How To Choose The Best Printing Partner?

It is essential to have a reliable printing partner if you are in a photography business that sells custom photo merchandise and photo prints. A printing partner is essential, especially when you print your photos on things like mugs, jackets, t-shirts, and other items.

There are many online and offline printing services out there. So, it is really tough to choose the best one among them. In this article, I will help you choose the best printing service based on various factors.

1. Quality of the Product 🤩

The quality of your photo prints or merchandise does matter a lot. When you ship something to your customer, the customer expects the product to be really good in terms of quality.

If the quality is not so good, the customer will never order anything from you. Always remember, “Customer is King.”

So, ensure customer satisfaction for all your products. You can ensure it through high-quality prints.

2. Printing Options 🏞

When it comes to photo prints, nowadays, you can print in different types of photo papers. It includes gloss, matte, canvas, etc.

Different customers will have different preferences for photo paper.

So, it will be good if you can provide different photo paper options for your photo prints.

3. Services Offered 🖨

Nowadays, people love having their photos printed on pillow covers, blankets, mugs, masks, etc.

So, you must choose a printing partner who can support you with all such products.

It will help to improve your photo merchandise sales.

 👉🏻 📖 READ MORE: Different Ways to Sell Photography Goodies

4. The Cost Factor 💵

The cost of printing is one of the main factors to consider when selecting a printing partner. You need to have a good profit percentage after selling your photo merchandise.

So, make sure not to go for a very costly printing service. At the same time, you must also ensure not to go with cheap ones.

If you go for the cheap ones, you may end up compromising the quality.

5. Shipping Costs 📦

The cost of shipping is another major factor. You need to ensure not to charge enormous shipping charges for your printed products.

You need to check with the printing partner to ensure they don’t charge a big amount for the shipping.

In the case of photo prints and merchandise, you can also expect the orders to come from outside the country.

So, you must also consider the amount they charge for shipping outside the country.

6. Turnaround Time ⏱ 

Customers expect the product to reach them fast when placing an order for any of your photo merchandise.

So, the turnaround time is a very important factor. You must ensure that the printing partner can quickly print and ship the order.

If it takes too long to reach the customer, they might prefer to look for other options. It will impact your business.

7. Locations 🌎

If you are selling photo merchandise outside your country, select a printing partner with branches in different parts of the world.

There are a couple of advantages when you go with such a service. Firstly, it will help to lower the delivery time. Thus, your customers will receive the merchandise fast.

Secondly, it will help your customer to save some shipping costs.

8. Versatility Factor

The versatility of your printing service is another factor you must consider before choosing one.

You need to ensure that the printing service always comes up with new types of printing merchandise where you can print your photos and sell them.

They must be able to adapt according to the changes and trends in the market. It will ensure that the photo merchandise you sell follows the latest trends.

9. Customer Support 👩‍💻 

When the customer places an order for your product, you need to provide a way to track the shipment.

If there is some delay or issue with the shipment, there must be a way for the customer to contact the printing house and get the issue resolved.

So, ensure to choose a printing house that can provide good customer support as well. If the customer support is poor, you will end up losing the customer.

10. Reputation of the Printing Partner 🚀 

It is always better to go with a reputed printing partner rather than try a new one.

It will ensure that your customers are satisfied with the printed merchandise and the service.

So, before fixing any, check for their reviews. Nowadays, it is quite easy to see reviews online. You can check Google and their company websites for review.

11. Do A Comparison 🤔

It is always a good idea to list down all the printing partner options for you. It includes both offline and online options.

After that, please make a list of their services, costing, customer service, and all other factors mentioned above.

Once you make this comparison, you can easily narrow down your options to 3 or 4. Thus, you can select the top one among these 3 as your preferred printing partner. You can keep the other 2 as backup options.

Final Thoughts 😎

Now you know the various factors to consider while choosing a printing partner.

You cannot do all the photo printing work by yourself. It will make life tough for you. So, you need to partner with a printing company to take your photography business to the next level.

Always ensure that your customer gets a quality product from your selected printing partner. Only then you can build a good photography brand.

👉🏻 📖 READ MORE: How to Increase Photo Print Sales?