In-store customization with DTG printing is a powerful way to increase revenue, earn repeat business, build brand loyalty, and stand out from the competition. While integrating any type of in-store customization is challenging, DTG (short for “direct to garment”) printing offers one of the easiest, most effective ways to provide in-store customization for your customers.
One of the biggest challenges with creating a successful in-store customization experience is scalability. In order to scale, a company must expand the variety of its offerings, which is no small feat considering that most forms of mass customization revolve around a limited number of products like custom-tailored shirts or custom-fitted, 3D-printed shoes.
In contrast, DTG utilizes the exact same printing process for a wide range of customizable products like t-shirts, sweatshirts, hats, shoes, and much more. With DTG, it’s easy to expand your customizable product offerings.
Scaling in-store customization also poses the challenge of building a skilled workforce that can produce the customized goods while still maintaining brand quality. Compared to skills like 3D printing and custom tailoring, DTG printing has a much easier learning curve and does not require a highly specialized skill set to produce consistent, professional-quality results.
One of the keys — and also one of the greatest challenges — to integrating in-store customization successfully is creating a unique, memorable customer experience that can not be replicated online. DTG powerfully lends itself to an engaging in-store experience because it is a quick, highly visual process.
It takes only minutes to print a t-shirt, and there is something almost magical about watching an image materialize beneath the swift movement of a print head gliding back and forth over a garment. The result is not only a blank garment that is suddenly transformed into a one-of-a-kind piece of fashion, but also a memorable in-store experience that inspires customers to share their creations on social media, garnering positive exposure for your brand.
The main drawback to integrating traditional DTG technology in-store is that it requires equipment that is not always practical or safe for public retail environments. The traditional heat presses and tunnel dryers used to cure ink into fabric require a large amount of space. Of greater concern, however, is the risk of injury to employees and customers due to the high temperature of the heat press.
There are two solutions for this. The first is simply to store your heat press in a private, restricted area. You will need to use this solution if you wish to have the option of printing on dark shirts — a feature that is only available on larger machines like the RICOH Ri 1000 or RICOH Ri 2000 DTG printer.
If space is at a premium and you don’t mind not having the white-ink capability required for printing on dark shirts, the highly compact RICOH Ri 100 is the leading solution for in-store DTG customization. The Ri 100 is small enough to fit easily on a countertop and comes with its own built-in ink curing unit, eliminating the need for a stand-alone heat press.
Regardless of which solution you choose, DTG is one of the easiest, most effective ways to implement in-store customization successfully and generate more revenue, repeat business, and brand loyalty for your business.