(See below for special commentary from WhatTheyThink's Cary Sherburne)

The easy way to turn PDF files and digital photos into beautiful print products 

Despite our love for digital content, sometimes we just want to hold a physical product, turn our family photos into wall art or get a tangible copy of our work for posterity’s sake. Today, cloud print provider Peecho announced the release of the Simple Print Service, a web-to-print application that lets anyone create beautiful print products from digital photos and documents and get them delivered to their doorstep. 

The Simple Print Service is intuitive and easy to use, allowing for the effortless transformation of digital images and PDF files into physical books, magazines, posters, canvas prints and more. Unlike most web-to-print apps, the Simple Print Service does not require software downloads; it can be accessed from any browser. Users can upload any PDF and image file. Then, the service analyses it to suggest a number of available print products, eliminating template restrictions and the need to create print-ready files.

Just as Peecho’s Simple Print Button, the service leverages a global network of leading printing facilities to produce orders on demand and as close to the end recipient as possible. “In a world where everything is going digital, people are losing track of meaningful content,” said Martijn Groot, CEO and co-founder of Peecho. “Our Simple Print Service seeks to tackle this consumer need by offering an easy way to transform treasured digital content into physical keepsakes. Drawing on our learnings from our Simple Print Button, which currently connects more than 1,500 websites to a global network of production facilities, we developed a sleek user interface that allows people to create print products in minutes. The service works as a window to the world’s best printing facilities that anyone can use.” 

Interesting for both Consumers and Businesses 

Aside from catering to a wide consumer market, a white label version of the Simple Print Service is also available for companies, enabling them to launch their own print on demand channel. “For the first time ever, small companies and individuals can start a print business using the best and largest printing facilities in the industry,” said Groot. “Our service allows any company to capitalize on print without investing large quantities in production, order management and storage. We take care of everything, even customer service. There are no commitments and no minimum volumes required.” 

The Simple Print Service incorporates a complete, user-friendly checkout and payment module. It supports worldwide delivery and over 30 different currencies, and is fully optimized for SEO and social media. The service can also be launched in multiple languages, including English, German, Spanish and Dutch. Companies simply need to create a Peecho account and purchase their own domain name to start selling prints to any audience. 

About Peecho

Using cloud print technology, Peecho operates as the intermediary between websites and the world’s leading printing facilities. Our Simple Print Button allows digital publishers to sell their content in print. Customers include Issuu, the Dutch Rijksmuseum, Deloitte and Sanoma Media. 

Founded in November 2009, Peecho is a privately held company based in Amsterdam, backed by Peak Capital and DHG Holding. Follow Peecho on Twitter or learn more at http://www.peecho.com.

Commentary from Cary Sherburne

I had the opportunity to meet the Martijn Groot, CEO of Peecho, at a special Cloud Print 2013 seminar put on by PODi during Hunkeler Innovationdays 2013. Aside from their cute logo, the offering looks pretty robust.  In fact, one of its leading customers is Issuu - If you aren’t familiar with Issuu, you should look them up.

Now Peecho is turning its attention to direct-to-consumer solutions with the announcement of Simple Print Service and the Simple Print Button. The company has already lined up a global network of printers that can produce high quality work for consumers, who don’t have to worry about sending print ready files and is not restricted to a fixed set of templates.

Lest you think that this is a smaller version of Vistaprint or other existing services that really doesn’t apply to your business, you should be aware that Peecho already has its Simple Print Button on more than 1,500 web sites and is already generating a significant amount of print to its network, both B2B and B2C. The company also offers a white label version allowing companies to literally start their own printing business leveraging the existing network of printers.

There’s certainly an opportunity for print service providers to take advantage of Peecho technology and become part of the network, as well as to install the service with a print button on your own site that will drive work to your platform.

This is another example of nontraditional competition eating into declining print volume, although it is also an opportunity to create new print volume via new applications.

If you don’t already have a web-to-print solution working for you, or if you need or wish to augment to the W2P solution you have in place, it can’t hurt to check this one out.