Printed.com is planning to open a sales office in the United States early next year as part of plans to expand its online offer to the world’s biggest market for print. The company has already launched US focused web presence and hopes to repeat the success it has had in the UK on the other side of the Atlantic.
The US is reckoned to be a less developed market than Europe, so offering greater opportunities for the Cramlington business. It will not have a production presence in the US, at least not in the first instance. Instead it will work with trusted partners to cover the country with close to consumer production, so minimising what can be hefty distribution costs.
The company will use its expertise in the wedding market to spearhead its offer. In the UK Printed.com has created complete packages for this sector from invitations to all the print needed for the big day itself. With the growth of the creator economy and the rise of design applications like Canva, Printed.com believes it has identified a gap in the market. The change in management earlier this year has provided the impetus to exploit this gap.
Managing director Simon Dunn says: “Our goal is to become one of the leading printing partners for small businesses and wedding customers across the US, utilising the skills and experience gained from over ten years of ecommerce web-print experience and almost 40 years of print heritage. We’ve long believed that our brand and approach will resonate internationally and can’t wait to bring it to the American market.”
This will include signage to welcome guests and for table plans, “beautifully designed menus and essential marketing materials or elegantly crafted wedding stationery”, according to marketing and product director Chris McShane. The US wedding industry enjoys a high spending and extravagant event including rehearsal dinners and gift showers. According to the Financial Times, some can cost around $250,000 even without “going full Bezos”. Coming out of lockdown the sector faced crisis when the creative papers and boards used for invitations were not available.
It will not be weddings all the way. Printed.com will make 50 products available to US customers including business cards, brochures and flyers, accounting for 70% of the products available in the UK.
Printed.com is looking for locations on the east coast, though not in New York, for a customer services team. It will be considering locations like Boston or Chicago says Dunn.
“Launching in the US marks an exciting milestone for Printed.com,” says CEO Rob Haycock. “After years of refining our print platform and integration tools, we’ve developed robust support for multi-tenancy and multi-currency. This has allowed us to roll out our Printed.com US-specific ecommerce offering in record time.”
