What’s behind your storefront?

You know that analogy about how the swan looks as if it’s gliding effortlessly through the water, while all the while its webbed feet are powering away under the water’s surface? Isn’t that how ordering from your website should work? The customer clicks ‘order’ and their order appears to flow seamlessly from payment and delivery of their perfect product on schedule through to invoice generation, all the while remaining blissfully unaware of everything that went on behind the scenes to make that happen.

When we originally set up VB Media, we had the goal of giving businesses in the print industry (and connected industries) the tools they needed to capitalise on opportunities to sell print anywhere, anytime. We wanted it to be a cost-effective and user-friendly solution that enables printers to get their business online and easily add new products without a heavy time investment. Our web-to-print offering more than delivers on that score, but as we’ve worked to take customer feedback on board and adapt our solution accordingly, VB Media has turned out to be so much more than an e-commerce platform - it’s become like that swan…

It turns out that many of our customers find that our in-built Order Management tool actually functions as an effective workflow solution too. 

When we spoke to him for a recent case study, Printlogik Director, Brad Leivars, told us: “Our business processes have never been smoother thanks to the VB Media platform. We now use the system almost like a CRM tool. It allows us to add all our orders, track their progress, and keep our customers updated throughout the process. This has made managing orders a breeze and really helped us stay organised and efficient. It's like having a dashboard for our entire operation, which not only simplifies tracking but also enhances our ability to communicate promptly and transparently with our clients.”

Of course, it’s worth noting here that the order management features of the VB Media system are by no means an MIS. We initially built them as a way for our users to process orders placed on their websites, but driven by customer demand we’ve expanded the system’s capabilities so that it is now fairly comprehensive as a basic workflow tool.

As with standalone workflow solutions, what most appeals to our customers about the VB Media system’s order management features is their ability to reduce mundane aspects of their workload and free them up to focus on tasks that deliver real value. For small and medium-sized businesses in particular, the time and cost savings and improved customer experience associated with the resulting reduction in errors and faster order fulfilment that this enables can be transformative.

Of course, to be truly impactful, a good quality workflow solution needs to integrate seamlessly with all of the routes that orders take into the business. Nowadays, that typically means integrating with your digital storefront, while also leaving you the flexibility to manually enter orders where necessary. Any quality solution should be helping you to cut down on paperwork and double-entry of data, as well as possibly integrating with your accounting system and even your CRM system if you have one. The beauty of VB Media’s order management system, of course, is that it is already integrated with the storefront that most of your customers use to place orders.

VB Media users can add their own products, as well as having the option to include ones from integrated trade suppliers such as Tradeprint, Solopress, Route 1 Print and Venture Banners, effectively creating an online catalogue of products. After an order is placed directly on the print business’ website or manually entered by a sales representative, quotes can be created and sent to the customer, who can then accept the quote and even pay for the order online (if required). The Order Management tool can also be used to manage the process whereby orders are either assigned to in-house production or trade suppliers, provide notifications about missing artwork, and show each order’s status. It also has a printable job sheet for in-house production. In addition to all of this, the system gives users an overview of each customer’s order history, emails, and payment history, yielding valuable insights into customer behaviour.

Streamlining the way your business processes and manages orders from purchase to delivery can help to reduce errors, save time, and, most importantly, provide a seamless experience for your customers. Embracing this kind of integration between your workflow and your website could be the decision that enables your business to glide smoothly into the future.

If you’re already a VB Media customer but didn’t know that your VB Media system could do all of this, give us a call. If you’re wondering how VB Media could help your website be more like that swan, book a demo.