If you are into the card selling business, you know that customization is the key to driving sales and enhancing customer satisfaction.
Web to Print technology has made it possible for businesses to get started with product customization on their e-stores.
You can integrate a Card Design Tool with the backend of your eCommerce platform and enable end-customers to customize their cards.
If you are looking to buy one such tool for your card business, this blog is for you! We will talk about essential features you need to consider when buying the tool.
7 Must-have Features in Greeting Card Design Software
In this section, discover vital features for both admin and end-customers. Any good tool will offer these functionalities by default.
However, it is not necessary that you must enable all these functionalities. If you partner with a reliable tool provider company, they will give you the freedom to enable or disable features as per your business logic.
1. Add Text & Text Editor
Users customizing a greeting card have to add a lot of information. Hence, it is important to give them the ability to add text, text filters, and such easily.
When choosing a tool, ensure they have different text-related features. This mainly includes the following:
→ A rich font library to offer different styles of fonts to the users. It should also give the admin the ability to add new fonts and enable/disable/delete existing fonts as per their requirements.
→ Text editor that lets users apply text formatting and effects. They can change the color of the font, bold, italicize, align their message on the card.
2. An Extensive Clipart Library
Having just plain text is not enough. Your customers would want to enhance their card design by adding clipart that supports the text.
For instance, a user designing a card for a birthday would like to add an image of a cake, candles, confetti, etc.
The clipart feature enables them to browse through thousands of ready clipart and choose what best suits their message.
In addition to a preloaded clipart library, it is also important to check if the tool allows the admin to categorize clipart. Categories further help users to look for relevant clipart easily.
3. Ready-templates
Typically, there are two types of customers who buy custom greeting cards. One is those who want to design a card entirely by themselves.
And the second category includes those looking for ready editable designs that help them buy a personalized card without putting in more effort.
That’s where ready templates help. Using a Product Design Tool, users can browse through various ready design templates that are completely customizable.
Apart from ready templates, ensure that the Product Design Tool enables the admin to create new design templates. They can do so using other features like text, clipart, artwork, etc.
4. Dynamic & Live Pricing
Pricing is an important factor that influences purchase decisions. For enhanced customer satisfaction, it is essential to have transparent pricing.
With a reliable Card Design Tool, you get the control to charge the price as per your business needs. You can decide and price based on different parameters like color counter, quantity, size, printing method, and so on.
Once you set the price from the tool’s backend, it gets displayed in the front end. Your customers can view the pricing in real-time as and when they apply different features.
This feature also helps reduce unnecessary back and forth between you and your customers in sending and approving quote requests.
5. Bleed Cut Safety Line & Warning Messages
The most common errors that occur when customization include low-resolution image upload, trimmed off text, elements placed outside the print area, and so on.
It is necessary to have a tool that helps you overcome these issues. Look for a tool that lets you share warning messages to end customers.
For instance, you can configure minimum and maximum sizes for custom images from the backend to warn users of low-resolution images. You can also add special messages that get displayed on the frontend.
With the bleed cut safety line manager, you can prevent users from designing outside the safety line to avoid errors in printing.
6. Preview & Share Design
Design preview is an important feature to look for when buying the tool. By enabling users to preview their customization in real-time, you can help them make better purchase decisions.
They can zoom in and out the product, view it from each side in 3D, and thus get a clear idea about how the product might look in reality. This also helps reduce product returns and ultimately improves customer satisfaction.
Another feature to consider is social sharing. Your customers would want to share their customized designs on social media platforms. By providing them with this ability, you can also increase the chances of attracting new customers to your store.
7. Print Ready Files
Ensure that the tool you buy provides you the ability to generate print-ready files. Print-ready files are important to quicken the pre-press process and enable quick delivery.
Once a user places an order for a custom card, you can download print-ready files to send to your printer. Since the file is editable, you can also let users make further modifications by sending them the link to this file via email.
Apart from these seven, there are several other features that you can expect from the tool:
- Artwork manager
- Object and layer management
- Set design area
- Manage printing methods
- Canvas resize
- Form-based customization
- Variable data printing for mass personalization
- Add custom shapes
- Image masking
- Layout manager
Concluding Remarks
We hope this post helps you get a clear understanding of what features you need to look for when looking for a Card Design Tool.
Another crucial thing to keep in mind is to ensure that the tool you buy is user-friendly. The tool’s usability directly impacts customer engagement and increased sales.
See whether the tool is compatible with different devices. With more and more customers purchasing using their mobile devices, it is necessary to have a responsive tool that lets users customize on the go.
Secondly, check if the tool is compatible with a multi-product catalog. You should be able to integrate different products and as many products as you want with the tool.
