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Get visible online. Take the offensive, address your competitors head-on, compete as an equal, and preserve an advantage in your local markets. Cendix provides the technology, removes the complexity, and handles all of the ongoing maintenance and enhancement – all at a price you can afford!
The retail market for quick printing services has changed dramatically over the last ten years. First, the popularity and price of digital printing equipment has drastically lowered the barriers to entry – new competitors are popping up everywhere. Never mind that you have been in business for 20 years; you deliver an excellent product, on time; and you are intimately involved in the community. All of sudden Harry’s Print Shack opens two miles away, drops prices by 50%, and you see your customers rapidly siphoned away. Second, there is the emergence of competitors who have national reach with a local presence. Kinko’s was snapped up by Federal Express giving them the capital to expand faster and market even more aggressively in local markets.
The UPS Store, owned by UPS and eager to avoid losing ground to Federal Express, has also begun rolling out and promoting local printing services on a national basis. Other national players are sure to follow this same blueprint for rapid expansion.
Finally, the Internet has emerged as a mainstream tool for most small businesses. Local businesses used to work strictly with local providers for their print work. They found suppliers either through referrals or by using tools like the Yellow Pages. Now these same potential customers can access the Internet, enter a phrase like “discount print Atlanta” in their favorite search engine, and receive a list of literally hundreds of potential suppliers. Some of these providers will be local; others will be national; many offer benefits like online ordering, proofing, tracking, and even free shipping.
So how do you compete against these overwhelming forces? How do you preserve and grow the business that has so much of your capital, time, and sweat invested in it?
To be sure, you can, and should, continue to nurture your personal relationships with local businesses and the community. However, much more is required; you need a way to counter the online threat. Your business needs to be visible online, present a polished and professional image, highlight its’ unique benefits, and interact with potential clients. Only then can you demonstrate your local leadership, take back your customers – and maybe even win some new ones who can’t even find you today!
But, where do you start? How do you get your business online – online is a meaningful way that allows you to tell your story and compete as an equal? You simply can’t create that type of impact with an online directory ad. But, the prospect of creating your own stand-alone Web site can be daunting. How do you go about setting it up, registering a domain name, creating the content, and then managing it over time? How do you master the technology? And how do you do it at a cost your business can afford?
Introducing, the Print Shop Portal from Cendix – a tool designed specifically to meet the needs of local print shops. Now, you can instantly take the offensive and address your online competitors head-on, compete as an equal, and still preserve your advantage in your local markets.
Cendix provides the technology, removes the complexity, and handles all of the ongoing maintenance and enhancement – all at a price that you can afford!
The Print Shop Portal was designed with the specific needs of local print shops in mind. Cendix will work with you to publish the content that uniquely promotes your business and products online. Customers will be able to use the Print Shop Portal to learn more about your business,
Upload their files, and request quotes online. The site can also be submitted to search engines and tuned to further boost your visibility online. The Print Shop Portal serves as your very own corporate Web site.
Once your site is up, no need to pay anyone to change content, Cendix will offer you the keys and let you make changes to the site on your own: post special offers, change contact information, or update your business information – any essential changes you require. Cendix provides powerful yet simple to use tools that make these types of changes a snap. One more way we help keep your costs low.
With the addition of the eCommerce option, your customers will also be able to generate previews, place orders online, track the status of their orders, and re-order from their account history. This module turns the Print Shop portal into a feature rich eCommerce site that accepts credit cards and will rival any other online competitor.
Cendix has been creating award winning online applications for almost a decade. The Cendix team invented the concept of hybrid mail (digital to hard copy) – now widely regarded as the best way to launch direct mail campaigns. We can put our experience to work for you to win back your local markets and fuel your global expansion.
The Internet has become the preferred resource for locating products and services, comparing prices and terms, and often, even purchasing right online. In the eyes of many potential customers, if you are not visible online, you simply do not exist. The Print Shop Portal will allow you to tell the world about your business, your products, and your unique value proposition. Get online, in a big way, and tell your story.
Once customers can find your business online, and learn more about your products and services; offer them the convenience of submitting files and requesting quotes online – 24 hours/day, 7 days/week. The Print Shop portal is there to help even when you can’t be. Quit trying to compete on price alone and use technology to offer significant new value and convenience for your customers.
Once you have the ability to win back local customers spread your wings and address a worldwide audience. Go on the offensive and sell your products and services to customers that you have never been able to reach before. You know that you have great products to offer; now you can offer them to new audiences online.
The speed and convenience of the Internet has persuaded many local customers to shop globally for products & services. Offers like discount pricing and free shipping can help tip the scale in favor of remote suppliers. However, once your business is online, you have one extra advantage that non-local competitors can’t match – you are a neighbor. Customers can come see your business, visit with your staff, pick-up their orders from your shop, and form a face-to-face relationship with you and your business. Go ahead, let your customers shop globally, then you can close the deal by giving them superior value and the ability to work with a local business partner.
Marketing on the Internet can be complex: hosting, site creation, ordering, and fulfillment can create new challenges for your business. When you order the Print Shop portal Cendix becomes your out-sourced IT department. We provide the technology, create your site, and manage the operation and maintenance. This allows you to focus on what you do best – providing outstanding printing services to your customers.
The Channel Marketing Portal is delivered as a hosted service. No need to buy expensive software; allocate computer resources; or staff and train an operations team. No need to do painful software upgrades. Cendix also provides the tools that you need to easily make changes on your own. No need to call an expensive design specialist to make updates to your site: address change, price updates, and special offers – you can make all these changes quickly and easily.
Creating a new Web site can cost thousands of dollars and require endless hours of expensive design assistance – if you add packaged software to deliver eCommerce features the costs can go up further by a factor of ten. Cendix has invested years of effort to create, refine, and deliver the best possible online solution for local Print Shops. By spreading the cost across a larger base of clients, Cendix can offer this solution at a fraction of what it would cost to build from scratch – plus, our extensive experience assures that you will be online fast!
With the eCommerce option customers will be able add products to a shopping cart, see previews of what will be produced, and place their orders online. Orders placed online will be visible to you immediately when submitted on a control panel that you can use to manage production and provide customer service. Plus, as you update the production control panel, customers will be able to track the status of their order from their own account. The eCommerce option provides a complete solution for print shops that will out perform (functionality, price, time-to-market) any other offering available.
The eCommerce option allows the order history to be stored for each account. Customers can login to their own account see the status of their current orders, review a history of past orders, and re-order directly from their order history. This improves overall communication, saves time for your clients, and provides another great reason to keep coming back – the order history only lives in one place – in their account on “your” Print Shop Portal.
Allow customers to pay online with a credit card. The eCommerce option provides an electronic link directly to Verisign or Authorize.net to process your payments. Funds are transferred directly from clients to your merchant account. The portal also includes the ability to setup corporate accounts, accept purchase orders, establish credit limits, and provide monthly reports. This is a complete eCommerce solution for your Print Shop Portal.
Once you are using the Print Shop portal you have joined a network of production partners worldwide. Cendix is currently working on programs that will allow you to tap this network and offer products from other production partners that compliment your own offerings. This will allow you to expand your product lines and increase sales without investing in any additional production equipment. Check with Cendix for more details on this program.
The eCommerce option provides visual cues for customers at every stage of the ordering process. Customers must approve a preview prior to placing an order. The actual preview may be printed on a local printer or emailed to others for prior approval. Uploaded documents are checked for size, image density, and embedded fonts. Assuring materials are submitted correctly avoids delays and costly rework.
Cendix provides much more than Print Shop portals. Cendix also provides the Channel Marketing Portal to automate marketing programs for companies that sell through channels. Cendix can modify your portal to meet any specific client need. You can also use Cendix technology to forge closer business relationships with your customers and provide “sticky” services. Cendix has existing solutions that automate direct mail, closed-loop direct mail (paper or email fulfillment), print fulfillment, mailing list purchasing, and one-to-one personalization. We expand this list of capabilities on a daily basis. Bring us your ideas and we’ll help you create great solutions.
