One-stop shop: ZenPrint streamlines Web-to-print services.

AuthorWhitesides, Hilary Ingoldsby
PositionTechknowledge

In today's day and age, the Internet is usually the first place people look for products and information. And businesses are no different. Not only do businesses use the Web to enhance their accessibility, but they also use it to locate marketing and merchandise services.

In the past, though, businesses have had to look several places for each individual service, costing time and other resources. Now, businesses can satisfy their product, marketing and customer retention needs through local companies bundling several services in one place.

From building brand recognition, to strengthening customer retention, to connecting with other businesses, the modern company can build an online presence now with one-stop shopping.

ZenPrint is one Utah-based company providing what is described as an "enlightened" way to streamline the Web-to-print experience. And co-founder and CEO, JD Gardner, says the company is just getting started.

Finding A Solution

Gardner started ZenPrint the same way most entrepreneurs start their company: by noticing a need and finding a solution. As a businessman himself, Gardner noticed the need for a service that organized various Web, franchisee and marketing needs in a growing company--services that his company, ZenPrint, offers today.

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With business partner Nate Jensen, Gardner developed a plan to streamline these processes, creating software that ultimately allowed businesses to create customizable print-on-demand Websites with ease. As the software grew in popularity, Gardner and Jensen realized ZenPrint could do even more.

"Companies loved the software and how customizable it was, but at the same time they wanted to integrate where the order was," Gardner says.

In 2006, ZenPrint purchased a print shop from a retiring businessman and invested more than $1 million in printers, scanners and other digital technology that would allow the company to automate the experience from the software to the printer.

With this change, ZenPrint drastically cut customer costs and business expenses at the same time. Businesses were also able to produce items that they actually sold instead of producing items in bulk and then having to liquidate those products.

"In this economy, don't waste your money on a big inventory risk," Gardner says. "Instead, turn your merchandise into a profit center and let us do all the heavy lifting."

The idea that you could create a Website that allows customers to purchase a product...

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