Service "Print-on-demand" for shops

[solaria]

I'm a needlework designer and here I start to sell cross stitch designs as patterns, saved in PDF format. Your stamped PDF downloadable files are just perfect for my retail sales.



But in our business many people prefer to buy patterns in their local needlework shops, because they buy there also threads, fabric, etc. Sometime the shops are the place, where the stitchers learn about the new designs.



How about if such shops could purchase, download and print a single copy of a pattern through your service? They will receive from me a code for 50% discount, so they will pay less money than a regular customer...



The only problem is that each printed copy will be stamped now with only shop's name, so the shop owner could print as many copies, as he want, for the price of only one download, and this is not good.



To customize the printed copy, in the left upper corner of each page should be printed:



* Shop name, email address of the shop

* Retail customer's name

* Transaction ID / date



This is almost the same, which you have now. There is only one addition - the retail customer's name. This way the end customer will know, that this is a personal copy for him, not some illegal printed copy...



I'm not sure about other businesses, may be such idea could be useful for them also... Only this small addition and this will help to realize here also wholesale purchases and prints-on-demand...



How do you think about such addition? I'm sure many designers in my business area will be interested in your service, if you add this possibility!



Regards,

Solaria

[E-junkie_Guru]

We don't have any way to stamp a PDF that is not being downloaded through our system, so if your "retail reseller" already bought their download copy and would simply be selling printouts of their file, there would be no way to replace the stamp on their original file with a different stamp on the printout showing the final buyer's personal info.



I think a much more reliable, "foolproof" way of doing something like what you describe would entail starting an affiliate program that your resellers could join, so they would earn a percentage on any sales they refer to you:

http://www.e-junkie.com/ej/help.affiliates.htm



Here, the buyer would still be purchasing directly from you (while the referring affiliate earns a commission in the background), so the buyer's own info would be stamped on their own file. The shop owner can even help the buyer complete their online purchase from an in-shop computer, download the file and print it out right there on the spot.



I am thinking if you use the Direct Link method, the shopkeeper could put their Direct Link buttons on a page of their own, where they could sell your PDFs directly from their own Web site without even redirecting the buyer to your site, which will help preserve their own business identity and ensure they earn a commission on every sale using their Direct Link buttons.

[solaria]

I meant also shops with one or more computers there, where the customers can sit and choose a product.



Usually shop owners have a PayPal account, big percent of our retail customers - not. If a retail customer has a PayPal account and internet access at his home/office, he can order the product directly, without any help from the shop. In my question I was thinking for the rest of the retail customers, who don't have PayPal accounts and/or internet access at home. One additional single line with their name in the stamping (for each shop-customer, who use some special wholesale discount code) and you/we could make them happy to obtain a brand new product, created in the other end of the world, which the shop doesn't have in stock... Please, consider my suggestion! This will attract a big amount new customers, who now will never buy directly online...



In spite of this the possibilities of your system could work for the online shops (which are not so many as the rest of local shops) and I'll examine these variants...



Thank you!



P.S. One more application of a code, which ask for an additional name, is when someone want to buy an e-book or PDF file as a gift to other person - sister, mother, friend. Then the printed product will include both names: of the purchaser and the receiver of the gift...