Print Wizard: Aggregating Bangladesh’s printing industry 

With just one product - visiting cards - Nizam Uddin Shipan started his printing business in 2017 in Uttara. By the end of the year, in a span of four months (September to December), his company 'Print Wizard' had processed transactions worth Tk70 lakh. 

Shipan had a passion for drawing and designing ever since his university days. After working in the printing industry for many years, he kick-started his own venture right when the impact of technology in Bangladesh started to become vibrant. 

Soon after, he felt the need to shift his printing business online as the market was still untapped in the virtual space. 

This marketplace shift led Print Wizard to generating around Tk2 crore revenue in just 15 months (September 2018 to December 2019). Such high sales in such a short time span begs the question: How did he do it? 

"After working in the printing business for years, I realised that our printing market is very disorganised. Bangladesh's printing market is worth around Tk30,000 crore., However, such a promising and competitive market lacks a proper structure or brand," said Shipan in an interview with The Business Standard. 

With the idea of bringing the printing market under a sustainable ecosystem, Shipan began implementing new business methods with strokes of technology. Built on complex software, Print Wizards website offers 1,500 kinds of products, which can be customised in 1,500 ways. 

This platform allows users to browse through all sorts of products and services, get instant quotations on orders placed, and pay for orders online. 

This website also comes with a design tool that allows any user to develop customised orders according to their needs, regardless of design skills or knowledge. Users can also attach preferred designs with their orders or pay an extra charge to Print Wizard for their design services. 

Brochure printed by Print Wizard. Photo: Courtesy

As of now, this printing company has around 12,000 corporate and individual clients. This led us to the next question: How does the Print Wizard team handle such a huge clientele?

"We offer a wide range of products to our customers, but we alone cannot manufacture all the products under one roof. Thus, we work with enlisted vendors who are providing us with production support," said Shipan. 

These vendors are printing companies spread all over Dhaka. Despite being Print Wizards main competitors, these vendors prefer working with this printing company as they keep getting hassle-free orders and cannot decline Shipan's competitive offers.

"We simply pay our vendors a bit higher than the market rate. We can balance their extra share of revenue with the money we save from transportation expenses that are usually needed to travel back and forth to the client's office during an ongoing order," explained Shipan, when asked how he has managed to onboard his biggest competitors. 

Ever since Print Wizard began its online operations, its client reach has been higher online than offline. When the company first began promoting its website in 2017, it caught the eyes of many big corporations, and according to Shipan, the product acceptance rate was a solid 100 percent. 

So why are clients getting drawn to them?

"We have been able to bring down the costs for customers at the process development level. Our platform takes our clients through a smooth and time-efficient process and they can simply avail any sort of printing service in just five seconds using a smart device," said Shipan. 

Print Wizard does not just offer online printing services. When customers first place an order online, they are given access to dashboards equipped with features such as order details, invoice tracking, ledgers, order management, updates on orders, and notifications. 

Photo: Courtesy

Like most businesses, this printing company, too, was impacted by the shutdown imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020. However, it also brought about a bigger opportunity for Print Wizard. 

Photo: Courtesy

"Our clients are now more inclined towards availing products and services online. Because of the pandemic, we have been able to scale our online operations faster. Otherwise, it would have taken us two more years to reach where we are today," said Shipan.  

Besides benefitting from the pandemic, Print Wizard has also been scaling its operations with the help of resellers. These resellers are small computer shops serving as agents who are onboarding customers on the company's platform. 

The resellers take orders from clients and upload it on Print Wizard's portal. The orders are then transferred to enlisted vendors; ones closest to the reseller. These agents also serve as a delivery channel for this printing company. 

As of now, Print Wizard has accumulated around 90 resellers and plans on on-boarding 10,000 resellers by the end 2021. 

"We want to spread our services all over the country, especially in rural areas. We are currently seeking funds to scale this model. With investment, we can expand our service line and bring on more resale agents  and vendors," concluded Shipan. 

To know more, visit: www.printwizardbd.com.