48HourPrint.com Launches New Plastic Gift Card Production Offering

BOSTON—Nov. 13, 2012—48HourPrint.com, a leading e-commerce printing company, is introducing four plastic card products, including gift cards to help customers boost holiday sales and marketing efforts.

Printed on white PVC in a variety of thicknesses, the new line includes VIP/membership cards, hotel key cards, plastic business cards and popular gift cards in any denomination, according to James Cozart, vp of sales, marketing and customer service at 48HourPrint.com. All can be ordered online anytime, including the upload of data files for encoding magnetic stripes and barcodes, Cozart says.

“Recent studies show gift cards have a redemption rate of 88 percent, meaning 12 cents of every dollar is never redeemed, and that consumers will often spend two to three times the value of the card at your business,” points out Ali Westcott, senior director of marketing at 48HourPrint.com. “That’s money in your wallet. With quantities as low as 250, this puts a powerful marketing tool within reach of many small businesses and entrepreneurs—especially small stores, boutiques and restaurants who want to make extra money by offering holiday gift cards at point of sale.”

Feedback from customers about the addition of new plastic cards has been very positive so far, according to Westcott, who says the line debuted for beta-testers several weeks ago.

“We think the new plastic cards at 48HourPrint.com are awesome,” says Demie Lyons, marketing manager at DogWatch Hidden Fences, whose national dealer network has worked with 48HourPrint.com for many years. “We are really happy they added this to the product list—we’ve already thought of several creative ideas for using them. And the best part is we know the quality of printing will be excellent because it is coming from 48HourPrint.com.”

Lyons is a member of 48HourPrint.com’s Customer Advisory Council, which meets periodically to discuss potential new products and services that customers want and need from 48HourPrint.com. The plastics line was selected as a deliverable from one of those meetings, Westcott says.

Free Resource Kit and Samples Available
48HourPrint.com is offering a free resource kit as part of the launch to help educate customers on what they can do with the cards, design advice for achieving desired results when printing on plastics, and what to expect from a production standpoint.

“Photography reproduces very well on plastics, but some designs with full coverage and gradients can behave differently on plastic than they do on paper,” Westcott says. “Our free kit has production samples of each card type, clearly showing you what to expect, including differences in thicknesses, coatings and available options like signature panels and magnetic stripes with data encoding services.

“There’s a wide variety of designs, so you can see for yourself what choices may be best for you. Our customer service team is also available to share advice on what works best, too, including reviewing your potential designs,” she adds.

The Resource Kit can be requested online.

48HourPrint.com will initially provide a five-day turnaround guarantee on its plastics line with an eye on moving the product into its standard product set, which are backed by a 48 hour turnaround guarantee. An extra two business days are needed for complex data encoding projects. Convenient templates are available for graphic designers on the company’s website, as well as example data files for encoding services.

About 48HourPrint.com
48HourPrint.com, with headquarters in Boston, printing plants in Phoenix and Cleveland, OH, and a software engineering firm and creative services group in New Hampshire, is a leading online printing services company offering high-quality printing and mailing services to organizations that value quality, speed and affordable prices.

Source: 48HourPrint.