A print shop website that prices the job, checks the artwork and takes reorders

Nobody searches for web to print. People search for leaflet printing, business cards, a pull-up banner or wedding invitations, usually with a town attached. So every product you sell gets its own page with the options, a price from a set quantity, the turnaround and a few questions customers ask. Those pages make the site findable, and your listing on the map does the rest through local SEO; the basics are in local SEO tips.

For volume, Google Ads works on products with a clear price, such as flyers and business cards, because the customer sees what they will pay before the click. Larger work, like an annual report or a catalogue, still comes in better through an enquiry form that asks for the spec and takes the file, so your estimator gets a complete brief rather than a phone call.

The configurator is why customers order online. They want to see what 1,000 leaflets cost over 500, and whether heavier stock is worth it. Behind the page it uses the same rules as your estimating: sheets per size, stock price, overs and each finishing step. A unit price that falls as the run grows is shown as a table, so customers spot the jump to a larger run themselves.

The figures in that table are made up to show the idea; your configurator works from your own prices. If your rules already live in an MIS, the configurator fetches the price through an integration instead of keeping a second copy. How a custom configurator is put together, in print and other trades, is on product configurator development, and why a calculator on a website lifts enquiries is in a calculator on your website.

The table also shows VAT doing something unusual. Leaflets that meet HMRC's conditions are zero-rated, while posters and business cards carry the standard rate. The site sets the VAT treatment per product, so the total at checkout is right for each line.

Most of a print shop's delays are not at the press but in the files. A logo in RGB, a flyer with no bleed, a fifteen-page brochure that has to be sixteen, a photo saved at 72 dpi from a website. An upload with a check catches those problems while the customer is still at their desk.

The check shows each problem and what to do about it: export again with bleed, swap an image, or accept a small deviation. What it cannot decide goes to your studio with an alert. The customer knows at once whether the job can go ahead, and your designer spends time only on files that need a person.

If you want to offer design, a simple editor for business cards or invitations can sit on top, with a regular customer's brand as the template. That is custom work beyond the shop; in the first conversation we look at whether it pays for your customers, or whether an upload does the job.

After the check comes the proof. The customer gets a link, sees the proof with trim marks, and approves it or pins a comment where something must change. The approved version is locked with a name and a time. If there is a dispute later about a date or a colour, what the customer signed off is on record.

Next the customer picks delivery: collection, your own van in the area, or a courier. The date they see comes from your schedule and the turnaround per product, not a fixed promise that fails on busy days. If you deliver with your own van, the driver gets a work order app with the route and the proof.

Regular customers are worth the most. A school that orders the same prospectus every year, a firm that needs business cards for every new starter, a council with a fixed poster format. In a client portal they see past jobs with the approved file, reorder with a new quantity and find their invoices. Business accounts see their own prices, and several colleagues can order with sign-off from the person who holds the budget. Building for trade buyers is a craft of its own; more on that from our B2B website agency page.

A print website sells to businesses and to the public, and the rules differ between them. Some show up directly in how the shop works.

The full set of obligations is in ecommerce legal requirements, data handling in a GDPR-compliant website, and the coming change to invoices in e-invoicing in the UK. Check borderline VAT cases with your accountant.

For SN Group, a construction firm in Ghent, we built a site with a step-by-step cost calculator and an EPC calculator, and four calculators for Business Centrum; a print configurator follows the same approach.

Behind the website sits a print shop that also runs its jobs in one place. What print management software does there, from estimating to a schedule per press, has its own page. Selling something other than print? See webshop development, or weigh up Shopify or WooCommerce.