Durst Smart Shop Solution at Inkish.TV’S Webinar 

Presentation of the Durst Smart Shop in the INKISH.TV webinar.  

With the Smart Shop, Durst offers a web-to-print solution for the wide format, graphics, labels, packaging and textile markets. Durst Smart Shop is scalable from a pre-configured out-of-the-box web shop to a customized enterprise e-commerce platform for various sales channels - B2C, B2B, resellers & franchises and marketplaces. In this article, we'll give you some insights on how to boost online sales by standing out from the crowd with an exceptional print shopping experience, and how to maximize cost efficiency with full web-to-print automation.  

Software for web-to-print and all your ideas  

Over the years of working closely with our customers, we have identified three key success factors for increasing sales in the online printing business:
1. The pursuit of an exceptional shopping experience to drive sales
2. Full web-to-print integration and automation for efficient and error-free production
3. The adaptability as well as the scalability of the e-commerce solution 

The entry into online business is becoming more complex every year and the requirements of the customers are constantly increasing, therefore the essential success factors should be taken into account when choosing an e-commerce solution. Durst Smart Shop provides the shop operator with all these important success factors. In order to increase the sales of the online shop, striving for an exceptional shopping experience for the customer is essential. Furthermore, efficient and error-free production is immensely important, which is why full web-to-print integration and automation of processes should be ensured. The third success factor is to consider the adaptability and scalability of the e-commerce solution and business from the very beginning in order to grow successfully and efficiently.

In addition to these three success factors, it is crucial to define which of the key activities for a successful web-to-print operation are to be performed in-house or should be carried out together with external experts. For example, a key activity is the implementation, configuration and personalization of the shop. Equally important is the web design of the online presence. Content creation, shop filling and continuous shop maintenance are other important key activities to drive the online business forward. Good content as well as well-designed products are an important factor in encouraging customers to buy on the website. The findability of the online business on the Internet is becoming increasingly important from year to year. In order to be able to stand out from the competitors in the market, the topic of social selling, online marketing, as well as SEO and SEA optimization is an essential success factor. Once the shop has been successfully implemented and the first sales have been achieved, it is important to continue working on the management and maintenance of the shop infrastructure and to make continuous improvements and optimizations. Ultimately, each company decides for itself which capacities and competencies are available and which services external experts will take on - as Durst, we support shop operators in the decision-making process and are happy to share our experience. Likewise, shop operators have the opportunity to choose from and benefit from our broad portfolio of services that we offer specifically for our customers.

Creating an exceptional print shopping experience with the Durst Smart Shop

In our experience, there are 5 factors that play an important role in a great print shopping experience: 
1. a target group specific communication and product presentation
2. easy and error-free customer guidance for the selection of print products
3. easy personalization of print products with an easy-to-use online design tool
4. attractive product presentation of the personalized print product according to the "what you see is what you get" principle
5. built-in quality assurance in all process steps with immediate customer feedback

In order to run an e-commerce shop successfully, a target group-specific concept, as well as the appropriate product presentation and user guidance for the shop are crucial - this decision should be made at the beginning of the project.  The same product can be presented in completely different ways for different target groups such as B2B customers, business customers or private and smaller commercial customers. The appropriate user guidance ultimately depends on the target group that the shop operator wants to serve. A shop for professionals, for example, would be guided by the material selection, whereas a shop for end customers would be guided by the applications, such as products suitable for outdoor use.

The Durst Smart Shop offers all these possibilities. Depending on the orientation of your target groups, the web-to-print shop can be adapted to your needs. Print products are often very complex, so customer guidance is important for simple and error-free product selection and configuration of print products. With various options, such as the multishop concept (especially crucial if you serve several different markets and target groups), theme worlds, top seller areas, intelligent search, and action areas, you make it much easier for customers to find and configure products.

Personalization and individualization of print products are playing an increasingly important role among customers. This possibility is offered by the Durst Smart Editor - easy and fast personalization in the online editor with the help of templates, various image databases, professional punch lines and much more. The files are always output as print-ready files. Likewise, professional customers have the option to upload and order their finished designs via upload. Using pre-designed die-cuts, a die-cut outline can be downloaded and designed in an external design tool. This die-cut can then be uploaded and ordered. The rule-based upload ensures error-free and clean guidance for the customer, so that no mistakes can happen even with self-designed layouts in external design tools. This ensures that production can take place smoothly and without errors. The shop operator can specify different rules on how the upload should be done. For example, the customer may want to order a two-sided printable product via upload. The shop operator can specify how the files are to be uploaded. He can specify that the upload can only take place if the customer has uploaded 2 files for this product (one for the front and one for the back). This ensures quality and error-free production.

An attractive product presentation and various previews for the personalized print product are an equally important issue for the successful sale of print products. Following the principle of "what you see is what you get", Durst has optimized the product visualization options and offers shop operators various ways of previewing the customer's personalized product. Various technologies are used in the process. In the editor itself, for example, eyelets for a banner can be displayed true to position. With the help of the mock-up and 3D preview of products, the customer has a visual idea of how the designed product will look in a simulated environment. Augmented reality previews were developed specifically for Smart Editor and allow customers to view their product in their own environment using a smartphone or tablet. For example, a customer designs a canvas - using the Durst Smart App, the customer can project their designed canvas onto their wall. This allows the customer to view the designed product in their own space before it has even been ordered.

The last factor is quality assurance, as well as customer feedback. It is immensely important to offer customers security in the buying experience. A trustworthy shop with decisive quality features will ultimately encourage the customer to buy. For this reason, it is important to optimally guide the customer and highlight the quality features that the shop offers. A predefined product configuration on product pages prevents nonsensical combinations of product configuration and thus ensures that the customer only receives the product he really wants and which can actually be delivered. A quality index in the editor for uploaded images or images from image databases, as well as a visual preflight for finished products based on 3D or mockup previews, give customers confidence that their product will be delivered to them in optimal resolution. After the order is placed, the Smart Shop automatically creates a print-ready PDF that can be seamlessly transferred to RIP/workflow solutions. This automatic data transfer is ensured in the Durst Smart Shop so that errors are avoided in the next production steps.

Running the web-to-print business successfully

Everything from one source - Durst has taken this important guiding principle to heart and offers store operators a fully managed service, (hosting, maintenance, updates, backup, etc.) to facilitate the store operator's administration and ensure that the store remains up and running. In addition, shop operators can benefit from our experience as long-time employees of print shops and IT companies and take advantage of a wide range of offers and different services such as training-on-the-job offers, consulting and implementation services, etc. Tools such as online marketing tools, user and conversion rate analyses in real time, SEO support tools make it easier for shop operators to get started in e-business and support the optimization of sales success in the ongoing operation of the shop.  Tools for social selling through automated product placement in social media platforms and marketplaces such as Amazon market place or Google shopping increase the reach and take into account the current usage and buying behavior of customers.

Success with web-to-print through individual solutions

Three most important highlights of our solution   

1. Designed for the ultimate print buying experience to drive online sales  
2. Fully scalable from ready-to-use shop to an individual enterprise solution  
3. Build in toolsets and accompanying services with only one goal in mind: help our customers to run successful a web-to-print business

Durst Smart Shop - An important part of the Durst SmartFactory

The Durst Smart Shop web-to-print solution is part of the Durst SmartFactory approach as a 360 print business solution with the aim of fully digitizing the print shop, automating repetitive tasks, automating production lines and providing the ultimate print buying experience for print shop customers. Solutions tailored specifically for digital printing, with accompanying consulting and training services, help our customers run their printing businesses successfully. Through years of experience in the printing industry, our team has created solutions that are out-of-the-box, fully managed and fully scalable. A key component of the Durst SmartFactory is the Durst Smart Shop. Our portfolio includes e-commerce, workflow solutions, analytics software and ERP/MIS solutions.

Durst worldwide - Smart Shop

Durst is a leading manufacturer of digital printing and production technologies. From the order in the online shop to the goods ready for shipment - from pixel to output - that's what the Durst Smart Factory stands for. The Durst Smart Shop is continuously being developed further - by print professionals for print professionals. Let us inspire you and follow us into Industry 4.0. The Durst Smart Shop is used worldwide. Use the Durst Smart Shop for your ideas and maximize your sales rate. We have aroused your interest? Then feel free to contact us at marketing.w2p@durst-group.com and arrange a live demo or a non-binding conversation.