I want to briefly talk today about our strategy for selling and shipping large prints. By large prints I mean A1 and A0 sizes. These could for example be framed prints, stretched on canvas or sold as posters.
Initially, selling large prints is not a key strategy for us here at The Creative Camera. We really want to be totally on top of what we produce, print and sell so we have decided, initially at least, to supply our prints in A4, A3 and A2 sizes. We are also initially opting to sell purely within the UK. Why? Brexit has meant that the paperwork required to sell into Europe has increased dramatically and selling further afield, to the USA, Canada, Australia etc, although prime targets for expansion, requires customs forms and all sorts of paperwork. Does that mean that we will never ship outside of the UK? Not at all, it’s on the horizon and it’s part of our long term strategy. Let me explain.
As a quality fine art print business our initial plans are to max-out quality and customer service by printing in house and shipping within the UK. This means that we control everything, the whole customer experience. That’s great and you know what, if that generated sufficient sales I guess we could live with that limitation. However, one option open to us is to work with Print on Demand (POD) enterprises such as Printumo, Gelato, Fine Art America, Pixels etc and that is an attractive option. Why? Well the best POD enterprises are global which means that they print and ship locally. They also offer superb quality prints, canvases and posters. As an example, imagine we have an order from Jon in Perth, Australia. We simply order from our POD partner in Australia and they print locally, lets say in Sydney, and ship this directly to Jon. No international borders, no additional customs paperwork, local printing, local supply. Jon gets his framed print in a couple of days.
When might this happen? In truth we could start today but for a relatively new business that might be a lot of pressure and we really want to get to know our clients, provide a first class service and make sure that you are 100% happy with your purchase. If that means we don’t sell as much as we could, so be it. Knowing that you received exactly what you ordered is really as good as it get’s today.
