Businessmodel of Cimpress

Customer Segments

Cimpress has a niche market business model, with a specialized customer segment. The company targets its offerings at micro, small, and medium-sized firms, as well as resellers and consumers.

Value Proposition

Cimpress offers three primary value propositions: accessibility, customization, and brand/status.

The company creates accessibility by offering a wide variety of options. Since its founding it has acquired numerous companies, and now consists of 19 different brands. This strategy enabled it to diversity its portfolio and expand its capabilities significantly, and now it sells everything from brochures and flyers to displays and signage to photo products and invitations to apparel.

The company enables customization by allowing clients to personalize the products they request. They do so by specifying design content and parameters through Cimpress’s website.mo

The company has established a strong brand due to its success. It touts itself as the global leader in mass customization, taking in over 30 million orders and producing over 46 million personalized items in 2015 alone. These included 4,000,000 signs, 6,129,341 garments, and 5.9 billion business cards. It maintains operations in 19 countries and serves almost 17 million customers annually.

Channels

Cimpress’s main channel is its website. The company promotes its offering through its social media pages, television advertising, and online advertising (largely paid search).

Customer Relationships

Cimpress’s customer relationship is primarily of a self-service, automated nature. Customers utilize the service through the main platform while having limited interaction with employees. That said, there is a personal assistance component in the form of e-mail support.

Key Activities

Cimpress’s business model entails manufacturing products designed by its clients.

Key Partners

Cimpress utilizes supply chain partners to create efficiencies and reduce costs. These partners include printing companies, material suppliers, and contract manufacturers (to whom the firm outsources certain activities in order to serve local clients more quickly). Specific partners include Fujifilm, Polyconcept, and HP Indigo division.

Key Resources

Cimpress’s main resource is its mass customization platform, which is fueled by its intellectual property. Its IP includes 263 issued patents globally as of June 2016, many of which involve printing and computer-integrated manufacturing.

The company utilizes its physical resources to manufacture products; they include production facilities in North America, Europe, Asia, South America, and Australia. Combined they total more than 140,000 square meters (1,500,000 square feet) of space.

Cost Structure

Cimpress has an economies of scale cost structure, with costs per unit output declining as output expands.

Its biggest cost driver is cost of revenue, a variable expense that includes manufacturing materials and personnel expenses. Other major drivers are in the areas of sales/marketing, technology/development, and administration, all fixed costs.

Revenue Streams

Cimpress has three revenue streams:

• Sales and shipping of customized products
• Sales of digital, website design and hosting, and e-mail marketing services
• Order referral fees