Summary
According to Technavio, the global e-commerce market will reach USD 12,951.56 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 27.15%. However, it still remains a challenging domain for the entrants.
Every retailer today has an aspiration to become an e-tailer. Every other social media platform, along with a dozen other platforms like Wix, offer a quick launchpad to build an online store.
And still, the e-commerce industry remains tough for the newbies to mark their spot.
Contrary to brands in the offline space, internet-based brands have larger market shares and serious monopolistic competition. Unless the business comes up with a unique idea and builds a USP around “that idea,” it will always be just another shop. The key for start-up businesses wanting a bite from this apple is product personalization. You cannot and should not expect different results creating just another online store. Therefore, the online store you need to build must be offering the functionality to create and sell merchandise online.
“The new trend is product customization with social distance and travel regulations.”
Whether you are targeting consumer goods or printed merchandise, this strategy can definitely work for you. The idea here is to create a website with an online editor for the catalog of customization products.
Customization Products as USP
It is going to be three years now since Amazon registered the patent for automated manufacturing and warehouses for clothing.
In the same month, Epsilon Data Management LLC, published a study stating that 80% of surveyed consumers are more likely to purchase if brands offer customization.
Therefore, it would be fair to zero in on the idea of product personalization as the x-factor for online success in the next decade.
You can enter the e-commerce space by building a website with an excellent graphics and UI, however the SEO managers might not find it SEO-friendly.
You can also move to the app directly, but the app advertising costs are soaring high.
And if you try a discount or low-cost website, consumer loyalty will always be in doubt for customers on a loss budget. That is the typical lurking consumer, and they belong to no one.
Thus, a generic online-shopping website with a standard catalog of products is what every other website on the web has. The costs of logistics, thin margins due to serious competition, and the need for paid online marketing take a huge chunk out of your net profit.
Therefore, product personalization with a catalog of customization products and a functional website to create and sell merchandise online is a no-brainer.
A decade or two ago, the idea of selling business cards online would have been laughed at by most of us. However, VistaPrint’s empire is still growing today based on that one simple idea. You can also enable your buyers to have a personalized shopping experience, just like Vistaprint, using our web-to-print storefront solution.
With this easy-to-use platform, your buyers can enjoy a seamless and hassle-free shopping experience on a fully functional website. 
They can explore a wide range of product categories, personalize their chosen items with ease, and instantly view live pricing, ensuring transparency and convenience. One of the major advantages of our solution is its mobile responsiveness.
This means that your buyers can access your website from any device, whether it’s a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer.
No matter how they choose to shop, they’ll have a smooth and enjoyable browsing experience, allowing you to reach a wider audience.
To add a touch of uniqueness to your website, we offer a diverse collection of themes. These themes can be further customized to create a truly customized online store.
Our solution supports various payment options, ensuring that your buyers can complete their purchases with ease and confidence. Along with this, the webstore includes an automatic tax calculator feature that calculates tax rates automatically based on the delivery addresses provided by your buyers.
This eliminates the need for manual calculations and ensures a hassle-free and transparent checkout experience. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to enhance customer satisfaction, increase sales, and grow your
business by offering customization options to your buyers.
VistaPrint Story: Create and Sell Merchandise Online
Robert Keane, the chief executive of VistaPrint
When Robert Keane founded VistaPrint in 1994, it used to operate as a direct mail catalogue by the name ‘Bonne Impression’. It would provide brochures, newsletters, and software to small businesses in France – a typical merchandise printing shop.
In November 1998, while Google was still in the womb, they realized the potential of digital printing. The decision to allow their buyers to create their merchandise online revolutionized the industry. They focused on two essential areas: (i) A browser-based desktop publishing software and (ii) workflow automation software.
They took a simple idea to sell business cards online (along with the list of other business merchandise) and turned them into a catalog of customization products. They built product personalization itself as USP and they now have an empire across the globe churning out billions of dollars in revenue.
Yes, they were (and still are) visionary; they had the first mover advantage; and they had the guts to do it. Great! Can it be done again? The answer is – you do not need to. They had to build a wheel, now you do not. To think of building a Billion dollar empire as a start-up is not a practical process – the first question is to stay afloat – to survive – to weather the competition. And, a website to create and sell merchandise online is a fine idea. An idea; we can help you build, sustain, and grow.
Unlock the potential of your online merchandise business with our web-to-print solution.
Build, sustain, and grow your brand with ease.
Your Guide to Build Product Personalization as USP
Building an e-commerce site requires a wee bit more detail than a retail shop. Here’s your list of things to consider before you choose a technology partner:
1. Know Your Audience
We are not talking about the typical buyer’s persona here. You need to identify the audience you wish to serve.
You may choose to build a personalized gift website, and the audience definition is much simpler and more diverse here. The choice to build a website for customization products such as personalized shoes or other leather material requires a configurator.
Online merchandise is way simpler. However, there is a marketplace model, and the other is the buyer-consumer relationship model.
In the first instance, your audience includes the designers who create these customization products for your website, and you sell them.
For the latter, the user comes to your website, customizes the template you provide, and places bulk orders. There is also an angle with a fusion of these two. So the first goal is to choose which one you are aiming for.
2. Go Live at Minimum Cost
Reasonable – not cheap! To sell custom products online, you need a functional website. There are a number of excellent options available for ready-to-host Web-to-Print stores. But only a handful ones that come with required features and know-how of the industry. You need a product that is suited for your audience type and one that can accommodate your printing methods without much fuss.
The primary reason to not invest much at this stage is that you would need a marketing budget to enter the arena of selling customized merchandise online. Therefore, a functional website should be a viable option to save for the marketing budget you would need to have a reasonable break-even ratio.
Discover how our Web-to-Print storefront solution can add value to your business.
3. Matching the Audience and the Product Personalization Tool
There are typically three kinds of product personalization tools:
- A basic text and image customization tool,
- Personalization tool for multi-layer image customizations,
- An online configurator with assembly-level customizations.
For example, if you want to sell business cards online, you should be content with the first option. However, for personalized shoes or purses; you must go for the third option.
Upgrade your merchandise business with our mobile-responsive designer tool.
Allow product customization, stay in control with full admin features, and offer live pricing.
Fastest Ways to Launch and Sell Custom Products Online
VistaPrint Script
Owing to the huge popularity of VistaPrint, people often go for a shortcut. They search for a VistaPrint script online and use that to build their own store(s). While you may get short-term profits with VistaPrint replica, you may not benefit in the long run. Rather, you might end up facing more setbacks than advantages.
The first setback is that, while cloning VistaPrint, you won’t have a choice to keep only the features that fit your requirements.
The second is the quality of the interface, which may not match up.
Last but not least, no matter how hard you try, a “copy” is ultimately a “copy.” People want distinct features, not duplicates.
PrintXpand – Web to Print Store
It is a tested and trsuted product by several start-up & enterprise businesses. Our W2P store is built with the focus of letting start-up businesses launch a website in less than two days & even enterprises.
It is a product with the arsenal of functionalities you require to acquire, engage, and serve your future customers in the best way possible. We make sure that our product integration team is the A-team to make your journey hassle-free and smooth.
It is ready to go live as it is and if you do seek any customizations for your product personalization business idea – we are more than ready to help you with it.
Know More about PrintXpand – Your A-Team
The team at PrintXpand has over 16 years of experience enabling businesses to sell custom products online using product personalization.
We offer a fully functional product design tool for Magento, Shopify, WooCommerce, and virtually any platform using our custom APIs. Our management team has immense business experience with technology integrations.
The diverse range of our products spans design integrations for enterprise customers, a W2P store for start-up and mid-sized businesses, and an ERP suite built for print commerce.
We have the experience and know-how to anticipate the challenges your business will face when it reaches the next phase—today. Once your business matures and you wish to migrate from the W2P store to a subtler custom approach, the A-team that integrates your solution using a theme-based product, will still be by your side and help with the next phase, and so on.
We have a successful track record of over 80% client retention because we do not just offer technology solutions; we will also help you market your website.
We work rigorously to make your business thrive, so our expert consultants will always be a part of your growth strategy discussions to pave the way to the success you seek.
We look forward to hearing from you and helping you set up your web store to sell custom products online.
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