Don't invest in web-to-print software!
Web-to-Print software is such an extreme wrong expression for a piece of software that basically just facilitate a sales channel for your printed products. Saying "just a sales channel" is also wrong because honestly, you have always been able to get the files from your clients after an order has been placed. Why on earth should making it easier delivering a stupid file online, make your business better?
Whatever Web-to-Print solution you buy it will simply accommodate a window of your products and offerings and enable your customers to buy when they want - but wouldn't this be possible as well if you operated a 24/7 operation? I know this a polemic statement, however, the maybe biggest change in your operation going from offering your products and services offline to online is the fact that you DO something? Products won't get better and if you don't market your new online services you won't even get more customers to your store - so basically web-to-print is maybe just the "emperor's new dress?"
Offering your services online has a lot of disadvantages. Your products, services, and offerings will be publically displayed and you will experience that maybe your biggest assets selling online is the price? Do you really want to be known for low prices only? How can you ensure that the new customers your attract spending marketing dollars on SEO, AdWords, and other marketing activities, will be loyal customers interested in your more valuable offerings? You simply can't. So best case you get a lot of new customers buying a lot of products, that gives you a huge profit. Worst case you spend a lot of money in software, marketing and your time - for the return of simply nothing. No profit, no spin-offs, and nothing that will make your business more valuable. Just think about it.
If you want to sell online at least consider what you really want to offer. If you want to offer commodity products and services, you either have to find your differentiator, have the lowest prices and the biggest marketing spendings or at least consider why prospects and customers should choose to buy from you. Most printers can't even answer this simple question - even if they don't have a web-to-print solution.
Almost every web-to-print solution in the market basically sucks - not that they are not good, and not because they don't deliver what they promise, but they simply drive the market in a direction that only points on price as a value. Few printers are using web-to-print to drive sales towards higher values and I often refer to moo.com as an example - but you don't find many others. Most printers who invest in a public storefront has become representatives for printers who have started a raise to the bottom - and yes, they might be profitable in a short term - and yes, I really mean in the short term.
A web-to-print solution is NOT your solution if you are suffering from too few orders, too high overheads, and way too small profits. If you don't have a clear plan on how to use your new service, this may even be a faster path to failure. Start asking what customers really want. A lot of customers want service. A lot of customers want support to figure out what products, that can serve their objectives.
They also want to sell their services and their products, so having a guidance that will support their objective is probably more valuable than having a 10% discount on a piece of paper.
For those who knows me, you may know that my company sells OnPrintShop. This is a quite good web-to-print solution and I am quite certain that our customers are happy with it. Since I sell web-to-print software you may think I am insane writing an article that actually tries to convince printers not to buy web-to-print, but there is a reason for this - not from a narrow-minded perspective, but because I would like printers to really consider what's best for their business.
IF a printer chooses to work with web-to-print it is in my opinion extremely important to consider - from a customer's perspective - why a customer should choose to buy from your company - online or offline!
When these considerations are over with, next step is to find a partner who understand your objectives and what you want to achieve - not so many IT-suppliers talks about business, applications, and customers - but you should really get one that has an in-depth understanding of your market, the industry and where customers are moving.
The greatest thing about above is that it is REALLY fun to work on this. If you need input or feedback for your plan and your considerations, I am open - just let me know or share here.