French RIP software specialist Caldera has announced the launch of Caldera WebShop. This is a new e-commerce offering that will enable its customers to go digital by creating a bespoke storefront, which can be integrated into a streamlined web-to-print solution. WebShop has been created in response to a digital transformation trend that has been accelerated and intensified as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The solution on offer is a low-cost bundled services product to enable digital printing, short runs, and reshoring as businesses move to a new way of working.
The driving force behind the WebShop initiative is to enable Caldera users to run their businesses with a reduced level of social interaction. Lockdown and social distancing have resulted in a surge in demand for online services, and fulfilling this demand will be critical for businesses to thrive, particularly for textile and direct-to-garment printers.
According to Caldera’s VP Marketing, Operations and IT, Sébastien Hanssens, “Our intention is to help our customers with their digital transformation by enabling them to build effective storefronts for web-to-print operations. Our web-to-print services team will guide them through setting up the components they need, including storefronts, prepress, production, and logistics.”
The tangible benefit of Caldera WebShop is that it provides an eCommerce platform that has been specifically developed for wide-format printing businesses. It’s a comprehensive solution that allows users to build their storefront, take and fulfill orders, and build their online marketing via one integrated package. “We felt it was important for printers to be able to deliver a user-friendly buyer experience,” says Hanssens. “The costly upfront processes of providing clear product information and dealing with pricing and quotes have been streamlined. WebShop makes it easy to respond to high volumes of smaller orders by automating the path between storefront and production.”
The package includes a wide range of complementary features that allow users to shape their digital transformation to suit their business. Key among these are the customizable online product catalogs, graphic templates, and premium themes for personalized storefronts. Users can further tailor the WebShop to their needs by creating their own categories within the customer database management suite and within the sales portal, from where orders, invoices, and shipping are managed.
WebShop comes with an advanced dashboard that allows the sales and production teams to track orders and jobs as they happen and a range of reporting options that can include user-specified customer information. “Caldera has always put the user experience at the heart of new business developments,” explains Hanssens. “With this latest innovation, we’re now focusing on helping our customers prioritize the user experience of their own customers, as they respond to the demands that are emerging in the post-COVID business world. Caldera WebShop takes web-to-print functionality to a new level, in keeping with this changed way of working.”
