Office supply giants move in on B2B with online storefronts – news commentary by Andy McCourt

This news comes hot on the heels that another major stationery supply concern may well win the controversial National Australia Bank print outsourcing tender. Australia’s Office Works chain is already deeply involved in B2B printing, making it quite apparent that the Office Superstore companies are targeting business printing aggressively as just another part of the business supply-chain service.

Staples has over 1,700 stores (though none in Australia – New Zealand) and employs over 69,000 people for a 2005 turnover of around AUD$20 billion.

DSF technology will enable customers who visit the new online Staples Copy & Print Center to upload digital files and submit print and copy jobs to over 1,250 Staples retail stores across the USA. Customers will also have new features like automatic file conversion to Adobe PDF to print each file exactly as it appears on screen. Staples' production facilities already deploy more than 2,000 EFI Fiery servers driving production printers and copiers.

DSF is a web-to-print (W2P) platform providing a digital onramp for customers to connect with their preferred printer. DSF eases print job specification and file handling for the customer while automating workflow at the printer. Printers with DSF can provide proactive job status via the web and customers get online job tracking for better visibility into the production process.

Marc Olin, senior vice president/general manager, EFI Professional Printing Applications, comments: "Staples has always been on the leading-edge of e-commerce. In today's Internet-driven marketplace, the ability for Staples customers to submit print orders online is a true win-win, creating customer satisfaction and loyalty.”

My Call

Get an online digital store front now! Before someone else takes your customers away online. Web commerce applications such as EFI’s Digital Store Front (a trade mark of EFI) multiply your chances of winning and keeping B2B printing customers, I believe, a hundred or more times.

Think about it – it’s open 24 hours a day, seven days a week and it’s not restricted to your immediate area. The customers see it as great service and ‘with it’ technology; yet they do most of the work for you! Web-to-print (W2P) is a great way to grow your B2B!

Staples invented the ‘Office Superstore’ concept in 1986 and have never looked back. The early 90s sawthe concept come to Australia with Office Works, who then moved into printing. In 1992, Australia’s largest stationery brand was WC Penfolds. Last week the WC Penfold brand was advertised for sale in the weekend press, following the company’s collapse in 2005. Will the same thing happen with B2B printing?

Canon has partnered with EFI in offering the DSF with its technologies, with Xerox favouring the XMPie uStore, but also supporting EFI’s offering. Local software house Quote & Print has been promoting its W2P application for the past year or more. Many MIS and workflow vendors now offer the DSF concept. Any printer – digital or offset – can make good use of a W2P site.

There is not even the slightest doubt in my mind that a W2P/DSF will become an essential part of every printer’s business over the next few years. Neither is there any doubt in the mind of one of the world’s largest printers – Rupert Murdoch. Last week he gave a lecture in London to the Worshipful Company of Stationers and clearly identified web and mobile device-based commerce as the key focus for his media empire. (Read about this in April Print 21<.i> magazine)

Get into it now – it’s more than just having a ‘website!’

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