2018 summary of the year

The new year has arrived. People around the world have made their new year’s resolutions and now we need to go back to business, as usual. As we embark upon a new year, it’s important for us to take time to reflect on the year just gone to review the overall Printbox performance.

2018 passed by under the sign of changes connected with GDPR, but not only. We are reflecting on last year’s operations. Let’s look back and see highlighted features implemented in the previous year.

New Prints editor

The previous year resulted in the total redesign of the single-print view in the prints editor. A lot of optimization, bugfixes, visual changes have been implemented. Now the prints editor has reached this level of stability and quality as its “older brother” – the Advanced editor and has reached the enterprise class.
We’ve also added the ability to change the way prints are being cropped based on the attribute values. This feature allows you to set up and sell prints that look like Polaroids.

VDP

Variable Data Printing (VDP) lets users automate the creation of personalized projects. It allows changing elements such as texts for individual look and feel. That personalized piece can be a greeting card, poster, envelope, brochure, flyer, catalog, business card and more. This feature allows you to change the output of a digital printing press to personalize each printed piece with unique information from a spreadsheet or database. The only thing your end customers have to do is upload a CSV file with proper data (like the name, address, company name, etc.).
Take a look at the details here.

New reports in the administration panel

2018 brought us a whole new reporting system in the administration panel (replacing the old reports). We’ve done plenty of work with aggregation of data from different parts of the system, combining them together and creating a coherent database with reports. Arranging data, currencies, conversion rates, etc. to present everything in a clear and accurate way was a real challenge. There is a possibility to download the CSV file so that you can carry out your own analyses and visualizations.

In 2019, we will continue to develop this system. First of all, we will add the ability to filter some reports by attribute values.

New discounts and vouchers

We have implemented many developments regarding both discounts’ admin panel usability and its new and improved functionalities. There are multiple changes, new features and improvements, such as allowing to duplicate vouchers, introducing new “Require all Condition Sets” checkbox and adding the option to use the Voucher not only by its owner.
We’ve also added the ability to define the expiration date and based on the voucher system, it is possible to define different additions to an order, which the user selects directly in the cart. This way, you can offer your customers various extra options, like the packaging of a photo product as a gift.

Mobile app for Android and iOS

2018 was a year of an ultimate test for the native mobile app, because one of our biggest customers launched it live before the Christmas season and started selling personalized photo products on a big scale. It appeared to be a great success, fortunately. Anyway, take a look at changes done in the previous year:

• We’ve added an order history view to the user’s account.
• It is possible to add new slides by duplicating the existing ones.
• In order to make it easier for end customers to pay for photo products, a PayPal payment gateway has been implemented.
• The mobile application supports templates, where the administrator will set the backgrounds in the projects.

Safety and project validation

We’ve changed a little bit the UI of the editor to prevents from complaints and improved the project verification process. A new way of the photo validation was introduced. That means when a user will add a super poor-quality photo, we will notify him or her with a red exclamation mark and a tooltip. We are also highlighting an item that needs to be corrected in the project after clicking the “Go to” option.
Moreover, we’ve added the second DPI level for the image quality validation in the admin panel.
Also, changing the value in the cart forces the end user to check the project before buying it. If the project is not validated – there is no possibility to finish the buying process.

More flexibility in the admin panel and in the editor

In 2018 we’ve introduced several new features that will significantly improve the flexibility of editors, both from the administrative and from the users’ point of view.
The most important change is that the advanced editor can be personalized to products other than books and calendars.
In the advanced editor, we have added the “More” option. After clicking it, your customers can set the bleeds to be displayed (or not) and can also use the ruler tool and guide lines.

Visual and functional changes

We know that the design matters and often helps in the buying process. Taking this into account, we’ve re-designed several editors in a visual and functional matter.

We’ve added a new functionality: swapping photos within content images that allows users to replace photos between two or more content images.
Photos and handling them (along with other objects) were our concerns, to empower end customers, business owners and administrator, so we’ve added a new functionality connected with grouping components to one object.

We’ve changed the way your customers can view and add addresses in the “My profile” view and changed the “Order history” view.
In the 20018 a brand-new cart design and the checkout process was introduced. We’ve created a special checkout page where customers can see ordered products, add and edit shipping addresses, pick a delivery method and choose a payment method at once. All on the one page.

Events & Webinars

Last year, full of opportunities, we’ve decided to participate in two Europe-based events: dscoop Vienna and Photokina Cologne. Our sales team had a perfect opportunity to meet you in person, to sit down and discuss the industry trends and possibilities to leverage the strategy on how to be successful at the personalization market.
I can promise you that this year – 2019 – will be even more exciting, and our team will be attending tradeshow overseas. Stay tuned for further news!

In 2018 we’ve hosted 50 webinars with 3 separate topics. We introduced you to our editors and showed you a live demo. This method of presenting changes in the system was successful, so we’ve introduced monthly internal trainings for our customers on regular upgrades.

Sign up for a next webinar on how to manage your photo product business with Printbox.

Global print fulfilment capabilities

From the partnerships perspective, last year was revolutionary for Printbox company and for our current (and potential) customers. We’ve teamed up with Peecho, the premium print on demand service provider, to deliver together the first universal platform for the sales and fulfilment of personalized print products. Now, companies from the personalized photo-commerce industries can create and sell print products on a global scale with one simple solution.
Read the announcement regarding the partnership and the interview with Erik Kickert from Peecho.

Constant growth

We are proud to say that our company was a laureate in the Technology Fast 50 Central Europe award in 2018. Our company achieved an almost 300% growth rate over the previous four years! Take a look at the full information here.

Thanks to our dedicated customers and powerful capabilities of the Printbox platform our business is still rapidly growing. We’ve reached our goals for 2018 and set up new and challenging targets for 2019. Hoping that our bigger team will help to reach that.

I would like to take this opportunity to introduce you to our new staff that join the Printbox workforce in 2018: (ladies first!) Aga S., Aga P., Katarzyna K., Kasia J.S., Sabina, Wiola, (gentleman second!) Konrad, Przemek Z., Rafał, Łukasz Sz., Bartek, Maciek G., Piotr S., Jakub, Grzegorz K., Kamil, Krzysztof M., Kasper and Wojtek.

Printbox family of clients is also getting bigger. We’ve reached 43 countries on 5 continents.

To end my (super-long) speech, I would like to add one point: Thank you! We wouldn’t be here without you. We are proud of what you have achieved and admire your entrepreneurial spirit and innovation in the personalization industry. Here, at the Printbox office, we are crossing fingers for our next exciting year.

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