If you love decorative paper, selling invitations online can be a promising business idea for you. Among several invitations, wedding invitations come on top in terms of demand. So, you can start by selling wedding invitations online to attract a huge customer base. Later on, you can expand your invitation retailing to various other types of invitations too.
There are some figures that can help you understand how the wedding industry is a booming industry.
– Approximately 2,077,000 weddings take place in the US alone per year.
– Remarriage is one the rise with 4 out of 10 marriages including a partner married once before.
If you too are looking to sell invitations online, read on to know how you can kickstart your wedding invitation retail business.
Decide on the Type of Invitation
Before starting to sell invitations online, decide on the type of invitation you would sell.
Broadly speaking, there are two major types of wedding invitations.
A. Digital Wedding Invitations
A digital wedding invitation includes creating attractive wedding cards. It doesn’t always imply designing invitation cards but also animating them to make them engaging and appealing.
Have a look at the advantages this type of invitation provides.
– There is minimal risk of loss involved in digital invitations.
– There is no need to invest any money for registration as a digital card designer. This saves your high initial setup cost.
– There is not much labor required as you can cater to a limited number of clients at the same time. This way, you can work efficiently at a minimum cost.
– There is the least risk in this business idea. As you can drop out any time you want without fearing huge financial losses.
If you have decided to go for digital invitation retailing, remember a few important things to consider.
– Even in digital invitations, you should take note of all the sizes you can print digital invitations in and guide customers well in every aspect.
– Keep researching about additional services you can offer alongside to expand your outreach. For instance, you can offer bridal shower invitations, baby shower invitations, etc.
– Guide customers on how they can design invitations by themselves. You can also take custom demands from them and design invitations accordingly.
B. Full-Service Printing
Unlike digital invitation designing and retailing, full-service printing involves offering customers a physical, in-hand service of the invitations.
If you think you have a good capital reserve to invest in, you can also go for a full-service invitation retail business. For that, you would also require a physical location besides a store to sell invitations online. You may also need an in-house design team and some necessary infrastructure and equipment including:
– A spacious workshop where you can place all your machines and equipment.
– A quality colored inkjet printer for better results
– Paper stock
– Cartridges, and more.
One thing worth noting here is this.
In both digital invitations and full-service printing invitations, you can sell invitations online via an online store.
Read on the steps you can take to sell invitations online.
Decide on the Level of Your Business Plan
Before you invest money, focus on the level of your business plan. Ask yourself first whether you want to sell invitations online as a hobby or for full-time.
In the former case, you can go for a start-up level business based at home. However, if you wish to start a full-fledged business, you may need a workshop-based business.
Keep reading to know in detail about both business models.
A. Start Up Model
In general, a small-scale start-up business can be a great option if you are not sure of the success. For a start-up level business model, a spare room or hall is enough.
Here are some upsides of a start-up business model.
– The initial investment is low as there is no need for any workshop.
– Minimum equipment like an inkjet printer, a system, and technical expertise is all you need.
– Fewer resources and staff members required which helps you in cost-cutting.
– Good levels of flexibility and freedom of scalability anytime you want.
B. Full-Fledged Business Model
If you want to run a full-fledged business, you’ll need a workshop. If you want to interact with customers in-person, you need an office. Besides, you also need a workshop to serve customers with various demands. Mostly, a full-fledged business model involves opening a physical store, office, or showroom at some point or the other.
With a full-fledged business, you get various advantages as below.
– Increased customer interaction and a better understanding of customers’ perspectives.
– Increased outreach in the vicinity.
– Enhanced in-person visits and interactions win customers’ trust faster.
Pick a Niche
In every business plan, a proper strategy plays a crucial role. You should invest wisely in picking a niche style.
There are several types of wedding invites.
Here are a few renowned invitation printing processes you should know about to serve customers better.
Thermography
It is basically a raised printing type. It employs heat to raise the words above the paper and makes it look elegant.
Embossing/Debossing
Embossing and debossing are two ways to make the text look raised or depressed respectively. When you raise a logo or design to give the impression of a 3D graphic, it is embossing. On the contrary, when you create an indent in the material you are printing on, it is debossing. Both are in high demand among customers nowadays.
Metallic Foils
Metallic foils give a high-end look to cards and make them stand out. People look for such cards for events like baby showers and bridal showers also.
Laser-Cut
Be it simple or intricate, laser-cut invites won’t fail to amaze guests with shapes and details you can achieve.
Acrylic
These cards use UV printing technology to get printed on the clear acrylic stock. These cards have a raised effect and a wide range of color options and full-color saturation for better read. Acrylic styles are modern and appealing.
Letterpress
Requires thick paper and is expensive. They go well with dark colors.
To begin with, you can pick a style or two that suit your interest, expertise, and budget.
Invest in Equipment Judiciously
In selling invitations online, the two most essential assets you need are paper and printers. There are various types of papers available. Some of them are as below:
There are different types of papers in the market which have different costs. A few of them are below.
– Marbled
– Matte
– Glossy
– Vellum
– Linen Finish
– Glassine
– Board
– Pearlescent
There will also be other pieces of equipment and machinery you’ll need. Two of them are a printer and online design software like Photoshop, Adobe, CorelDRAW, InDesign, etc.
In addition to all this, you will also need a software product that can help keep track of inventory, manage orders, and ensure timely delivery.
If you go for separate software for each purpose, it may cost you more. Further, it might be cumbersome too to manage all of them.
Here are some ways you can upgrade your store easily and feasibly.
A. Adopt Web-to-Print Technology
Integrate a web-to-print solution that can help enhance storefront features, back-end operations, and payment and security features.
B. Integrate an ERP Software Solution
A next-gen ERP software solution can help price estimation, order confirmation, automated job card generation, final delivery and many more aspects.
C. Product Designer
On top of everything, you can offer freedom of customization to customers by integrating a cutting-edge online product designer.
When customers get everything they need to design invites the way they want, they would be more than happy. With these self-tailored invites they get, they are sure to consider your store for any future purchases. And it will bring you a large and loyal customer base.
Brush Your Ideas offers everything we discussed above – W2P storefront solutions, Print ERP software solution, and an online product designer.
Here is a brief overview of the features of all the three solutions we provide.
a .Web-to-Print Storefront
A SaaS-based storefront solution that includes:
– Storefront features like theme customizer, customizable home screen, industry-standard themes, and more.
– Back-end Management – Includes multi-lingual and multi-currency support, multi-store support, social media login, and more.
– Payment and Security Features – Includes multiple gateway payment options, automatic tax rate calculation, etc.
b. ERP Software Solution that offers:
– Inventory Management
– Print Job Management
– Quote Management
– Order Management
– QR Code Scanning
– Progress Reports
– Advanced Dashboard
c. Online Product Designer that offers:
– Text features including custom font manager, quotes, customizable text and messages, etc.
– Image features including image editing and effects, personal image upload, design watermarking, etc.
– Clipart Manager including free clipart library, smart search, SVG support, etc.
– Object Handling including order handlers, layer management, clear objects, etc.
Expand It, Promote It
Once your business takes off, you can consider expanding it.
Read a few ways you can adopt for business expansion.
Widen Your Range of Products
If you can afford it, you can go for widening your range of products. You can expand to calligraphy, handmade invites, and more high-end products for increased engagement and goodwill.
You can start selling invitations online for other big events too like b’day celebrations, farewell ceremonies, retirement parties, and more.
Increase printing processes
Starting with one or two, you can expand printing processes more to attract more and diverse customers with different demands.
Once everything falls in place, you should target advertising your business next.
Use Digital Media
To sell invitations online, you need a strong online presence.
– For your site, you can optimize its speed, content for keywords, look and feel to attract customers more.
– For your social media, you can keep posting engaging posts, announcements, offers, etc.
Bonus Tip: For your type, posting beautiful snaps of designer invites on at least three major platforms – Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, can be a great way to get the young netizens’ interest.
– For off-site optimization, you can write guest posts, SEO articles, forums, etc. for increased web traffic.
Apart from the above-mentioned main ways, you can apply email marketing, pay-per-click advertising, display advertising, etc.
You can also collaborate with various wedding planners, magazines, or other popular online retail giants (Etsy, Amazon, etc.) to get help increase referrals.
So, if you wish to summarize it all, here are a few tips to gain success in the business of selling invitations online.
- Go for a low-key to moderate start and expand slowly unless you have a very strong backing of money, resources, and everything.
- Start offering something unique at nominal rates. For instance, freedom of product personalization via an online product designer.
- Expand to offering stand-out items like handmade invites, calligraphy invites, etc. to stay ahead of the curve.
- Track the feedback of your customers and assure them of the best services and resolutions of their issues (if they find any).
- Keep targeting and retargeting your potential customers via product suggestions, personalized emails, discounts and offers, newsletters, etc.
- Last but not the least, always remember – Rome was not built in a day. So, keep calm, patient, and focussed.
You will succeed one day!
All Set to Start Selling Invitations Online?
Selling invitations online is a thriving business with bright prospects in the long run. The only thing you must understand is that you need patience and the right approach.
If you want help or consultation to set up your online invitation retail business, our industry experts can guide you though.
Meanwhile, you can check out our Web-to-Print storefront solution here.
All the best with your invitation retail business!
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