Anniversary marks record 3.2 billion printed products

"We started out as a printer that did e-commerce; today we are an e-commerce business that provides print services," Michael Fries, the CEO of Onlineprinters, describes the company’s transformation. "Onlineprinters was one of the first web shops for printed matter in Europe and we are the only big online printing company that has evolved from a traditional print shop. To achieve this, we have radically changed how we do business, going online from zero to 100 percent.

Consistent internationalisation

During the same period, the online printer has continued to grow and stepped up its internationalisation efforts. Since 2008, the company has sold printed products to 30 European countries under the brand name of Onlineprinters – the sales volume contributed by other European markets has increased steadily as a result. In 2017, the online print specialist acquired UK market leader Solopress followed by the acquisition of Danish online printer LaserTryk, the Scandinavian market leader, in 2018. "Thanks to our consistent internationalisation strategy, the Onlineprinters Group is very well positioned today and is one of the top three online print shops in Europe," says Christian Würst, the CCO of the Onlineprinters Group. "We have also become very popular as an employer with more than 1,500 highly qualified employees in Germany, the UK, Denmark and Poland and we are continuously looking to recruit new talent. For some years now, we have been offering online marketing traineeships which are in great demand."

Digital platform

"We were able to successfully harness the disruptive force of the digital transformation," Fries and Würst point out. "By actively promoting the structural and cultural change in our company, we have safeguarded our competitiveness. We continuously innovate our business, analyse markets, our data and test new technologies. This enables us to target the right audience by using optimised marketing campaigns, for example.

Transforming the product-centred business model to a consumer-centred one is an essential part of this continuous improvement process. "Running a web shop used as a digital distribution channel for our own products only is a thing of the past," Michael Fries explains. "Especially in the field of B2B, customers must get added value beyond the product purchase," Fries adds. For this reason, Onlineprinters is currently restructuring its web shop to become a digital platform which combines marketing, sales and services that go well beyond buying a printed product with a mouse click. Thanks to intelligent data linking, customers get tailored suggestions for additional products and services to complement their portfolio. "We are integrating more and more products into our portfolio to become a one-stop provider for printed advertising material," says Christian Würst, the CCO.