Engravings and How to Take Them to the Shopper

Christoph Clermont

To make your engravings business a genuine success, you should take a deeper look at a couple of crucial issues. Can your solution deliver vivid previews of your products that also convey their high value? Will it be able to easily hand suitable production data to your printer? Is it ready to provide customers with additional design options for layouts, text or photos? Take a look behind the scenes and try out two impressive samples.

Are you selling products with engravings, or plan to do so? Then you may have already faced one of the most tricky issues in the personalized gifts business. Private shoppers are not easy to satisfy. Most of the time, they will only order exactly what they see. And should a product arrive at their doorstep that´s different, your customer service people will have to do a lot of explaining.

Of course, there are a couple of simpler products, where you may rely on the shopper’s ability to imagine the final product - even without a completely realistic preview. But what happens when a customer wants to order a glass trophy with an engraving that includes text and a photo on a reflective surface on both sides of the product… You guessed it: accurate previews are king.

Three preview issues to watch out for

First of all, make it as easy as possible for the customer to get a good impression of the product that also conveys the high value of the gift. An engraved high-quality lighter will easily sell for $30 or more. Secondly, make sure that users can get this impression not only on a desktop computer but also on mobile devices. In some product categories, mobile sales already make up 80% of the gift purchases. And finally, do the math: for demanding products such as those with engravings some vendors use an individually programmed solution for configuration. This obviously comes at a high cost. A standard solution that can do the trick will greatly improve your calculation.

Meet the challenges of complex production methods

Let´s take a more detailed look at engravings. One thing that makes online configuration so difficult are the multiple ways engraved products are produced. There will be different materials, including glass that can be matte or glossy and different kinds of metal with different surface colors such as bronze or silver.

Next up, there are two different ways how text or images are applied to products. You will either remove color to let the original material shine through, or use laser engraving. In this case, the surface is selectively melted and removed, so some material is cut out. For all of these options you will not only need to deliver vivid previews for the shopper. You will also have to ensure that suitable data are handed to the printer.

Supporting vectors and joint paths

Engraving machines require print files that include vector graphics. Unfortunately, many personalization solutions will only provide raster images for output. So, one of the features you should definitely be looking for when you pick a solution is that vectors will be preserved for the production process. Speaking of vectors, you should also make sure that a solution supports joint paths. This means, that paths are merged into one form to avoid that the engraving machine goes over the same path twice, for example when designs include overlapping letters.

Exploit all opportunities for high-value personalization

Engraved products are not cheap and are given to very special occasions. When customers order a high-value product they will also expect high-value personalization. Using names is, of course, the most common way to go. But what about photos, images or additional design elements?

Some vendors have taken this approach to an astonishing perfection. They will allow users not only to upload and place a photo but also give shoppers options for advanced photo editing. Customers will be able to change the contrast of a photo to perfectly adapt it to the background, or scale, size, zoom, rotate, or fit the image to frames. At the same time, a powerful configuration solution will allow shoppers to see the results of what they have achieved at every step with a realistic simulated view of the actual engraving. Going beyond photos, it´s also possible to let shoppers pick from a variety of good-looking predesigned layout elements, or even edit them according to their ideas.

With all this, an engraved product will be turned into a truly unique piece of art. To impress shoppers and meet the technical challenges, all you need is a fitting solution. Why not check out Printess now?

See how it all works at Printess user Print Planet

Good to know: The bottle sample template you find on this page is included in the Printess license. You may use it as a simple basis to develop your own products, or as an inspiration for your designers.

Learn more, get in touch Find out more about Printess - your professional design and configuration solution for personalized print products. Call us at +49 337 66 469 886, send an e-mail, or register for our free trial right away.