E-commerce works. The explosive growth of the Internet is creating a new way for consumers to buy products. No longer limited to their local stores or mail-order catalogs, consumers are turning their computers into a virtual mall as they become more comfortable with this new medium.
For entrepreneurs, finding the right product that lends itself to Web-based ordering is the key. Until now, consumers have been limited to static items such as computer peripherals, CDs, books, and clothes. Custom products have been too difficult or too limited to appeal to the masses on the Web.
Discount Labels, the United States'' largest custom label printer, is helping to change that. The New Albany, IN, company has introduced its ClickPrint program. ClickPrint allows customers to design and order custom printed products online. The simple, systematic procedure lets a customer order a variety of printed products -- from business cards, letterhead, and labels to rubber stamps -- 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on the Internet.
As an electronic ordering system, ClickPrint is a major accomplishment. The different design variables in printing can make ordering over the Internet difficult, especially to a nonprinter. ClickPrint''s user-friendly, interactive site walks customers through each step. It takes a difficult task and makes it fast and easy.
ClickPrint was created as an e-commerce solution for Discount Labels'' dealer network. The concept was developed and implemented for DLI by e-business software provider Sword Microsystems of Huntsville, Alabama.
"Discount Labels has built its success on its dealers network," says Sol Arledge, executive vice-president of sales and marketing. "We don''t sell direct and we don''t compete with our dealers. Since their customers are changing the way they buy, ClickPrint was developed to give them the Internet presence they needed to succeed."
Discount Labels has two different goals for its website. "The first is to provide a quick and easy way for our dealers to order our products over the Internet while providing a new level of speed, ease, and customer service," says Arledge. Dealers who order over the Discount Labels site save a whole day''s turnaround on anything with artwork. The site eliminates the need to send artwork via overnight mail, because it is received electronically in minutes rather than days with traditional mail. Another benefit of such a system is improved job tracking. Using the Internet, dealers can now track any order all the way to the carrier using Discount Labels'' online order status system. Arledge expects ClickPrint to have the biggest impact on its dealers.
"Discount Labels'' second goal is to provide our dealers a way of allowing their customers to order our products over the dealers'' websites," says Arledge. The company invested over $1 million in a complete e-commerce solution that allows dealers to sell products directly to their customers over the Internet.
With the ClickPrint solution, print shops and other resellers may obtain a URL link from Discount Labels to incorporate into their websites. This link takes the dealer''s customer to the Discount Labels ordering system. The system is customized with each dealer''s logo and address, thereby hiding the identity of Discount Labels in the process.
The dealer''s customer, or end customer, places an order over the system. The end customer may use a template-based system to create his or her artwork or ClickPrint''s Java Applet-based complete layout system. The end customer then pays for the order with a major credit card, and Discount Labels ships the order either to that end customer or to Discount Labels'' dealer, depending on which option the end customer chooses. Discount Labels then writes a check and mails it to its dealer for the total amount of the order. The dealer now has an interactive e-commerce system on his or her website without any personal investment.
The ClickPrint e-commerce system is free to DLI customers. ClickPrint lets the dealer concentrate solely on sales and marketing rather than website maintenance and printing production. "ClickPrint takes what was a very complicated ordering process for a custom product and makes it simple," says Arledge. "The business community spends millions each year on printing unique products. Until now, they were limited to local printers and face-to-face transactions."
Since the transaction with Discount Labels is completely transparent to the customer, he or she thinks the entire order is being completed from the dealer''s website.
"With ClickPrint, a dealer can not only place the ClickPrint link on their site, but they can also link it with any other site with high business traffic. We are seeing dealers partner with other businesses and organizations to generate a greater audience for ClickPrint products. Since Discount Labels captures sales activity information, we are able to identify [from] exactly which website the order originates. Some dealers are even sharing profits with their partners who host the link," says Arledge.
There is no minimum order amount for any printer to be able to use the system. The printer merely has to meet DLI''s normal wholesale guidelines to become a Discount Labels distributor, free of charge.
Discount Labels worked on this system for over a year to ensure the site was completely user-friendly before its launch. Sword developed the site with ease of use and download times in mind. Sword and DLI continue to test and refine the system to ensure ease of use for all potential users.
At the ClickPrint site, customers can actually create orders and view them from a browser. Unlike other sites where there are pages and pages of commands, the Discount Labels site considers the time it takes to enter an order. Ordering is fast, and creating a label order doesn''t require extensive graphic or computer knowledge.
ClickPrint''s Web presence and ability to develop customized templates for specific customers also will open new opportunities for dealers selling to national and international firms. Multilocation customers could consolidate their business stationery ordering at one central location. The ease of ordering and the ability to have an "official" template could be selling advantages.
"We want to give our dealers the advantages of e-commerce," says Arledge. "The Internet is exciting new technology, but people still buy from people. Many dealers already have a personal relationship with their customers. ClickPrint just makes buying easier and breaks the geographic boundaries. I think combining high-tech e-commerce with the marketing abilities of a local dealer may be a formula for success for everyone involved."