When the Internet “began” to be commercialized in the mid-1990s, online shopping, including buying online banner printing, has gained incredible strength in the past two decades. So much force that many firms have exploded or burned -or both- in undoubtedly the most outstanding advance in consumer buying since the advent of radio and television marketing.
Online Banner Printing Industry
In my industry, online banner printing actually became popular around 2005, and some companies were responsible for the subsequent price drops that still exist in the online banner market now. But do consumers’ lives improve by getting much lower prices? Maybe. Maybe not.
Here is an example. On July 19, 2011, Borders Bookstores announced that they were closing almost all Borders stores due to the fact that too many customers came into Borders, read books, went home, and bought them online cheaper at Amazon.com or they downloaded books. on their personal devices, where they could read it whenever they chose, with the push of a button.
However, Borders was slow to adapt to the internet and caught fire as a result. My question remains, are we healthier as consumers by being able to purchase cheaper downloadable books? Maybe. Maybe not. We will know in time.
The first printing business I managed
The sign and banner printing business I was the manager of launched our first website in 1998, one of the first online sign and banner printing companies to do. I was completely amazed at how easily buyers could find our sign company out West, even from Miami, Chicago, or New York City, on the Internet.
We were the first sign and banner manufacturing company on a new search engine called Yahoo! in 1998, and among the first 500 companies to list on Yahoo! We didn’t really know what we had at the time.
In 2000, I lobbied the owner of the company (I was the CEO) to focus a great deal of money, energy, and time on learning how to harness the power of the Internet. It was the wave of the future, I told him. I got a great response (note: the owner was also my dad, so dads, listen up… his kid can occasionally have some really great ideas, he might need to hear them!).
Finally, in 2003, I left Dad’s company and jumped into the wild and confusing world of online marketing, selling signs, displays, stickers, etc. While we’ve done very well online, we’ve also seen some negatives regarding online shopping, though they’re mostly to do with individual unidentified companies, rather than the web itself.
Online Marketing: Where You Fall Short And Why You Don’t Need To Get Scammed If You’re A Savvy Consumer
1. Unscrupulous marketers.
While these companies aren’t necessarily doing anything wrong, they often dominate the right-hand side and the highest-paying ads occupy the first pages of Google, advertising online banner printing for $1.50 per square foot. But hey, it’s marketing, right?
You know if you go there you’ll likely pay double or triple that amount for a premium banner, but those Google ads lure you in and a friendly salesperson on the other end of the email or phone line quotes. . what you really wanted at $5 or $6 per square foot which is a good price but not what you thought you would pay so you go to the next site that advertises vinyl banners at $0.99 per square foot and you end up at the same place you did on the first website!
But you wasted a couple or three hours trying to save money. Lesson learned – maybe – hopefully?
While it’s highly likely to be successful, I won’t say I’m 100% comfortable using (or abusing) that style of marketing, even if it works. Probably just resentment on my part because I’m lousy at being a huckster, but why not just say “Poor quality 50dpi inferior billboard quality banners printed on cheap china banner cloth with ink not as good for banners as you” no it doesn’t need to last more than a couple of weeks: $1.50/sqft.”
Where are those FCC agents when you really want them?
2. You cannot see the quality of the banner you would like to purchase online.
This used to be a bigger problem with custom elements like banners, but now it’s not a big concern. Vinyl banner materials are made by just a few plants, and mesh vinyl banner material comes from these few companies, and there isn’t much variation in what’s available. There are quite a few brands, but most are generally similar to other brands.
While many vinyl banner fabrics are made in China, there are varying grades of products made in China, and cost from $1.50 per square foot. footer material for banner printing is bottom of the barrel, definitely not trade show or retail class, generally fine for 50dpi billboards but not much more.
Currently, if you need to see a sample of material, you can simply request a printed banner sample; Most online banner printers will be happy to mail you a sample or two, free of charge, unless you need them tomorrow. Then you will need to provide the FedEx or UPS account number for that. This is standard at most legitimate banner printers.
Hold on! There is also some positive news for online banner shoppers and other web purchases!
1. Comfort
There are definitely pros and cons to buying banner ads online, but the biggest advantage is convenience. If you have more time than cash, or your time isn’t worth much, and you like to visit your local banner stores, you can leave your workplace and head to the banner and sign store and when you’re done, you’ll have wasted, I mean spent, unrecoverable couple of hours procuring a banner or two. But as long as you’re happy, I’m glad.
As an avid online consumer, I have purchased clothing, shoes, clothing, toys, tires, materials for my online banner printing business, car engines, golf equipment, and much more online. Because? It’s fast, effortless, and saves time and money. It will cost me $.35 per mile or more to drive my car across town, and a 20-mile drive across town takes 45 minutes and costs $7.00. You could have been writing one of these fascinating articles!
2. Name-brand products cost a little less online
Another advantage of online shopping: it can be less expensive to buy name-brand products, sometimes much less expensive. Prices in the printing business have been stable for about 20 years in many departments and have even dropped a bit in other areas.
Because? Cheaper overall cost factors. Retail store space costs a lot of money in higher rents, more heat, more lights, fixtures, and fancy displays (than a manufacturing facility), and other costs, too.
Why I Jumped Into Online Banner Printing Service
Will retail stores disappear? Probably not anytime soon, though most thriving retailers have also turned into “e-retailers,” making sure they’ve covered all their bases. That’s why we jumped into online banner printing, as well as marketing other types of printing and signs online, back in the ’90s.