According to Amazon users can “Design your own business cards from Vistaprint”, in three steps: pick a design from several pages of options, add the user's details and click preview.
The single-sided cards come in quantities of 100, costing $33.51 (£22), 250, 500 and 1,000, costing $58.17 (£38), and on matt, premium matt, glossy and premium glossy. Double-sided cards were slightly more expensive.
One template requires users to fill in their first name, last name, company name and company message.
Users can change fonts, text alignment and font size and, according to press reports, the initiative shows the company is taking the issue of mass customisation seriously.
Cimpress director of corporate communications Cheryl Wadsworth said: “What we released is generally all we can say at this time without Amazon’s prior approval. So I’m afraid we’re not able to comment further on the relationship at this time.”
But in an article on the Beyond Print website, chief executive Robert Keane said he believed the project had long-term potential. He did not anticipate a material impact for Cimpress in the short term.
“Cimpress’ strategy is to go to market with multiple merchants, both our own portfolio of brands but also via partners, and the Vistaprint partnership with Amazon supports that strategy,” said Keane.
He insisted in the article that the offering on Amazon was a test limited to one product and only in the US.
“Vistaprint is using a popular store for the first time to offer personal-print products and at the same time is making custom-print products available to the mass market.”
