Online Document Printing – What’s it all about?

Online Document Printing – What’s it all about?

Online document printing has been around for over a decade now but it is only just beginning to build up the growth momentum seen with some of the other printed products being sold online – such as greetings cards or business cards.

New customer take up for the production of manuals, presentations, price lists, tenders or reports at Direct2Print has increased by over 35% this year alone.

Direct2Print introduced online document printing to the UK over 10 years ago based upon a business model that was operating in the United States. 

The core product is to have documents printed on production quality machines, with quality finishes and binding, delivered when and where you needed – the service was boosted by the developments in broadband communications, PDF software and the very high cost of toners and inks for smaller office and home printers.

Quality and cost were the two particular issues that were improved by online ordering of documents. Having a single supplier meant that documents presented in different parts of the country were offered consistency of presentation and cost control.  There were frequent examples of price differences of more than 50% on the same job depending upon location.

Delivery was often quick but the pressures are now for ever-shorter deadlines.Direct2Print still offers a 6 working hour delivery option – often quicker than many printers and copy shops can respond with a quotation or a small home printer can print a complete memory and ink-intensive PowerPoint presentation.

With real-time pricing the order process became simple and easy – after entering a small number of prompted variables a customer could hit the “Send” button and within 24 hours get some pretty impressive documents.  Usually with free delivery and at half the cost of what they would have previously paid!

In short the service was faster, more convenient, offered better quality at a better price.

Yet it has taken ten years to gain popularity?

There are many other reasons.  We are all more confident and comfortable with online purchasing but there must also be other factors involved.  Search engines are now the prime source of finding a supplier for any urgent job – and printing is no different to any other trade.  Much of the work that had previously gone local now goes online.  This trend is accelerating with mobile and tablet device users and developments such as QR code scanning.

The order process has become more reliable.  The web site was rebuilt and upgraded in 2011 to accommodate technological developments.  Documents are now distributed around the world within a matter of days. 

There are also no verbal misunderstandings – so you don’t end up with 13 documents rather than 30!  Orders are quality checked at every stage to ensure there are no errors – and each order is covered by a total quality guarantee.

But perhaps the main reason is the pressures on each and every one of us.  Time is becoming an even more precious commodity.  So the thought of driving to a printer’s premises on increasingly congested roads, finding a parking space, waiting for the printing and then driving back to the office is not as attractive of a few clicks of a mouse and sitting back and waiting for the courier delivery.

You can now impress without the stress!

About Direct2Print (www.direct2print.net) – Direct2Print provides a specialist online document and digital print service from a production site strategically based in the middle of the UK near Birmingham.  It prints, binds and delivers documents for companies and public bodies of all sizes – from 6 working hours to 3 working days.  This year documents have been distributed to the United State, Brazil, China, Hong Kong and the Middle East.  For media relations contact Chris Jepson (Managing Director) on 0800 0346 007.