Web-to-print, e-commerce, mass customization: where the Printformer from rissc is used, everything usually revolves around the personalisation of (print) products. But the Ludwigsburg-based IT company started out in the world of bits and bytes in a very classical way – away from the printing industry. In the latest episode of Zippers Insights, rissc founder and CEO Alexander Sperrfechter reveals why it is now impossible to imagine online printing without the company and why the future in W2P is “headless”.
Web 1.0, Web 2.0, Web 3.0 – the internet and the associated digital technologies have undergone rapid development. Being online always and everywhere has become the norm. Social media has long been part of every marketing strategy. And networking is becoming more and more of a reality. That the printing industry has also changed as a result of all this is something we have known at the latest since the success of online printers. One person who has experienced all the stages of development at first hand and also helped to shape them is Alexander Sperrfechter from rissc.
The Ludwigsburg-based company, which was primarily active in the field of data collection in the web environment a good 20 years ago, focused on web-to-print solutions shortly afterwards. “We don’t come from this field at all, but are classic IT people with research competence. But at some point the question came up, if we collect data, whether we can’t also print,” the managing director remembers. Shortly afterwards, rissc decided to refocus – “because we saw the potential of web-to-print”.
Today, rissc with its Printformer solution is considered by many to be a “hidden hero” when it comes to personalising products of all kinds. At the same time, as Alexander Sperrfechter explains in the podcast, the editor software is not tied to a specific product type, a specific industry or a specific sales platform – which, together with various modules (keyword producer module), makes it extremely flexible. And not only when it comes to the very different requirements of customers, but also with a view to future developments.
Web-to-Print, Web-to-Publish, Shop systems, APIs and Headless Commerce
This is where it gets exciting, because now that the smartphone has made access to information and also shop environments extremely easy, software developers, shop operators and ultimately also brand owners or service providers have to react to the mobile trend. Topics such as usability and customer journey are becoming increasingly important, as is mass customization. Technologically speaking, the trend is towards “headless web-to-print” and the metaverse is already casting its shadow.
What is behind all the buzzwords – and to what extent they influence the way print products are created – is what Alexander Sperrfechter and Bernd Zipper talk about in the latest episode of Zippers Insights. So if you’ve always wanted to know what the difference is between web-to-print and web-to-publish, whether web-to-print on mobile phones is really “cool” or just a fad, or whether in future every company should have a programmer for APIs, i.e. interfaces, to Shopify, Magento and co, you should prick up your ears. In addition, the two industry experts discuss how a web shop of the first hour can be transformed into “today”: Because there are various possibilities between radically flattening it and simply letting it run. It’s worth listening in.
The podcast is available in German only and can be found as always here on Beyond-print.de under ZIPPERS INSIGHTS – or alternatively on Spotify.
