Differentiation of services in a commodity market

Every consumer product today is lending itself to personalization. Smartphones are essentially slabs of plastic, glass and metal, yet consumers spend a lot of money on cases, on pop sockets and on other adornments to customize them. Clothes can be ordered online with custom designs, custom fit and even custom labels.

According to The State of Fashion 2018 report from the Business of Fashion and McKinsey and Company: “Fashion companies will deliver personalization in many forms — from more customized products to curated recommendations, to communications and storytelling that connects to individuals.”

Even the most personal of products – photo prints, books, and other items – lends itself to further customization. In the hotly contested and competitive photo printing market, service providers are offering even more options to stand out.

In the high-end photo printing marketplace, service providers are providing various embellishments to enhance the product experience. These printing techniques were long dominated by silkscreen and other specialized graphics companies, but advances in inkjet and electrophotographic digital printing is turning embossed printing into a fast-growing worldwide market. Originally intended for packaging of luxury goods, embossed enhancements like foil or coatings can now be applied to individual covers of photobooks, for example. Also increasing in popularity are cameo covers and dust jackets for photobooks, adding an extra level of elegance to them.

For users of our hosted solution, Mediaclip Hub, these capabilities are built in. Mediaclip Hub comes bundled with all the core functionalities required to manage personalization online experience. Store owners can use their existing e-commerce platform or choose the flexibility and extensibility offered by any of the major ones like Magento or Shopify.  This is the easiest way for customers to offer the most memorable shopping experience to end-users, always current with the latest products, features and updates. The Mediaclip Hub leverages the reliability, security, and scalability of the Microsoft Azure cloud services.

Trends move fast on the internet, and with a hosted solution like Mediaclip Hub, you can keep up.