Alexander Wachter, Vice President Sales & Service Support at manroland web systems, had a clear vision of the presence of the manroland web STORE, the eCommerce offering of spare and wear parts as well as authorized consumables: “B2B online shopping, too, should be a convenient and fun experience – and aid technical clarification:  Navigating through parts groups or clickable explosion views, up-to-date information on further developed and new products or product discontinuations and retrofits as well as the provision of a variety of technical and safety data sheets render incorrect orders virtually impossible. To achieve all that, we developed the new manroland web STORE in very close collaboration with the printing company Trinity Mirror Print Watford, which explained all its functional requirements and tested their implementation intensively. Efforts, which have paid off: Our customers confirm that we have achieved a feel of intuitive purchasing.” The completely revised manroland web STORE went live in the middle of July 2016 and the results speak for themselves, as Chris James, Building Services Stores Manager at Trinity Mirror Print, confirms: “The cooperation was expressly constructive. Our concerns as a customer were understood and implemented in joint development work. All parties have benefited. Together, we have created an online shop which, in our eyes, is unique in the industry.” This uniqueness is demonstrated not least in operator friendliness, the most important customer requirement in online shopping, but also in its high product quality and competitive prices.

Not a conventional printing house
Trinity Mirror Print, Watford, was a very demanding and ambitious pilot customer for manroland web systems to win. The large contract printer with six locations in Great Britain prints, for example, high circulation newspapers in tabloid, ¼-fold and broadsheet format. And so it is no coincidence that, in the United Kingdom, Trinity Mirror Printing has been awarded the title “Newspaper Printer of the Year” several times in the past few years. Future-oriented customers like Trinity Mirror Printing are early adaptors of the manroland web STORE as a solution for their ordering and logistics needs. Garry Crask, Engineering Production Manager, praises the benefits of the customer-specific online shop: “With its excellent search functions and its comprehensive press-specific parts catalogues, the manroland web STORE simplifies the order routines for the printing press. It convinces with its high level of detail and its up-to-date prices”. In addition, the printing house values the availability indicator for all of the STORE’s products, which now even displays the availability of partial quantities. This enables customers to optimize their purchase planning and warehousing, and negates the need for stockpiling.

No downtime
Trinity Mirror Print loves the ordering vision of manroland web systems: There is an option to place orders via tablet directly atthe press. Short distances, short order times – the benefits of mobile online shopping are fully exploited. However, the STORE is continuously being further developed, Alexander Wachter explains: “The next important step is the integration of the STORE into our customers’ merchandise management systems. This will make the STORE an even simpler and more efficient tool for our customers’ internal ordering processes.” Today, Trinity Mirror Print has expressed its wish to make its development partnership with manroland web systems a long-term one. This support will allow the manroland web STORE to expand its range of products and further establish its leadership in B2B online business.

And Alexander Wachter grants another glimpse into the future of the manroland web STORE: “We aspire to being the number one supply partner for the entire printing industry and to offer our customers a genuine one-stop shopping experience with the STORE. At the moment, the STORE team is working on a marketplace where renowned suppliers will pitch their digital stalls. Through this additional expansion of the STORE’s range of products, our customers will save time and money in all areas of purchasing. Pure customer orientation!”

(https://www.manroland-web.com)