Print fulfillment is where third-party vendors print, store, assemble, collate, package, and even ship promotional and printed products. When you partner with a print fulfillment company, efficiency is the main goal. Companies like Spectra have unique advantages in this space with advanced technology.

As a fulfillment model, fulfillment as a service is when digital sellers make use of the resources from a fulfillment service on-demand. It is possible that you have heard of FaaS or Logistics as a Service (LaaS). Things like warehouse resources, adaptive storage, and pricing models that meet your real-time needs are the major components.

Printing services usually refer to digital printing, offset printing, and quick copy. In recent years, digital printing has become extremely popular due to its major advantages over offset printing. In 2019, the global printing market size was valued at $25.74 billion. It’s projected to reach $35.71 billion by 2028.

Print-on-demand (POD) refers to when companies print something right after it is ordered. It is a great order fulfillment method that usually comes without order minimums. The time that it takes to complete the job varies on the size of it but is rather fast compared to other options.

This is a very unique fulfillment method where businesses don’t actually handle the products that they sell at all. Basically, you can feature products on your website for a certain price, and then when someone orders something, it automatically places the order for a lower price to the company that handles it for the customer, and you keep the profit.

Printing has the ability to majorly improve the way that your brand represents itself, simply by adopting interesting colors, fonts, images, and text. Sometimes simply the texture of your paper can intrigue a customer! Consumer printers lack certain abilities that professional printers have.

Variable data printing, or VDP, is another form of a print fulfillment service. This option has each printed piece customized for specific recipients. For example, a promotional postcard will be printed with individual names and addresses. These postcards couldn’t be sent without these variable changes.

Considering the fact that print distribution is quite labor-intensive, a large number of business owners have found that outsourcing their print distribution saves them time and money that should be spent focusing on growth. Chances are you didn’t start your business thinking you would be in the print fulfillment space with the majority of your time.

Print on demand, or POD, is very useful. In particular, it enables you to be able to print exactly what is needed without the need to make a bulk purchase. Business owners are used to having to pay for tons of printed and promotional materials and then find space for it all. With print on demand, you can just order what you need without requirements in quantity, also being able to make changes as desired along the way.

For one, quality control is a serious advantage considering this is a lacking area with typical DIY printings and mailings due to human error. When a print fulfillment center takes the reigns, their quality control processes can identify potential errors and resolve them before they are printed. There aren’t minimum order requirements. Another advantage is you can save time and money as a business owner focusing on growth rather than managing printing.