Allstate Printing & Graphics

 
Perhaps you are like other commercial printers who one day considered expanding into printed card products but found the high cost of entry into this market prohibitive . There’s reason to revisit the return-on-investment for equipment required to get into producing printed cardproducts. One factor is the sustained and growing demand in the USA for the variety of card products that are now quite popular worldwide – especially for the short runs that smaller commercial print shops would find within their scope. Another significant factor is that now the price of entry into this market is considerably less— now in the $ 35,000+ range, instead of the hundred/s of thousands of Dollars investment required before.

Which types of printed cards do we mean? The beauty of this market opportunity is in fact the number of different types of printed card applications there are in the standard wallet-sized card dimensions (called CR80 cards). Membership cards are one example. Libraries, schools, clubs, membership organizations — the potential roster of local customers who will need membership ID cards of one type or another is considerable. It’s quite plausible that membership card customers would come your way simply by responding to signage in your shop announcing membership card printing capabilities. These are usually repeat customers. While some ID cards, such as drivers’ licenses, often involve adding security features beyond the scope of typical commercial print shops, a healthy number of membership ID cards are not secure cards and do not require extra equipment.

Phone cards are ubiquitous, but it was not so long ago that they were a rarity. Indeed, most of the global leaders in phone card products started out as relatively small commercial print shops. There is still room for others to enter this market, but developing a niche in phone cards will probably require more than initial equipment investments and making signs announcing your card printing capabilities. You will need to call on businesses already established in the prepaid phone card niche to see if outsourcing actual card manufacture is consistent with their business model.

Gift cards are another market, already quite popular in the U.S. Those of us familiar with how this gift card market mushroomed so quickly in the U.S. are well aware of how the third party transaction processors helped drive the market

Similarly loyalty cards are now commonplace. Here too it is the tremendous financial return that such cards give retailers that is driving this market. As early as 2011 it was reported that 85% of USA households had one or more loyalty cards. Customers like the perks that such cards provide. Retailers like the mountain of information on shopping patterns that enable them to better structure pricing and the like for higher return.

Hotel key cards are another card product that could hardly be imagined a decade ago that today is quite commonplace. Here too the run length for these type printed cards is usually relatively short and within the scope of smaller print shops that are equipped for card manufacture.

Don’t be daunted by the number of cardmanufacturers one can find on the Internet. Most card manufacturers have well-developed niches in high value financial cards or multi-layered security cards that require considerable investment in secure manufacturing facilities and processes. These companies, especially if they are relative behemoth-sized, have considerable overhead and many cannot be competitive in short runs of cards without expensive security features. However, it should be noted that many of the world’s high profile card manufacturers started out as commercial print shops.

There are over 30 billion manufactured cards in circulation around the world with more than 8.6 billion in North America and nearly 5 billion in Europe alone, encompassing a range of categories that include credit/debit cards, pre-paid phone cards, membership cards and gift cards. Cards represent a value to the global economy of more than $17 billion, almost $4 billion to the European economy and nearly $2.4 billion to the North American economy* (*ICMA 2011 Global Market Statistics Report). There are different markets Where the card industry plays an important game as a market inovator, Prepaid Calling Card Market, Prepaid Gift Card Market, Prepaid POSA Market, Prepaid Wireless Market, Hotel & Resort Market, Membership & Reward Industry, Music & Game Industry, Pharmaceutical & Health Industry, Prepaid Card Packaging.

The global card industry faces unprecedented challenges from a supply and demand and production perspective, and each market dictates different ways to handle each card production Project, Manufacturers like Allstateprinting are allways ready to impact the future of each different card market with new technologies, standards and evolving operational issues changing the way cards are designed, manufactured and secured; new card market opportunities and categories as well as expanded opportunities in existing markets such as pre-paid, gift and environmentally-sustainable cards; more rapid and cost-effective ways to design, personalize, and produce quality cards and get them to market, and better methods the card industry as a whole can employ to measure its performance.

Our advanced award winning technology enables your company to stay one step ahead of the competition. As a privately owned American card producer, We have the ability to respond extremely fast to market changes and customer requests. In addition, Our customers have the advantages of working with an organization that is large enough to be able to invest substantially into technology to provide leading edge and innovative solutions in card printing.

Give a personal creative touch to impersonal plastic gift card with gift card packaging and convey the message in more attractive and impressive way

Why are commercial printers attempting to create mobile-optimized Web experiences? Well, the US population is sitting at around 311 million. Of those 311 million people, about half of US adults own a smartphone. On top of that, for a whopping 28% of Americans, a mobile device is their primary way of accessing the Web .
So, for a commercial printer looking to reach potential customers, mobile provides a tremendous opportunity to connect with them.
What’s more is that people are arriving to the mobile Web through more diverse channels than ever before. In addition to direct and referral traffic, Printers are using social networks, email campaigns, SMS campaigns, search and more. Because these activities are increasingly happening on mobile, creating Web experiences optimized for mobile makes even more sense for commercial printers.

Why Would Anyone Visit A Printer’s Website?

Who is visiting these printers websites? What are they looking for? Why might they want on a mobile device? Visitors are generally either looking for information on how to print their products, or looking to take action. requesting quotes and ordering printing products.

The most beautiful design in the world will accomplish nothing if people can’t view it. Historically, the mobile Web has been viewed as the Web Lite™, whose users get served only a subset of content and functionality. However, a whopping 28% of US residents use a mobile device as their primary way to access the Web . With more people relying on their mobile devices to access the Web, achieving content parity and giving users access to a full experience regardless of their device or configuration are more important than ever.

Separate Mobile Websites VS Responsive Websites.

the Web design world is entrenched in its own debate about how to address the mobile Web: creating separate mobile websites versus creating responsive websites.

Separate Mobile Websites

These kind of mobile websites uses device detection, to route mobile users to a separate dedicated website. Creating this separate experience allows the designers to tailor the mobile Web experience, but a separate design and subdomain also opens the door to some serious problems, and only a fraction of the full website’s features are included.

Another common problem with separate mobile websites is URL management. Because desktop and mobile content live at separate URLs, device detection is required to route users to the appropriate site. Unfortunately, many websites don’t go deep enough in their URL redirection, so desktop users will get sent to mobile content and vice versa. This becomes apparent when mobile content gets shared by mobile users on social networks and then gets accessed by desktop users.

A typical page on a separate mobile website is about 687 KB and, as a result, takes about 8.75 seconds to load. While that’s over the 5-second mark, the pages still weigh less than the average size.

Responsive Websites

Responsive Website has no “full site” link because it shares the same code base as the “desktop” website. Content on a responsive website lives under one roof, which gives the website a better chance of achieving content parity. And while responsive designers can (and do) hide content from small-screen users, responsive design affords less opportunity to fork the content and create disparate experiences, which would deprive certain users of valuable information and features.
As we can see, having Web content all under the same roof and URL definitely makes it easier to give visitors access to the content they’re looking for, regardless of the device they happen to be using.
A typical page on a responsive website is a massive 4.2 MB, resulting in a 25-second loading time.
Despite the fact that only the most patient of visitors would wait 25 seconds for a page to load, such a large payload creates real accessibility problems. Some devices  won’t even render the page because it’s too large.

So, Who Wins?

If there’s one lesson to learn from analyzing these websites and techniques, it’s that this stuff is genuinely hard. A lot goes into making a great mobile Web experience, and I’m personally thrilled that the Printers will take the important first steps toward making their websites mobile-friendly. Viewing the mobile web as a wonderful journey and not as a destination is absolutely essential. As we step into the deep end of multi-device Web design, we must strive to continually improve our websites and services in order to better serve our users — wherever they may be.

While the design of a Printer’s website might not determine the outcome of their success, it will certainly influence how the world perceives the Printer's qualifications and experience. And for a Web-savvy voter like myself, a website’s design might just sway my vote.

One of the features offered by Allstate Printing & Graphics is a metallic background. It gives plastic cards a distinctive look and sets them apart from most other plastic cards. If you want your printed plastic cards to reflect the modern, cutting-edge attitude of your company, this is a good way to begin showing it.

When you’re dealing with the public, you need to start making a good impression from the very beginning. In many cases, your customers’ first encounter with your company is using gift cards or membership cards and so many kind of plastic cards, that those ones are a couple of ones I remember, now if your card looks way different that the others, then you are making contact with your customers and of course it should look good. Later you can impress them with your performance.

Printed plastic cards with a metallic finish look bright, professional and unusual. Since they look slightly out of the ordinary, they tend to stick in the holder’s memory. This person probably gets a lot of plastic cards, just to memtion gift cards, credit cards, membership cards, store cards, and most are quickly forgotten. If they get one that looks different, there’s more chance they’ll remember it.

To make your cards look great and stay in your customers’ minds, consider using a metallic finish. It grabs the viewer’s attention and helps them remember your companys name. Any questions about special finish plastic cards fell free to contact us  and a representative will answer all of your questions or concerns.

The most prominent application of smart card technology is in Subscriber Identity Modules (SIM), required for all phone systems under the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) standard. Each phone utilizes the unique identifier, stored in the SIM, to manage the rights and privileges of each subscriber on various networks. This use case represents over half of all smart cards consumed each year. The Universal Subscriber Identification Modules (USIM) is also being used to bridge the identity gap as phones transition between GSM, UTMS, and 3G network operators.

• Identifying the most cost-effective chip for your company's needs.
• Recommending first-class operating systems that are accepted by international institutions,
• Referring and advising application providers for access control, loyalty, payment in closed environments or libraries, etc.
• Helping you with the personalization and issuance of the cards.