Posts tagged ecommerce

Keen Systems’ CEO, Vitaly M. Golomb, will speak at Venture Summit Silicon Valley in Half Moon Bay, CA (Dec 13-14).

Venture Summit Silicon Valley (registration link) is a two-day gathering where 500 cutting-edge Internet CEOs in Digital Media and OnDemand computing meet top venture investors, corporate strategic partners, government and university officials, and members of the press and blogging communities. Internet entrepreneurs and their innovations are transforming and decentralizing large industries, including entertainment, commerce, finance, advertising, and media. At the Venture Summit, AlwaysOn introduces the next generation of “breakout” company CEOs and Founders driving the next wave of innovation in a series of industry trend debates, and in CEO Showcase presentations. A hand chosen set of other powerful investors and corporate insiders will be also on hand to present and debate the top technology and business trends and the strategies are driving success in today’s competitive innovation-driven markets.

Vitaly will present how Keen is helping print service providers leverage ecommerce to drive efficiency and expand their footprint.

Rampant innovation and demanding customers are rapidly changing commerce norms, Printers take heed. This week’s pervasive news vividly illustrates one company’s ballsy approach to remain relevant in these rough waters.

Do you recall the innovative company who’s disruptive approach to the movie rental business once dethroned the biggest players in the space?  Yes, Netflix’s seemingly misguided business pivot contains a valuable lesson for print providers.

Realizing the impending obsolescence of their DVD by mail business, Netflix has effectively amputated and rebranded their flagship DVD service and former competitive advantage.  This audacious strategy has both pros and cons, and this brief post cannot possibly attempt to fairly evaluate their approach.  Right or wrong, CEO Hastings and Netflix have made a commitment to ensure the future of Netflix as a streaming company, and they have appropriately organized the business in such a way.  So what’s the lesson for printers here?

The reality is that internet technologies have changed the way people consume things.   24/7 access from anywhere in the world is now demanded and expected by customers.  They want to stream media from the cloud, they want to manage bills, place orders, run software, and even find dates from the cloud.  There is no question that this disruptive model will become the norm.  Netflix is preparing, are you?

The majority of print providers have reacted by expanding into a variety of marketing capabilities to complement their products, effectively positioning themselves as more than just printers.  For some this is a viable strategy that may increase revenues, but it doesn’t address the actual disruptions taking place.  People want things available online for convenience, self service, and affordability.

Keen is the first cloud based SaaS product to effectively transition print businesses online with a unique platform that engages customers in a personal way.  All the efficiencies and automation of a first class cloud based ecommerce software, and all the tools to manage your customer relationships with the personal touch they love.  Keen is preparing your print business for the future.

Bring your print business online and thrive.  Activate your 30 day free trial today!

The Keen team is back from an incredible launch at Graph Expo in Chicago

Some members of Keen’s Engineering and Marketing Teams at the last supper before pushing the go-live version of our application

From Left Andrew Kaleshka, Yuri Tolstik, Andrea Roesch, Vitaly M. Golomb, Nima Adelkhani, Tim Weber, Eric LeDuc

Our demonstrations drew in crowds

We held a press conference, and won a Must See ‘Em - Worth a Look award.

Our last day of the show!
From Left: Ed Dignam (from our launch partners ASAP Printing Corp.), Eric LeDuc (Customer Team), Vitaly M. Golomb (Founder & CEO), Mark Mavroudis (Customer Team), Nima Adelkhani (VP of Business Development)

We came, we launched, we conquered.  Keen is now LIVE!

You can sign up for a risk-free trial account right now - access is being prioritized so get in touch with our rockstar support team to skip the line.

28,000 BC – Earliest known symbols found written by humans.

3000 BC - First image duplication through the impression of round cylinders.

220 AD – First operation of woodblock printing.

1440 AD – Creation of the first known Printing Press.

1837 AD – Production of the first color printer.

1983 AD – Invention of the Internet.

2011 AD – On September 10th, Keen launches the first-ever multi-tenant SaaS solution for the print industry.

Many print companies are under the assumption that by merely putting their print shop online they can become an online printing powerhouse. They won’t.  In reality, it takes a considerable amount of time and money to drive web traffic.  The average print shop does not have the knowledge or budget to successfully drive traffic to their online print store, because a typical print shop has fewer than 15 employees and annual revenues under $2 million.[1]  

In contrast, Vistaprint had a net income of $817 million in 2011, but it came after $177 million in advertising costs and over 2,600 employees worldwide.[2]   Vistaprint uses their funds to place advertisements on all the foremost websites; Google, Bing, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon, and Pandora. They use product placement, direct marketing techniques, and strategic partnerships to drive traffic to their site. They’re everywhere. I can’t watch an entire episode of Hell’s Kitchen on Hulu without seeing commercials for Vistaprint in-between Gordon Ramsay degrading chefs and throwing raw chicken. 

For Vistaprint this constant publicity and marketing is essential. Various shops employ direct mail campaigns or search engine optimization, but evolving into a bustling ecommerce printer requires more than a web-to-print “solution” and an e-mail blast.

However, a print shop can expand their business with a couple vital tools. First they need an efficient way to communicate with consumers. Most print shop workers have to deal with constant phone calls and e-mails from pestering customers concerned about their orders. These nuisances turn the print personnel into gofers, fetching quotes and updates on orders rather than exploring new consumer bases and generating fresh business. Rich customer communication portals with self service options allow both printers and customers to easily access, manage, and track the order from purchase to fulfillment.  With these time and cost savings, the printer’s focus can shift from coddling customers to executing sales strategy.

Another fundamental tactic is utilizing a streamlined management solution. Streamlining the ordering process creates additional workflow benefits because print shops are often hectic environments; where an overdue order is lost revenue, and a misplaced order can be a lost customer.  A management solution that separates the duties of employees within the company (ordering, back-end, delivery) can eradicate most of the errors that print shops have, such as missing collection on rush fees or misplacing orders. With orders and jobs funneling into one unified management program, workflow can be effectively managed to decrease lost revenues.  

Utilizing both of these tools won’t catapult your company into an $800 million revenue year like Vistaprint, but they are just a couple important aspects to increasing profits and escalating a print shop. While few companies have the working capital to execute advertising like Vistaprint, all print companies have opportunities more efficiently manage their business.

Keen encompasses these strategies in our complete ecommerce solution in ways no other company has done before in the print industry. Keen has combined all facets of print into one modern easy-to-use product; customer communication tools, strategic partnerships with trade printers, integrated shipping and tax information, a streamlined front-end and back-end management solution, a transaction gateway, and more than I could name in a single blog post. In just 24 short hours the first multi-tenant SaaS for the print industry developed by Keen Systems will launch at Graph Expo. Join us as the print industry changes forever.

Booth #1071 

[1]   http://www.inplantgraphics.com/blog/economics-101-the-law-supply-demand-in-plant-print-shops-ray-chambers#

[2]   http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1262976/000095012311078262/b85327e10vk.htm

Keen is currently in private beta and will be opening up a bit wider soon. Our goal is to help our customers (print service providers) to flourish online. We will be doing some free online courses, and here is the first lecture (if you can call it that). There is nothing print service providers are afraid of more and know about less today than the web. There are however highly successful paths for independent printers online. This white paper discusses ecommerce business models for print service providers.

(Source: udemy.com)