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Customer Need

Screen Shot 2014-07-24 at 3.13.15 PMKindred Hearts, which makes gift products emblazoned with inspirational messages, wanted to expand its wholesale business into retail shops. That meant the gift items needed to be personalized with the names of the recipients and other information in-store. The company needed laser printers that could produce the messages quickly and easily on high-quality vellum.

Samsung Solution

Kindred Hearts standardized on the Samsung ML-3712ND, a black-and-white laser printer that provides high performance in a compact form, saving precious shelf space at the retail shops. The printer has a powerful 600 MHz Dual Core processor and expandable memory of up to 384MB. It outputs the first page in just 6.5 seconds and is easy-to-use, which was crucial since not all the retail workers are experienced with technology.

Results

Screen Shot 2014-01-31 at 11.40.07 AMThe first 15 Hallmark stores that adopted the program saw an impressive 90 percent sell- through rate. The program has quickly expanded to some 650 retail locations, which have enjoyed brisk sales, especially on special occasions like Mother’s Day. There also has been significant up-selling, with customers often buying a second item on the spot when they see the high quality and level of personalization. Kindred Hearts is now hatching plans to integrate use of Samsung’s MobilePrint App on tablets to take the customer experience to the next level.

THE CUSTOMER NEED

Compact, Reliable Laser Printing to Enable In-Store Personalization

As the popularity of its wholesale products grew, Kindred Hearts saw a new opportunity to expand into the retail environment. The idea was this:

Screen Shot 2014-07-24 at 3.17.46 PMA customer could enter a shop, select an item with a design and quote of their choosing, and take it straight to the counter to be personalized with the recipient’s name or anniversary date. Key to the success of this new venture was enabling immediate customization and printing right in the store.

With this new business model in mind, the challenge now was how to ensure that the same high quality customers had come to expect from the industrial printers at Kindred Heart’s distribution center for bulk orders would also be provided by the retail shops selling one piece at a time.

Kindred Hearts quotes are printed on vellum—a handsome parchment often associated with luxury book-making and calligraphy. The vellum is then inserted into the frame or other decorative item. “Vellum is a unique substance that looks more elegant and projects a higher sense of value than a piece of paper,” Buchholz says. “The trouble is vellum can be hard on printers.”

Screen Shot 2014-07-24 at 3.11.50 PMBuchholz experimented with an array of different laser printers to identify the right solution for use in retail outlets. “It was very frustrating,” he says. “Some of the printers smeared or became jammed. We wasted a lot of vellum.”

The printers also had to be intuitive and easy-to-use, since they would be in the hands of clerks in retail stores who might have little experience with technology. “Printers may seem simple, but they can be confusing,” Buchholz says. “We knew the printer had to be simple and user friendly so that people wouldn’t get frustrated.”

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Price and aesthetics were additional factors. The retailers purchase and maintain the printer themselves, so Kindred Hearts needed to offer a printer that would not pose a barrier to entry. Lastly, it would need to be compact, since the retailers wouldn’t want to devote a lot of precious space to the technology. Buchholz knew with these complex requirements, selecting the ideal model would be a delicate balancing act.

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