When the net"began" to become commercialized in the mid 1990s, online purchasing, for example, buying of flyer printing on the internet, gained unbelievable strength in the last few decades. So much strength that lots of firms have exploded or gone down in flames - or both - in with no doubt the most outstanding advance in consumer purchasing because the arrival of radio and television advertising.

Online Banner Printing Industry

In my industry, online flyer printing actually became popular around 2005, and a couple of businesses were responsible to the subsequent pricing declines that still exist in the internet banner marketplace today. But are consumers lives enhanced by having gotten much lower prices? Perhaps. Perhaps not.

Here's an illustration. On July 19, 2011, Borders Bookstores made an announcement they were shutting virtually all the Borders stores due to the simple fact that too many clients entered Borders, perused novels, went home, and bought them on line at more affordable in Amazon.com or downloaded novels onto their private devices, where they could read it whenever they determined to - at the push of a button.

Borders, nevertheless, was slow to adjust to the world wide web, and went down in flames consequently. My question remains, are we healthier as customers for having the ability to acquire cheaper downloadable novels? Perhaps. Perhaps not. We'll know in time.

The First Printing Business I Managed

The banner ad and sign printing business I had been the director of established our first site in 1998, among the first online banner ads and sign printing enterprises to perform. I was completely awed with how shoppers could find our sign company out westfrom Miami, Chicago, or New York City, on the worldwide web.

We were the very first sign and banner making company on a brand-new search engine called Yahoo! in 1998, and among the first 500 companies to really be recorded on Yahoo! We did not know what we had at the moment.

In 2000, I pushed on the company owner (I had been the general supervisor ) to concentrate a great deal of money, energy, and time to learn how to harness the power of the internet. It had been the wave of the future, I advised him. I got a cool response (note: the proprietor was also my Father, so Dads, listen up... your son may, sometimes, have some very good ideas - you may have to obey them!) .

Ultimately, in 2003, I left Dad's company, and jumped into the wild and woolly internet advertising world, promoting signals, displays, stickers, etc.. While we have done quite well online, we have also observed some disadvantages seeing online shopping, although those largely have to do with particular unidentified companies, rather than so much the net itself.

Online Marketing - Where it Falls Short, and Why You Don't Need to Get Ripped Off in the Event That You're a Smart Consumer

1. Unscrupulous Marketers.

While these companies are not always doing something bad, they often dominate the ideal side and top paid ad spots the front pages of Google, advertisements online banner printing for $1.50 per square foot. But hey, it's advertising, right?

You know if you go there you are going to pay double or triple that amount to get a first-rate quality bannerads, but those Google ads suck you in, along with also a smooth salesman on the opposite end of this email or telephone quotes exactly what you wanted at $5 or $6 per square foot, which is an OK price, but maybe not what you thought you'd pay, so you wander off to the next site that is marketing vinyl banners at $.99 per square foot and end in the exact same spot as you did on the very first site!

But you lost a few hours trying to save cash. Lesson learned - maybe - hopefully?

While it is most probably effective, I won't say I'm 100% comfortable with (or abusing) that style of advertising - even if it works. It is probably only resentment on my part'cuz I'm lousy at being a huckster, but why not simply say"Low quality, 50dpi inferior high quality banners printed on cheap Chinese banner fabric with not-so-good ink for banners that you don't have to last more than a couple weeks - $1.50/sq.ft."

Where are those FCC agents when you really want them!?

2. You can't see the quality of the banner you would like to buy online.

This used to be a bigger issue with custom items like banners, but it's not so much of a concern now. Vinyl banner materials are manufactured by just a few plants, and the scrim vinyl banner material comes from these few companies, and there's just not much variation in what's available. There are quite a few brands, but most are generally similar to other brands.

While a lot of vinyl banner fabrics are manufactured in China, there are variable grades of product manufactured in China, and the $1.50 per sq. ft. material for banner printing is the bottom of the barrel - definitely not tradeshow or retail class - generally OK for 50 dpi billboards, but not much else.

At the present time, if you need to see a material sample, you can simply ask for a printed banner sample; most online banner printers are happy to send you a sample or two in the mail, free of charge, unless you need it tomorrow. Then you'll need to provide FedEx or UPS account number for that. This is standard with most any legitimate banner print shop.

Hang On! There's also some Positive News for Online Banner Purchasers - and other Web Purchases!

1. Convenience

There are definitely advantages and disadvantages with banner purchasing online, but the greatest advantage is convenience. If you have more time than cash, or your time isn't worth much, and you like calling on your local banner shops, you can head out of your workplace and set out down to the banner and sign shop and when you're done, you'll have wasted, I mean spent, a couple un-retrievable hours procuring a banner or two. But just so long as you're content, I'm glad.

As an avid online consumer, I've purchased clothing, shoes, clothing, toys, tires, materials for my online banner printing business, car engines, golf equipment, and tons more online. Why? It's fast, effortless, and saves time and money. It'll cost $.35 a mile or more to drive my car around town, and a 20 mile trip about the town takes 45 minutes and $7.00. I could have been writing one of these mesmerizing articles!

2. Branded Products cost a little less online

Another advantage to online shopping - it can be less expensive to buy brand name products - sometimes a lot less costly. Prices in the printing business have stayed level for around 20 years in many departments, and have even declined somewhat in other areas.

Why? Cheaper overhead cost factors. Retails store space costs big money in higher rent, higher heat, more lights, fancy fixtures and displays (than a manufacturing facility), and other costs as well.

Why I've Leaped into Online Banner Printing Service

Will retail stores disappear? Probably not any time soon, although the majority of thriving retailers have also developed into "e-tailers" too, making sure they've covered all their bases. Which is why we leaped into online banner printing as well as marketing other kinds of printing and signs online, way back in the '90's.

Barry Brown, VP of Sales and Marketing for Visigraph, has been at the Sign, Banner, Decal and Display Business for More than 20 Decades. It isn't what he thought he'd do with his own life, but he says he knows too much today to do anything else!

He has been promoting these products on line since 1998, and the firm that he was general manager of in 1998 was the initial sign company to be recorded on Yahoo!

Barry is a good resource for advice regarding Signs, Banners, Decals, and Displays, and is also an excellent source of information on how best to shop online without getting ripped away.

He invites you to see our site below, and call him if you have any questions regarding securely buying products from any website online, or seeing our company and banner product offerings.