In the months since our last look at Pixartprinting, the Italian web-to-print company has set its sights on expansion and innovation – and has succeeded. The purchase of a 97 per cent stake of Pixartprinting by Vistaprint this spring provided routes to grow the family-run business in its 20th anniversary year.
“We are excited about the opportunities this acquisition will provide us,” commented Alessandro Tenderini, Pixartprinting’s CEO on the acquisition.
“We started as a family-run traditional printing business in 1994 and during the last decade, we have transformed into a successful web-to-print business that still places the customer at the centre of our goals. We believe Vistaprint will be a strong partner for future international growth as we tap into its scale, global presence, financial strength, technology and manufacturing process expertise.”
Pixartprinting’s 338 employees cater for 120,000 active customers throughout Europe, producing on average of 6,000 jobs per day. Sales are made directly through online stores and production is centralised at its headquarters in Quarto D’Altino, Venice. The latest-generation fleet dispatch deliveries across Italy and further afield on time.
What it calls ‘mother tongue representatives’ are a big part of Pixartprinting’s customer service operations; at the end of last year it opened new online shops in the Netherlands, Romania, Poland, Sweden and Russia, bringing the total number of language-specific web stores to eleven. Pixartprinting is also mindful of multilingual nations such as Belgium and Switzerland and directly reroutes customers to the dominant language of their region based on their IP address.
It’s not just about language barriers however, as Andrea Pizzola, Sales and Marketing Director at Pixartprinting, explains. “Each nation mirrors different cultures, purchasing habits and hours, but also different needs and rules,” he says.
Each of the e-stores offers a comprehensive large-format range including banners, posters, POP displays, flags, interior décor items and textiles, plus small-format options such as packaging, business cards, catalogues, stationery and magazines.
The past year has been one of new ideas and new markets for these products. Pixartprinting has improved its label selection to include white and silver prints, new materials and customisable formats, which helped it achieve a highly effective bottle label for Sicilian artisan spirits brand Bomapi. The brand, whose relationship with the web-to-print business goes back to 2010, also selected pillow boxes from Pixartprinting’s new packaging range. The boxes are distributed ready printed, pre-mounted, folded and partly glued, making filling orders as easy as possible for the customer.
Moreover, Pixartprinting’s e-stores have achieved Trusted Shops certification. Based on 60 quality criteria covering data protection, credit-worthiness, safety and transparency, plus the guarantee of a refund or compensation if deliveries fail, the certification means peace of mind for Pixartprinting’s thousands of customers. Independent feedback system Reevoo has also been put in place to monitor and maintain satisfaction.
“We applied for the Trusted Shops seal of quality because it is an important assurance provided by an external and independent company, and because it is acknowledged internationally,” comments Davide Turatti, Web Marketing Supervisor at Pixartprinting.
“After the implementation of Reevoo, a totally transparent and reliable system to measure customer satisfaction, on our e-commerce portal, this certification is a further step forward in our strategy to continuously improve the user’s experience, to assure total transparency and reliability.”
In December, the Italian shop had garnered more than 3,200 reviews of which 96 per cent expressed general satisfaction. With more web shops now live, Pixartprinting will be aiming to please ever more customers across Europe.
[Photo shows (L to R) Ernst Teunissen, Executive Vice President & CFO Vistaprint; Matteo Rigamonti, Founder Pixartprinting; Alessandro Tenderini, CEO Pixartprinting; and Ashley Hubka, Vice President, Corporate Strategy Vistaprint.]
