What is an Online Storefront?
An online storefront is a hosted site tailored to your brand that provides a portal to order, print, and ship materials to enhance the flow of Print On Demand (POD) items – think business cards or technical documents – as well as non-print materials, like promotional items and downloadable flip-books.
Online Storefronts provide numerous advantages when it comes to time, money, and risk. Here’s how:
Related Post:
Advantages of Print On Demand
Print On Demand allows customers to order print materials using an online storefront, helping your business work efficiently and effectively.
Four Advantages of an Online Storefront
1. Streamlined Solutions
An online storefront is great – but not on its own. Without additional accompanying services, it’s rendered practically useless. Depending on your online storefront needs, there are facets of focus needed within the umbrella of print and fulfillment solutions.
We need not paint you a picture of how complicated things can get coordinating numerous items at numerous locations needing numerous different delivery methods.
Having a breadth of products and services – like an online storefront and its related solutions – under one roof streamlines your print supply chain processes, provides consistency and improves the efficiency and turnaround time of design, print, and fulfillment collateral.
2. Customized Conveniences
Site logins, approval settings, branding, inventory management through order/quantity limits, site structuring, and delivery logistics are all details required to make an online storefront hum just right.
And, while there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to accomplish that, that doesn’t stand in our way. Delzer-powered online storefronts can be set up to look and function in any way that resonates with your organization.
3. Quantitative Control
An online storefront is not so much a service, as it is a tool.
This inventory management and online ordering platform is tailored for internal and external business needs, providing tangible results not only in the materials delivered, but the site management itself.
Online storefronts are set to meet determined order limits, approval settings, and reprint notifications. Furthermore, endless reporting options are available to keep track of what’s important to you.
4. Secure service
We value the trust our customers put in our team to create and host a platform like this on their behalf. We follow a rigorous protocol to protect the data for our customers and their customers, as applicable.
The team behind our online storefronts keeps site functionality running smoothly and securely with nightly site backups and encrypted checkout processes complying with Payment Card Industry (PCI) standards.
Product logistics are handled on time – if not ahead of schedule – with consistent follow-through via order tracking.
Items an Online Storefront Might Contain
The following items are examples of what you could include in your online storefront. This list is anything but exhaustive – there’s an abundance of possibilities of what can be included.
Print On Demand Items
- Stationery items, like envelopes, notepads, business cards letterhead
- Brochures
- Case studies
- Catalogs
- HR materials
- Marketing collateral
- Technical documents
- Training manuals
Non-Print Items
- Downloadable items, like digital flipbooks
- Promotional items, like pens, USB drives, water bottles, lanyards, and pizza cutters
- Customer products, like floor mats, counter mats, t-shirts, and tools
Setting Up Your Online Storefront
So, what’s involved in setting up an online storefront?
First, we provide a consultation with decision-makers involved in the process, like you. We’ll go over a list of objectives and logistics, like items to be included, branding direction, login specs, site settings, and inventory, shipping, and invoicing details.
Once we’ve determined the full scope of objectives, we’ll review a few site structures to get a feel for navigation and layout preferences.
Following your further direction, the build process begins. Sites are targeted to go live within a 30-day window from build start to completion, based on complexity.
Tour an Online Storefront
Take a virtual tour of our Delzer-prototyped Online Storefront Sample, which works hand-in-hand with Print on Demand.
In Summary
With an online storefront, you can:
- 1. Streamline your internal and external print and fulfillment solutions
- 2. Build a site that meets your objectives, both in terms of aesthetics and functionality.
- 3. Manage what’s important to you
- 4. Trust a secure process focused on customer service
Regardless of industry, this site-hosting solution can help your business run efficiently and effectively in a constantly evolving business climate.
Of course, an online storefront and its accompanying solutions are only as good as its provider. It’s important to choose a partner who is focused on attentive customer service, follow-through, and consistent convenience for your team and customers.
LET’S DISCUSS WHAT MOVES YOUR BUSINESS
Are you ready for the next level in your print and fulfillment operations? Our team of experts are here to discuss solutions that make sense for your business.
