Buying Commercial Printing for your Business
Smart Shopping to find the best values for Commercial Printing
Are you a small or medium sized business (SMB segment) looking for ways
to maximize the value of your print purchasing dollars/ printing budget? Yes,
the savings from your commercial printing purchases can be quite
significant with a bit of smart online / comparison shopping - like your savings
on travel using Travelocity / Expedia / Priceline.
Whether you are the
CEO/ Business Owner, Official Print Buyer, or a
Graphic Design Professional, RJCO helps you find those print savings
by shopping reliable print suppliers who can deliver the best value -
i.e. the quality and reliability you need at a very competitive price.
- Discover and compare printers from across the US with print capabilities that best suit your job;
- Find out current competitive prices based on our extensive database of actual transaction data;
- Get quotes from reliable, quality printers and save big when you place your next printing order.
Your Virtual Print Buying Service
RJCO provides personalized print buying assistance / service through all stages of the commercial print shopping / ordering / buying process. Our knowledge, experience, skills are there for you at every step.
Given the relatively low frequency of print purchases, it is difficult for you as an individual business to identify and monitor capable printers based on cost, quality and timeliness parameters. It is also not cost-effective to develop the knowledge and expertise of commercial printing in-house for a once a year purchase. That is why RJCO is uniquely positioned to help your business for all your commercial print buying needs. For example:
HOW RJCO HELPS YOU WITH ALL ASPECTS OF YOUR PRINT SHOPPING / PRINT BUYING PROCESS
- RJCO finds reliable cost-competitive printers and tracks quality/ timeliness/ cost on an ongoing basis.
- RJCO can provide suggestions on optimizing your print order ( e.g. fine tuning parameters ) to reduce your printing / production cost as well as your paper costs.
- Assist you with pre-press (file preparation) guidelines / tips and issues.
- Help you resolve customer service issues swiftly and amicably (e.g. print quality / delivery issues).
- Recommend printers whose production equipment / capacity and track record are a good match (and therefore most price competitive) for your particular printing needs.
Take a quick look at our Online Job Cost / Savings Estimator to
see how much you can save!
Contact Us today with any questions and
to start saving on your commercial printing orders.
From "Print Buying" to "Print Shopping"
Let's take a closer look at Buying versus Shopping.
Buying
The process of finalizing the details of a transaction including production, payment and delivery requirements.
Shopping
Scanning the market for suppliers, comparing their offerings & prices, evaluating them against your purchasing criteria to find the best value and best fit with your business / financial goals [ ... setting the stage for the Buying step].
As with all other sectors, the internet makes it possible and easy to review a larger set of print suppliers - i.e. more alternatives / choices that generally lead to better quality & value.
However, that also brings up the challenge of going from "Too few options" to having "Too many options"! But making a well-researched choice is crucial to furthering your financial and business goals (e.g. a higher quality printed catalog for the same budget - advancing your marketing and sales goals).
As outlined in the section above, RJCO helps your business go from Print Buying to Print Shopping - with its focus, knowledge and commitment to the Printing Industry.
Print Shopping - More Choices bring greater Benefits - and COMPLEXITY!
Smart Shopping done right involves complexity - but RJCO helps you deal with it to reap the maximum benefits.
Finding the best match between a B2B Buyer and Supplier requires an understanding of both your (i.e. the Buyers) style, preferences / constraints - and the range of products and services offered by the Suppliers out there. Often these factors (ranging from simple to complex) are dealt with implicitly or not at all - but your business benefits the most when your Print Shopping staff / consultant takes these into consideration.
To illustrate, here are some of the dimensions showing the range of styles/
preferences / offerings of Buyers & Sellers -
Where do
you see your business on these scales?
Single Supplier
Focus
Focus
Customer Service
Customer Service
Promises/ Claims
Print Production
Related Services
Impact / Opportunity
You can avoid thinking / dealing with these aspects - OR - have RJCO navigate this complexity for you to find the best-fit printer / print supplier for your business.
Contact Us today with any questions and to start saving on your commercial printing orders.
Focus on Value - Savings that help (not hurt) your business!
Unlike other office supplies, the printed products ( catalogs / brochures / marketing collateral / publications ) you are ordering generally play a key role in furthering your marketing campaigns or your image / reputation among your customers. In the case of product catalogs printed for your sales channel / distributors, their impact on your business / revenues is considerable. Consider the fallout of a low-priced order delivered late (after your catalog shipping deadline) or one that is timely but has quality problems.
Trade-offs are key to any business / purchase decision - and RJCO helps you make sound trade-offs based on actual track records - avoiding both "premium" pricing for unsupported quality / service claims - and low ball quotes from unknown / unqualified entities which represent an unnecessary risk to your company. We help you find the maximum cost savings while making sure you get the level of quality and reliability that your business / marketing & sales campaign needs.
$ Price $
Final price =
Paper Cost (~60%)
+
Printing Cost
+
Delivery Costs
+
Design / Pre-Press Costs
+
Ordering Cost (Staff Time)
Quality
Overall Quality =
Paper Quality
+
Printing Quality
+
Bindery Quality
+
Service Quality
(Billing, Other Issues)
Timeliness
Total Delivery Time =
Pre-Press Time
+
Printing Time
+
Bindery Time
+
Shipping / Delivery Time
Contact Us today with any questions and to start saving on your commercial printing needs.
