Link This | Email this | Blog This | Comments (0)

E-commerce Knows No Boundaries
July 17, 2008

The changing face of quick printing--in services offered and marketing presentation--means many firms not regarded as competing within this sector actually are. This would include sign shops, lettershops, mailing services, photo printers, and office supply firms--all of whom offer varieties of quick turnaround printing and on demand product production. Offerings from these groups include  increasingly popular marketing specialities like imprinted mugs, key chains, rulers, and convention giveaways. One industry supplier pegs the total number of print for pay outlets at 100,000 in the U.S., when all species are included.
In a run-up to a launch of its e-commerce offering to U.S. printers, U.K.-based Earthone calculates some figures on the marketplace. In the U.S. alone, copy centers, quick printers and in-plant operations produce $25.24 billion in annual revenue, about half produced digitally. Earthtone says it wants to capitalize on a number of trends, including:
The mobility explosion
- 20% annual growth in the mobile workforce in the U.S.
- 50% increase in laptop sales each year with 160 million already deployed
- Ubiquitous public Internet access and advances in computing technologies
- 'Always Connected' culture
The need for easy access to local printing locations
- 73% of mobile professionals identify printers as the technology most missed outside the office
- 94% of workers deem printers as an essential technology - more than the Internet or telephones!
The shift to e-procurement by business buyers
- 41% of businesses' printing is done "off contract"
- 25% of the business of the largest corporate focused print centers comes from the Internet 
By delivering a user-optimized access point to a network of printers, Earthtone say it wants to channel the opportunity that this burgeoning market represents to print centers on its network. (It's U.K. home base underscores the diminution of national boundaries.)
Earthtone says its e-commerce platform is designed to connect print centers to the growing online printing market and provides the tools for it--such as search engine optimized online storefronts, location mapping to help customers find local print centers, online payment utilities, support for over 100 file formats and fully integrated shipping.
Earthtone's business model supports all print centers, irrespective of the technologies they already employ and enables them to set their own pricing and retain their own branding. Earthtone then charges a small commission on volume for business that it drives to its network through an end-user marketing campaign.  Earthtone launches to print sellers in July and to print buyers in September.

Posted by Bill Esler on July 17, 2008 | Comments (0)