Under used and overlooked is the virtual inventory system that we have at FinerWorks. When you sign up for an account you have access to a valuable time saving tool which allows you to store frequently ordered prints and products so that you don’t have to upload your files and setup your prints each time you want to order them. Below I share two examples of why it is so useful for many.
Let’s take for instance Christine, one of our users. Christine is one of our frequent customers, ordering a couple times a day to have us fulfill her Etsy and Shopify orders for her art prints. She has about 20 different images she sells in several combinations of styles and sizes for framed giclee prints on fine art papers as well as canvas prints. Overall though about 10 images were her top sellers.
Recently she said that the time to setup each print every time she needed to order was taking a toll and asked us if we had any suggestions. The first question we asked was if she had taken advantage of the virtual inventory system we have. Sadly, she had overlooked this feature and had not take advantage of it. When we explained that she could save the prints she frequently ordered, she immediately started to take advantage of it. She started by uploading the images she had us print the most often and followed up by adding the print products for those images which she had us fulfill frequently.
Now whenever she has an order she just selects the appropriate product/print in her inventory and adds it to her cart. She said that when she does not have the item in her inventory yet, she adds it there before ordering it intending to eventually have all her inventory items saved.
Another, example is the marketing department of a large home developer here in the U.S. The builder is constantly adding new neighborhoods all over the country, sometimes up to 4 a month. Each time they do so, they build a model home which is also where their realtors locate their offices.
Inside those offices they will display interior signage as canvas prints with everything from company logos and slogans to a stock images displaying happy families. Total is about a dozen large canvas prints which they have us crate and ship to the model homes.
Since their marketing department does not have time to setup 12 canvas prints each time, they set them all up only once. Now they can quickly select all the prints from their virtual inventory, add them to their cart and checkout with the delivery location.
Even if you are not like Christine or a large home developer, and only place an order occasionally, there might come a time when your order volume increases, and you become just like Christine. So, taking advantage of this tool now will help a lot.
Is the virtual inventory feature for everyone? Not at this time since many of our customers do commissioned on demand prints that might be personalized and shipped to their customers. Unless they anticipate their customer will later order additional copies there is no sense to store it as an inventoried item.
There are some limitations on inventory items. Checkout the frequently asked questions below which address some of the common questions surrounding the virtual inventory.
Uploading Files
It will be up to you to select a print size that compliments your image’s current aspect ratio. If your image file does not quite match those dimensions, it will be cropped to accommodate the print size selected. This can result in part of your image file being cropped. Be sure you pay attention to the real-time preview when you setup your print. If any part of it looks cropped, then you may need to choose a different size print or adjust your image file to fit accordingly.
In most cases if you do not see any sort of upload tool it is because either Flash is not running in your browser and HTML 5 is not supported. This is usually fixed by updating your web browser. If you do see an uploading interface but nothing happens when clicking the “add files” or “upload” button, this is also usually fixed by updating your web browser. Read more…
Sometimes when you upload a very high resolution file, it’s possible the preview will come out blurry. This happens because we are using a smaller embedded thumbnail data within your image file rather than generating a preview from your high resolution file. It’s done as a fallback method if it appears generating the preview from the high resolution file will take too long.
Fortunately your high resolution file will remain intact since we need that to produce your print.
Best print quality is between 200-300 dpi.
Rasterized PNG, JPG or TIFF files are necessary. If you file is a PDF or vector file (such as Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator), please convert it. You will need to make these changes before submitting these files for accurate color when printed due to different CMYK and RGB outputs. For instance, many programs like Adobe Illustrator will default to a CMYK color space. It’s relatively easy to change it to RGB, so make sure you do so before saving a jpg or tiff version of your file.
Because the file is so large, generating a thumbnail would be time consuming for our servers. To speed things up, we generate a thumbnail from the embedded thumbnail image. This won’t affect or be used for printing. We always print the original file that was uploaded. It’s just used as a preview.
Absolutely not. We prefer you upload your file before it is enlarged. Not to say you cannot do this but to do so might result in a poorer quality print than you would have wanted. This is because when you enlarge a digital image, you are adding pixels that were never there. Our software will try to guess what those pixels will look like and the more guessing it has to do, the more pixelated the image becomes. The reason we prefer you not to do this yourself is so we can warn you if we think the file is too small for the size you selected.
Your images should be in RGB mode. Images in CMYK color mode are more likely to experience noticeable color shifts which may result in a muted or washed out looking print.
Yes, if the image was saved in your Inventory Files. From there you will find under each image of the file you will find a “Create Download Link” for a small fee of $1.50 USD.
See Video
As an on-demand printer, we must adhere to the same regulations and standards that anyone else does. To learn more about protecting your intellectual property, take time to read over one of our recent blogs here.
Only lower resolution web versions of the images are shown. These contain a watermark which provides some protection. If you are too worried that people will copy your web viewable images, we recommend not participating in the gallery experience.
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Printed using some of the highest archival standards in the industry, your photos or artwork will last for decades to come.