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Web-to-Print or Mobile-to-Print: Which Has A
Better Future?
People were hardly getting used to the fever of the web when another
wave struck them quite unexpectedly. Yes, we are talking about the use
of mobile devices which spread like a wildfire. It not only affected
practices on the part of the users but all those business owners who
migrated or launched new businesses on the web. The popularity of
online businesses as a whole is quite obvious now and not something we
are going to discuss here. In this article, we will talk about the transition
of the print business and try to understand what will be more popular in
the future: Web-to-print or mobile-to-print?
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Online shopping became a trend quite within a short span of time.
Almost all kind of businesses can now be seen on the web and they are
doing pretty well. It’s not until recent that the print businesses also
made a transition online to tap into the huge network of customers
connected through the internet. But before it could even reach the acme
of its success, other businesses started to migrate to mobile applications.
Quite a few printers are also trying the formula of mobile applications to
provide personalized products to their customers. So now a printer not
only has competition on the web, but will also need to compete with
mobile applications as well. But is it just a fad or do mobile-to-print apps
have a better future than web-to-print websites? Choosing between
web-to-print and mobile-to-print can be quite difficult and confusing.
There are many technologies introduced everyday that claim to offer
mobile services for print merchandise. But the truth is that nobody
actually understands the print businesses as the printers do. Printers
have firsthand experience of clients and their expectations. But now is
the time they can’t avoid knowing about the web-to-print technology
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and how the market is changing in its presence.
A web-to-print software generates print-ready files that can be modified
and sent out for processing and printing. It doesn’t require the customer
to know any designing or software usage. On the other hand,
mobile-to-print is similar but the web-based-application is replaced by a
mobile based application. A good number of businesses are doing really
well with the help of mobile applications but can one size fit all?
Counting the limitations of mobile apps, the first one is that they work
differently for mobiles running on Android or iOS. Also, it’s difficult to
design as well as check proof of the final designs of large formats prints
including flyers, brochures, and other large prints. Apart from these
hurdles, there are some other points to consider as well. The size of the
file, bandwidth, the battery life of the device, and internet connectivity
plays a great role. And a mobile device cannot match up with bigger
devices like laptops in this case. Though every store owner wants
consumers to have their apps, it’s practically impossible to keep running
so many apps within the device. Hence, consumers are selective about
the apps they keep in their phones. They either use it for social
networking or a communicating device. At most, they will have a couple
of shopping apps from the leading brands.
Conclusion
As a printer, if you are considering additional platforms for your
customers to order merchandise, first judge yourself on how well you
are already doing. If your web-to-print is implemented well and
attracting a lot of orders, then you can mull over the addition of one
more technology. But if it’s not doing great, then we suggest you to not
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divert your resources to other things. Rather, work upon offering a good
web-to-print service and increasing your revenues as a priority.
To sum it up, mobile-to-print can only be successful as a branch of your
web-to-print technology. Mobile revolution may work for other
businesses, but for print business, web-to-print will be the first choice
for a long time to come. Once you are done with exploring your
web-to-print and earning enough customers, you can move towards
mobile-to-print for added benefits.
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