Gogoprint ready to disrupt SEA’s printing industry

  • Customised software allows for flexibility on volume and lower costs
  • Customer-centric approach key to success

 

Gogoprint ready to disrupt SEA’s printing industry

 

IT IS no mystery that the printing industry is on a global decline. However, co-founder and managing director of online printing startup Gogoprint Malaysia Laurent De Candido (pic, above) points out that within the industry, the online printing sector is booming everywhere in the world.

Traditional printers have to contend with high fixed costs, which means they can only accept large jobs. Current technologies and software, however, mean that online printers are able to manage smaller orders, drive costs down, and thus create more demand for their services.

This is exactly what Gogoprint does. It uses software and an algorithm to aggregate orders in a process called ganging where several different orders can be compiled into one print run so that the fixed cost can be shared between customers, resulting in lower costs to them. Gogoprint does not own its own printing facilities but instead works with traditional printers, buying capacities from these partners.

In other words, explains De Candido, where a traditional printer would normally not switch on his machine for less than 500 copies, Gogoprint is able to offer customers 100 copies, or 20 or five.

Gogoprint was first launched in November 2015 in Thailand by co-founders David Berghaeuser and Alexander Suess, who are both German. The startup is registered under a Singapore-based holding company Gogoprint Pte Ltd and financially backed by international investment group Online Printing Group.

Gogoprint Malaysia was launched in November 2016 with De Candido joining as co-founder of the Malaysian operation, and Berghaeuser and Suess directors. In expanding the business overseas, Gogoprint looks for co-founders who are already in the country – originally from France, De Candido has lived and worked in Malaysia for 20 years - and who have a good understanding of how the people think, purchase, and do business.

The Malaysian office has also been running Gogoprint Singapore since mid-February this year; De Candido explains that management, shipping, supply chain and some other operations are shared resources between Malaysia and Singapore, while there are separate teams for certain other aspects, such as graphic design.

This method of management is currently the most cost-effective: “Our business is about volume, so if we are able to consolidate volumes, especially for production, it makes more sense for us to pilot everything from one place,” says De Candido.

Technology enabler

Gogoprint’s stated mission is to disrupt the printing industry in Southeast Asia, which De Candido says it is doing with its ability to fulfil volumes of orders traditional printers cannot, something that is proving very successful among its target customers – small and medium businesses.

 While this certainly provides Gogoprint an edge over traditional printers in the eyes of its customers, the hero here is the software it uses that allows this business model to exist.

“We use a lot of software that are linked to each other to manage all the data and make it cost-efficient to offer a few copies at low cost. This was not possible a few years back,” says De Candido.

Gogoprint uses software from Germany, a country with a long culture and a lot of knowledge of the printing industry, and has customised the software to make it perform better and adapt it to its business model. This customisation was led by Berghaeuser.

De Candido emphasises that software improvement is a constant and on-going process. “It’s not a one-shot thing; we are working every day to improve all the software we use. There are always new features and offerings to add.”

The software the startup uses also allows the business mode to be customer-centric, which is a key to its current success – the company is on a 2-digit monthly growth trajectory globally and Gogoprint Malaysia is aiming for 20-50% growth per month, which De Candido says is an achievable target given how it has been doing for the past 5 months of operation.

“When you have plenty of ideas to develop sales and many ways of doing it, such as launching new feature and services, it’s achievable. We have to launch new things every month,” he says, adding that this is what makes the business sustainable – there are always new needs to meet and new products to be launched.

Gogoprint Malaysia has been measuring customer satisfaction from day one of operations and has prioritised it so that every employee has an incentive to ensure customer satisfaction is met.

According to De Candido, customer satisfaction currently stands at 96%, the high rating the result of various channels of communication between customer and company – phone calls, a live chat on the website and email – that allow Gogoprint to guide the customer through the buying process and the customer to provide feedback on services and products.

“We are paying a lot of attention to customer feedback on performance so we can understand how the whole process is working. We get many testimonials saying they will buy again or recommend us to their friends, which is very helpful. When you succeed in anchoring referrals, it means you are on a good track to success,” says De Candido.

Next page: Constant innovation for long-term success

 

 
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