4 Tips for Printers During the Holidays

Holiday stress statistics show that 88% of Americans already feel stressed during the holiday season. And there's little relief in sight for many retailers and shoppers thanks to the lingering effects of COVID-19 on the global supply chain. Every industry is still dealing with a ripple impact of port closures, materials shortages, labor issues, and shipping delays. In fact, economist and Chief Investment Strategist, John Rutledge of Safanad, predicts that these struggles are likely to extend as far as 2023.

Trade printers face pressure with tight deadlines even in a typical holiday season. There’s high demand for beautiful, custom-printed greeting cards with a quick turnaround from both businesses and families. Small businesses look to their local printers to create product catalogs or sell sheets as well as festive custom packaging. Printed personalized promotional gifts, from calendars to mugs to ornaments, are always popular gifting choices, but it often takes time for customers to choose products and finalize artwork—and this year will be more challenging than ever for getting seasonal items produced and delivered in time.

4 Tips for Happy Holiday Printing

So what can you do to make sure that your customers—and you—have a happy holiday season this year?

Here are four tips for local printers to follow:

1. Start the conversation early.

   By early, we mean today. Waiting will put pressure on both you and your customers. Most people have seen the news stories about how many retailers will be struggling with inventory this year, and that’s a great way to start the conversation. Encourage them to work on that gift list and any custom artwork now, so they can order ASAP.

2. Use incentives to get them shopping now.

   Shoppers have been conditioned to wait for deals, which is why savvy retailers like Target and Amazon are rolling out savings typically reserved for Black Friday and Cyber Monday much earlier. You can do the same by leveraging promotions from trade printers like 4over to create deals for your own customers (download our Q4 promotions calendars here).

3. Consider upgraded shipping.

   Pay a little more to upgrade shipping. Especially as it gets closer to the holidays. This year’s holiday shipping logistics look to be far more challenging than the typical holiday crunch. Every type of business is going to be competing for the same shipping options, yet labor is tight and holiday sales this year are expected to be 7-9% higher this year. Save yourself stress by fast-tracking your orders’ shipping sooner than you normally would.

4. Look for time-savers.

   Free, ready-to-use marketing assets like those on the 4over trade-only website can help you easily accelerate sales. Integrations like Printer Bridge and APIs can also ramp up your online sales efforts with a branded web portal for your customers to visit.

4over is Ready for Your Trade Printing Orders

The entire 4over team wants to make sure that our customers—and your customers—have the happiest of holidays this year. We’ve been anticipating these challenges and have some great news: Right now, we are fully stocked with inventory and ready to fulfill customer orders for favorite holiday products like beautiful greeting cards, product catalogs, custom calendars, gift packaging, roll labels, and more! While there are certainly factors beyond our control, we will do everything we can to make this a successful season for you.

The smell of pumpkin spice everything still hangs heavy in the air, it’s true, but it’s important to encourage your customers to start ordering their holiday items now to avoid disappointment later. Following the tips above is a great start. After all, the only household member happy with an empty box on Christmas morning is the family cat.

4over LLC is one of the largest wholesale trade printers in the U.S., with multiple production facilities across North America. A trusted source of print fulfillment since 2001, the company helps large franchise printers, single print shops, print brokers, graphic designers, photographers, and every type of print reseller in between grow profitable businesses by offering a vast selection of quality products at guaranteed trade-only prices. With capabilities such as gang-run offset, digital, grand format, and promotional printing, plus state-of-the-art equipment, 4over offers every customer savings, selection, and scale. Not yet a 4over reseller? Register Today!