In addition to new fonts, colours and graphics with newly incorporated banner advertising of selected products, the Venice-based business has replaced the site’s standard drop-down menu with a permanently visible list and included a new price estimating facility that updates pricing as users select products and delivery specifications.
In the estimating section of the site, which Pixartprinting’s HR and corporate values manager Marcello Libralato said was still undergoing some changes, pricing has been switched from Euros to GBP making estimating easier for UK users.
The revamp is part of a broader strategy change by the company which sees all of Pixartprinting’s pan-European services brought back to its Italian headquarters, including the decision to end its partnership with east London-based Precision Printing.
Under the joint venture, launched in 2010, the Barking print firm had been responsible for carrying out fast-turnaround UK work as well as providing customer support for Pixart’s dedicated UK website.
But in May last year Pixartprinting president Matteo Rigamonti voiced his disappointment in the UK market, which reaped €1.5m (£1.3m) for the business in 2012, warning that this was not enough to sustain the UK operation.
Libralato said: "We ended our very good relationship with Precision Printing at the end of last year. It has been a good and I think mutually profitable experience and I am pretty positive that we both learnt something."
The fastest turnaround for UK site users is now 48 hours with those orders being produced in Italy and shipped out within the same day. Libralato said he believed that by streamling across the business the decision to bring production back to Italy would prove cost effective.
He explained: "Streamline production as much as you can, streamline the purchasing process, streamline your logistics, work as close as you can with your suppliers, use as much technology as you can and last but not least, offer a good work environment and try to hire people who are interested in what they do and pay them properly."
And despite the UK market remaining very "fickle" Libralato said that 2013 had got off to a good start.
"It’s hard to give a realistic forecast - we will have some more interesting statistical data later in the season - but I can tell for sure that we had a very strong start of the year, roughly doubling the business compared to the previous season."
