All consumers go through a cycle of change. What was in fashion earlier comes back as a different variant and a pattern of particular fashion which was out-dated long back, suddenly becomes very popular as people want some change.
Same way, communication methods have changed from meeting in person to communicating digitally/ virtually. Distributing greetings/ invitation cards have been quickly replaced by Facebook posts and WhatsApp. People have started sharing all good/ bad news about their life through digital media.
Like we said, things go on and then people want change. Facebook specially helped connecting friends and relatives (from any part of world) and WhatsApp groups helped them be in touch. This in turn gave birth to reunions and conducting more personal meetings. Now the virtual medium is more of a platform to share message/ venue/ time/ RSVP and know in advance who all are joining. People need change by leaving their chat room and meeting each other in person.
The point is we are moving back to where we started (i.e. keeping in touch personally) and this is encouraging for those in the printing industry as it’s encouraging more print. Now people are meeting again and caring for personalised gifts (mugs with group pictures, canvas of their school events and so on), and greeting cards and wedding cards (after announcing information about marriage on Facebook).
Few years ago, wedding cards were getting printed but sent to team members, friends and long distance relatives digitally after scanning (so less print).
So the challenge is why can’t we offer creating invitation/ wedding card virtually (which is the talk of the town) and deliver them physically (as we said people are returning to the traditional way of sharing joy). This is where we need to understand if web-to-print technology can help offer wedding cards and invitation cards online.
Technically, it’s very much possible. Especially with the invention of high-end digital printing machines which can even print small quantities efficiently. This is very much helpful when you are looking to invite a small group for events like baby shower, birthday invitation, single page double-side wedding card, seasonal greeting cards (sites providing this kind of services www.oubly.com).
Web-to-print technology allows you to upload your own designs of invitation and greeting cards and edit it to add their personalised message and select quantity to get the instant quote. They can also see digital proof on the spot with courier module, and the cost of delivery is also calculated automatically as soon as consumer enters PIN/ ZIP code of delivery.
If you are printing in mass, you can upload designs you have in stock and pause it when you go out of stock or switch to new designs. Standard web-to-print solutions are not as such meant for invitation/ greeting card market but developers can modify the same, mainly because invitation cards go with envelope, address label and high-end paper options along with facility to personalize it, such as selecting date, time, message, sometimes uploading picture and so on.
We keep working with different industries requiring print. During one of the print trade exhibition we understood how greeting card and wedding card market works and we are now in better position to guide you in case you want to implement this solution for your company. Write to us. We don’t charge to understand your exact requirement and guide you for right kind of solution.