure that your tool provides great customization options. Example: Multiple design areas, custom clipart options, custom design templates, etc. more the option, the better experience you can provide to your customers and grow your business.

User Experience: We live in a fast-paced world. Today no one wants to wait and we all want things to happen fast around us. Similarly, we want websites that we visit to load fast. So, while setting up the website make sure that it does not take more than 2-3 seconds, otherwise, your website may lose potential users. Simultaneously, also make sure that the tool you are purchasing is providing quick and is easy to learn and play around. The best part of integrating it with Magento is its high tech and speed. All you need to do is find the perfect product design tool which can work with the high speed and easily integrates with your e-store.

Storing downloadable file: As a store owner, you have the majority of the tasks related to management. You need to make sure that the files which you have are at a proper place and are easily accessible. Sometimes, you will be having many customers who are using your own services, in such scenarios you need to make sure that they don’t get mixed, delivery of the product is on time and your customer is happy.

Easy order/reorder facilities: Ordering and payments needs to be easy. You should also check the “My Design” section for your customers to easily check the design they create or purchase. You can also provide the tracking or reordering feature. These two features will make it easier for your customers to track their order like is it dispatched or by when it will deliver and if they have loved some particular design then they can easily reorder it as well.

Conclusion: To make your e-store stand out in this competitive market, you need to make sure that you are moving ahead with time. You also need to make sure that you are using the correct tools to the fullest of its potential and providing your customers with the best service.

Share:

Read More

A Guide on How to Venture into a Photo Book Business

A picture is worth a thousand words. Therefore, photos hold great importance for everyone. With more and more smartphones flooding the market, people have started documenting their day-to-day life by clicking numerous snaps.

Imagine being in a business where you could help almost 2.7bn smartphone owners to create with those images. We are talking about photo book printing. One of the best options as a business for you if you love creativity.

But again, starting every business needs a lot of preparation and research. And of course, will power.

So, here are some steps to keep in mind before you start a photo book business.

1. Insightful Research

Three things to research well into before starting a photo book business:

Mode of Business
One thing you need to decide is whether you want to start this photo book business offline or online. Or whether you want to combine both offline and online modes.

However, unless you are very sure of immense success of your offline photo studio, it is better to start photo book business online. The reasons why starting it online has an edge over offline are:

• Print on Demand technology/process can help save money and resources.
• It lets customers utilize their creativity to design photo books as per their wish. And this personalizes their experience further.
• Lesser investment required to create a website than buy or rent space.

Or you can also go for a hybrid store too. Starting with an online store, you may expand it to an offline store once your brand gets popular.

Analysis of Competition and Customers
Understand the photo book market first. Keep yourself abreast of the big brands in the same business. Analyze them thoroughly and try to understand their ideas and strategies. Study their sites and product offerings.

You can add your own innovation to that analysis to come up with the latest trending products in the market. Don’t copy competitors but take inspiration from them.

Also, try to figure out the potential customers of your business and the price they are willing to pay for your products.

Accordingly, decide on the products you want to sell and their prices.

Financial Strategy
Budget plays a crucial role in any business. So, your financial strategy should not fall flat in any case. Your strategy should take into account everything - run-time and anticipated expenses, monthly and yearly profit margins, funds for investments, etc.

2. Selection of Products

After researching well and building an idea, the next thing is selection of products. In the business of photo books, selection of covers and papers of photo books is important. Selection of these two depends on market trends, price, profit margins, requirements of your store, etc.

The main types of photo book covers available for you to choose from are:

• Flipbook - A soft-cover photo book. It’s very flexible and durable like a magazine.
• Hardcover - Feels like a real book. Comes in hinged and layflat forms.
• Booklet - 2-staple binding on the spine helps flat opening. Ideal for small-size photo books.
• Linencover - Outer covering of real canvas. Gives a classy and elegant look.

The main types of paper you can choose for your photo books are:

• Matte - Non-glossy and ideal for designs with enough text on it.
• Glossy - A paper with a very ‘shiny’ surface. Lighter than the matte paper. Ideal for vibrant photos.
• Satin - Lies midway between matte and glossy papers. People also call it ‘pearl’ paper.
• Linen - Has textured lines on its surface. Feels like a linen cloth. Suitable for presentation folders, wedding invitations, art paints, etc.

3. Judicious Selection of a Supplier

A supplier should be consistent in supplies and quality. Once you set up a store, you’ll need stuff like photo book pages, spirals, covers, etc. So, make sure that the supplier you pick is capable of delivering everything on time. And doesn’t leave you with an irregular supply or bad quality products.

4. Selection of an E-Commerce Platform

Choose an e-commerce platform judiciously. Consider factors like hidden charges, mobile and SEO friendliness, support and security updates, etc.

Here are the types of platforms you can choose from:

• Traditional - Pay a fee upfront and get the annual license of the platform for a year. Hybris, IBM or Kentico, etc. are good examples of traditional platforms.
• Open-Source - You don’t need to pay any license fee annually. But you’ll need to pay for implementation and customization. Magento is the most popular platform in this category.
• Cloud - Traditional open-source platforms with an upgrade of a hosting system. Demandware, Salesforce, Common, etc. are good examples.
• SaaS - Software-as-a-Service platforms are cloud-based platforms accessible across all browsers. You only need to pay a monthly subscription fee to the third-party provider for maintenance, performance, and security.

5. Selection of a Right Designer Tool

• Choice of suitable Photo Book Design Software is a crucial step. The design software for your photo book business should provide:
  
  Editable Templates
• Management of multiple image slides
• Skew Effect
• Drop and Shadow Effect
• Cost-Effectiveness
• SEO Friendliness
• 2D and 3D Previews

And more.

6. Selection of a Right Printing Method

Despite the availability of umpteen print methods like flexography, screen printing, lithography, etc., digital printing is ideal for photo book printing. As it involves reproducing digital images on a paper. Further, you can choose from a variety of color combinations using your Web-to-Print Software.

7. Operations

Printing
Find a suitable printing service provider for your printing business. Make sure that they provide fine quality prints. Also, upgrade your offices and hire professionals to complement your business as it grows.

Logistics
Managing deliveries by yourself can be possible when orders are few. However, when your business expands, find a reliable delivery company to collaborate with. This collaboration will streamline your delivery process.

8. Launching and Marketing

After all the steps comes the time of launching your business. It is better to start marketing about your launch in advance. This will build up curiosity among people.

After launching your business, market it through:

• Optimizing your website for SEO
• Blogging
• Making YouTube videos and vlogs
• Using referral programs
• Social Media Marketing
• Offline Marketing
• Pay-Per-Click Marketing (if you have surplus budget), etc.

Takeaway

So, a photo book business is always a good business idea. You’ll be helping people relive their favorite moments. Just take care of every step and you’ll soon ace in this vogue business.

Share:

Read More

8 Ways to Maintain Customer Loyalty in 2020 amid COVID-19

According to a study by Digital Commerce 360, 67% of online shoppers have changed their shopping behavior and 55% of online shoppers have placed more orders online owing to the Corona outbreak. This shows that customers are turning to online shopping in the wake of this pandemic.

However, keeping your customer base intact amid the prevailing times of uncertainty isn’t that easy. And customer loyalty may go down due to one or more reasons below:

• Lack of engagement or interest.
• Poor customer experience.
• Failure to fulfill customers’ demands.
• Weakened brand equity.

As a result, your overall sales and revenue may plummet.

Therefore, besides acquiring new customers, maintaining existing customer loyalty is also crucial. To win your customers’ trust and loyalty, you may have to ‘walk the extra mile’ to retain your customer loyalty – especially this fateful year.

Read on to know a few customer retention strategies that can come in handy and retain your brand loyalty among customers.

• Ensure to take Emergency Measures

This is the first and foremost step towards retaining customer loyalty. Setting up an emergency response team is crucial for timely measures. This team can help assess the risk factors, supply or inventory related issues, online store operations, workforce,
and consumers’ sentiments.

After considering all these factors, this team can plan and work out strategies to adopt for marketing and sales. Further, it can also discuss these strategies with the top officials and experienced employees in each department and tweak them further.

Thus, it will help create an effective roadmap to guide your company through this crisis.

• Assure Customers about Product Safety

The word ‘social distancing’ has had a deep impact on people’s minds and hearts. Trusting your brand would be difficult for even your existing customers– unless you show them you care for them. Reassure them that you follow stringent hygiene procedures and guidelines for customers, employees, and products with utmost attention.
For that, you can inform your customers by creating a video, blog(s), or even a full dedicated website page for CORONA where you can inform them how your brand is responding to this global pandemic.
For instance, if you have an in-house manufacturing facility, you can record a small video showing the entire procedure of manufacturing, packing, dispatching and delivery. You can also post videos of your employees following precautions like wearing masks and gloves, sanitizing machinery, cartons or other packaging materials, etc. on social media.

This all will help customers regain confidence in your brand and win back their trust.

• Provide Personalization

Personalized approaches may work well for an online store seeing the current scenario. Let’s understand it with an example.
Suppose, you are an online print store owner. In general times, people would buy anything and everything from your store. But would they do that today? Of course not! The reason is the change in customers’ shopping preferences. They have grown smarter and research everything before buying anything – especially in current times. They won’t pick anything that can’t stand out or isn’t ‘really’ valuable.

What to do then? The answer is – offering personalization. By providing freedom of customization through product design software like Magento Product Designer or any other, you can engage customers better.

• Accommodate New In-Trend Items

Hunt for the products or services people are seeking in your industry. Incorporating in-trend items or services is highly helpful.
For instance, if you own an insurance company, it is high time you covered Corona under your health coverage policy just like other renowned insurance companies like Reliance General Insurance.
Similarly, you can offer COVID-19 masks to your customers if you are an online fashion store just like Wildcraft has done.

• Prompt Online Customer Support

While online customer support is always a valuable asset, strengthening it further can help even more in such times.
Equip your customer support team with all they need to respond to customers anywhere anytime. Keep multiple lines of communication open for your customers. Facebook Messenger, official whatsapp number, customer service number, or other messaging platforms can help. You can even offer them the ‘video conferencing’ option through Skype or FaceTime for a face-to-face interaction and strengthen your customer relations.

• Zero-Contact Delivery

Out of the fear of getting infected, people are abstaining from touching any surface, or even each other! To allay such fears, offering them ‘Zero Contact Delivery’ can be a very innovative option. Adjust your store backend configuration and display the option of Zero Contact Delivery on your product page or Checkout page for customers. This will reassure them that you follow the social distancing norms ‘actually’ and their safety is your topmost priority.

• Social Media – Make it Your Right Hand

Undeniably, a website is a must for every online store. However, social media visibility is not behind. When people are indoors checking news about Corona now and then on social media, you can leverage this opportunity to strengthen your social media presence.

Keep posting useful content, details of new launches, offers or discounts, etc. on your social media pages on various platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Remember, the content you post should be informative or exciting, and most importantly – positive.

You can also run customer loyalty programs, offers and discounts; and maximize their outreach via announcements on social media. This will help attract your existing customers’ attention back to your brand. Not only the existing customers, but also the new audience may stumble upon such programs or offers, develop interest, and become your customers.

This way, you won’t only be able to retain your existing customer base but also broaden it.

• Tap into the Real Power of Content

Last but not the least, make sure your content is meticulously created. People often fail to realize how content can work wonders for a business. After all the marketing efforts you invest in, it is the ‘content’ that they see first on your site, social media page, email, and literally everywhere.
Therefore, if you really want to rule the hearts and minds of your audience, making your content engaging is indispensable. Especially when decision-making has become harder for customers and they want help choosing between various products/services/offerings by various companies, content can be their guide.
Make sure that your content is insightful, informative, motivating, engaging and of course – optimized for keywords. Use various tools to research keywords around COVID-19 and optimize your blogs, articles, listing page content, etc. with them.

Afterall, CONTENT IS KING for Bill Gates and broadly – for every business.

Summing Up

COVID-19 crisis has undoubtedly toughened maintaining and building customer loyalty. However, with several effective customer retention strategies as discussed above, you can win back your customers’ trust and retain their loyalty.
Good luck with building your customer loyalty!

Share:

Read More

Customized T-shirts: Powerful Ingredient For Marketing Campaigns

T-shirts are comfy. We all love them. Admire them dearly and wear them whenever we want to be ourselves. They are everyone's favorite weekend companions. There's no better feeling than watching Netflix with a bucket of popcorn wearing a free-sized t-shirt!

If we look back in the 19th century, people used to wear union suits as undergarments. Later on, they cut that suit in two halves: The upper half and the bottom. And that's how t-shirts came into existence. You can say that t-shirts are the modern versions of union suits.

Since then, it has been people's go-to fashion garment. And they can be as expressive as they want them to be. As we know, it is not an uncommon trend to represent a message through this medium. Below is the image of two boys from the UK in the 1980s flaunting a bold slogan.

In short, t-shirts are more than just a piece of garment.

And in today's fast-paced tech world, there is almost nothing that people can't print on t-shirts as there are advanced t shirt printing software available in the market. They are easy to integrate into your e-store and customers can utilize them as a powerful marketing weapon for their business. And many businesses have been leveraging their power for years.

Here are some of the benefits of utilizing t-shirts to market any event, campaign, products or a whole brand:

Cost effective when ordering in bulk
Versatile
Quick to produce
Simple to style
One of the best direct marketing tools
Outlasts the campaign period
Having the potential to appeal to a wider target audience
Let's see how your customers can use customized t-shirts to turn their marketing events into a success.

Different Events/Campaigns to Use Customized T-shirts as a Medium of Marketing:

Crowdfunding

Crowd fundraising events are a modern-day approach to raise funds for good cause. And with their rapid adoption among the youth, it is important to make such events stand out for better awareness among the audience. The one thing that today's generation love is apparel. Giving away custom t-shirts based on the theme is a subtle way of appealing the fundraisers.

Here's how your customers can make this event a success using your designer tool:

– Your customers craft a t-shirt which is not only unique but also relevant to the theme of the event. They will also be creating staff and volunteer t-shirts using the t-shirt maker software.

– The organizers of such an event will demand the designer t-shirts in bulk. So, you will have to make sure that your tool can fulfill large orders.

– Once your customers have designed and distributed these t-shirts, they have to make sure that everybody wears the t-shirts on the day of the event.

– The next step: Marketing. Taking plenty of pictures, sharing them on social media, and other promotional materials & activities are an important part of the event. The right marketing of such events can help create awareness of the cause and raise more funds.

Product Marketing Campaigns

Let's admit that coca cola is the finest soft drink brand we have been loving since our childhood. The major impact it makes on its customers is through the promotions. Always delivering the right message in the most effective way.

Back in 2013, one of its successful promotion campaigns was with the custom t-shirts. They organized a campaign by sending around 600 custom tees to some of the biggest fans and loyal employees of the brand. After the distribution, each of them had to take a picture of themselves wearing it. Using those images, they created a 70 seconds animation in which two cartoon characters are trying to make a pair of lips smile. After several failed attempts, they were able to easily make them smile by giving a sip of coca cola. And the message was: Coca-Cola – open happiness.  It was widely popular as "The Wearable Movie".

Having a software which let your customers create their own designer pieces with creative freedom in whichever quantity they want could be a major turning point for your business. And it depends on how you leverage the software.

Tourism Campaign

Tourism campaigns are hard to conceptualize and the execution of such campaigns is even harder. As it will be for the global audience to create an urge to visit a particular city or country. Here the most important thing that creates a long-lasting impression is the presentation of the USP of that place. It is important as a marketer that customers understand the significance of the place and remembers it. And here's how a t-shirt marketing campaign can solve the purpose:

– First and foremost, it is important to create a t-shirt which has something unique to offer. For example, "I Love New York" t-shirts to promote the New York tourism. But thanks to its popularity, everyone has seen it in many movies and you can even spot celebrities wearing it.

– For users, it is important to create such t-shirts in bulk and distribute them to all the international sellers and merchants. Or they can adopt the online approach as well.

–  Penultimately, they can make interacting ad content based on the theme of the campaign by promoting these t-shirts so that it would create a brand like concept among its viewers.

– If the design is appealing to customers, it would boost the campaign success and ultimately these t-shirts will be driving many new customers to that place!

Business Events

Business events: ones with less glamour and entertainment. Here customized t-shirts can bring back that charm. Apart from digital marketing and other online resources, business expos are the events where a business can showcase their capabilities and attain international contacts and customers. Simultaneously, there would be a whole lot of other businesses emphasizing and trying to win the attention of visitors. In order to make a business expo a success, here's how users utilize the t-shirts as a powerful marketing tool:

– First, they need to prepare the t-shirts with some unique idea. Don't forget the company logo. It is an essential part. But, apart from that writing the company slogan or may be unique clipart would evoke more interest in their prospects.

– During the events, give presentations, distribute leaflets while wearing these t-shirts to make customers remember the business name which eventually could turn into an inquiry.

– Last but not least, providing the services according to the promises made! After all, that's the best business strategy which works every time.

... And Inevitable Creativity

When including t-shirts to the event marketing activities, creativity is an essential aspect. "Keep calm and...", or any Disney inspired slogans are so monotonous. Instead, providing your customers with a choice to invent their t-shirts with the designer tool would bring out their creativity. Such a tool provides your customers the freedom of expression and the facility to create t-shirts according to their requirements.

Conclusion

Customers are going crazy over this new trend and are looking for such merchants who can provide them with before-mentioned products. You can attain the advantages of this thriving customization industry today by integrating online tshirt designer with your e-store.

Share:

Read More

Printing Industry Trends amid COVID-19 Crisis

Let’s play a quick game.

Here you need to count how many times during the day you hear these words.

Coronavirus, COVID -19, uncertainty, pandemic, case numbers, toll, vaccine, etc. I am sure it is more than you think about your coffee.

As this dire epidemic is disrupting the entire world, it also comes with some of the positive notes.

For example, as per the research, closing the factories in China in the past 2 months almost cleared the sky again. The nitrogen dioxide is now 30% less than normal.

Most of the brick-and-mortar stores are understanding the importance of digital presence and making shifts to keep up with the current market.

Hence this article. All about the current things taking place in the Printing industry and how you can keep your Printing business up.

Shift from Offline to Online

The traditional print business model is not sustainable at least for now. With physical stores closed down, you won’t get orders unless you have an online presence.

So, it is time you launched your online store for people to place orders online. For example, Trust Printshop in Ft. Worth, TX partnered with several local businesses to help them through merchandise.

Their vision is: "We've decided to do something we've always wanted to do: sell our own garments with our own designs directly to you." You can also offer customization to your customers by integrating a product designer tool/software product in your backend. This way, you can not only keep your business running but also sales-oriented and engaging. 

Localized Order Delivery

With shipping restrictions imposed across various parts of the globe, you may not be able to ship orders to distant parts. However, you can still continue delivering your local orders. Once you create your business website, you can inform your customers that you are operating remotely to deliver local orders in the vicinity of your remote location.

If you have local warehouses, you can fulfill local orders as localized shipping doesn’t face stringent shipping restrictions or heavy costs. For example, repro print express is still accepting orders online and delivering them. Their customers can also design their products.

Custom Products (Especially T-shirts, Signages, and Photo Albums)

If it were not the COVID-19, all custom products would be in demand as usual. Unfortunately, this is not the scenario.

Nevertheless, some custom products are still in high demand. A custom t-shirt for fundraising, spreading awareness, thanksgiving, inspiration, etc. can be a good source of income today.

Similarly, custom signages are valuable as big hospitals, health care clinics, or local administration authorities, etc. can use them to create awareness. For instance, they can display these signages in public places to appeal to people to stay indoors, instruct people about the lockdown rules and restrictions or guidelines to follow in case anyone suspects COVID-19 symptoms. Hospitals can display them to aware people of COVID-19 and safety measures to follow to prevent infection.

Old photos may also help people escape the harsh reality outside and give them a few moments of relief in this distressing situation. They may cherish their memories and stay positive by looking at them.  Therefore, custom photo albums may also be a product worth selling today.

Flexibility in Return and Exchange Policies

As per a study, 96% of digital buyers would repeat purchase with good returns experience. So, it is imperative for you to ease your return and exchange policies and extend the return period. This will engage your customers better and enhance their shopping experience. And they will keep returning to your store and boost your sales.

3-D Printed Personal Protective Equipment

3-D printed PPE kits are in high demand as they are cost-effective and can help reduce the shortage. Many companies and even individuals from this field have stepped up and are aiding governments and local health authorities of their countries to curb the PPE shortage.

For example, A number of 3D printing companies are believed to be amongst the 1,400 businesses which have already pledged their support including 3T Additive Manufacturing, an ISO 13485 approved service provider.

According to them, they have the capacity to produce metal and polymer parts in varieties for the medical industry and believe they could help with the manufacturing of casings, clips, fixturing and more. Ventilators, hand gloves, hospital gowns, etc. are the products you can manufacture and sell to local health authorities and hospitals at nominal prices.

Printing Security

Several cyber hackers are ready to prowl and hack into others’ bank accounts, social networking accounts, with an increase in the usage of the internet. For instance, Zoom has come under the scanner recently due to privacy lapses in several countries. Taiwan has gone to the extent of even banning the app.

The print industry is no exception. With the increased use of mobile-to-print technology, security issues and data leak issues might increase. Hence, security is the need of the hour so as to build trust in customers and secure their sensitive data.

Sustainability in Printing

COVID-19 has forced all of us to rethink our practices and assess them whether they are environment-friendly or not. The print business is no exception and print business owners must think of print sustainability measures.
For instance, HP has initiated an environment-friendly practice by pioneering engineering ink and toner cartridges with recycled content. It has also aimed at cutting back on greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible.

In a Nutshell

Tough times need tough and smart decisions. The landscape of the print business is changing and you need to change and adapt the new trends and grab the new opportunities. It is time you acknowledged the COVID-19 influence and be prepared to deal with it with the appropriate adaptations.

Share:

Read More