Your Store Will Stand Out with Professional Printing in South Kansas City
It’s not even December, but if you haven’t at least started planning your holiday sales schedule, you’re already behind today’s retail expectations. The uncertainty of every day this calendar year has motivated consumers to think about happier times - upcoming holidays and celebrations - and even start buying gifts.
According to a survey by Affirm, 47 percent of consumers had already started buying holiday gifts as of September 2020. Today’s shoppers are not waiting for the big sales associated with Black Friday or Cyber Monday. That means you need to high-tail it to AlphaGraphics South Kansas City, your favorite
local print shop in Olathe, Kansas, to get started on printing everything you need for the biggest retail season of the year.
If you’re not sure what you need, or if you are looking for help with graphic design, give us a call at
913-236-8888 or
contact us online. Our experts love brainstorming ideas to help you reach your business goals. In the meantime, check out our five tips for holiday signage that wows.
1. Don’t Skip Out on Professional Print Quality
It’s tempting to fire up your inkjet printer and let it do its thing on a ream of standard copy paper. If you’re looking to present a professional image that matches your store’s branding, you’ll want to unplug that ink guzzler and work with a print expert.
At AlphaGraphics South Kansas City, we have access to a plethora of paper sizes, colors, weights, and finishes and can help you choose which ones will look best for your business signs, directional signage, or displays. Our professional-grade printers and plotters produce crisp, clear images, and you never have to worry about personally replacing an expensive ink cartridge.
We’re also capable of
large format printing, something that your home set-up just can’t achieve. As a small-business owner, you want to use cost-effective marketing tactics that yield a high return with little effort on your part. The banners and window graphics we produce can help you do that. In fact, bigger is better. The more festive your signs make your store, the easier it is to get your customers into the holiday spirit.
By working with our print shop, you’re ensuring that your business builds a reputation for excellence and that your customers like what they see.
2. Ensure All Your Printed Signs Have a Cohesive Look
Now is not the time for a rebranding! Everything you print to support your holiday sales should look cohesive to the rest of your signage and marketing materials. Doing so will exude an air of professionalism and instill the assumption that you’re a reputable business.
Your customers, or potential customers, are likely already familiar with your branding, including your logo and signature colors. Signage, sale markers, or other
retail printing materials that don’t look like your business are sure to throw off shoppers. It’s also quite visually jarring to see printed material that looks so completely different from what you’d expect from your favorite small business or boutique store.
Our on-site graphic designer can help you ensure that your new signage meets your brand standards. Don’t have brand standards? We can help you with
logo design and brand style guide!
3. Follow the Guidelines for Good Graphic Design
Beautifully printed but poorly designed signage doesn’t make the impact it should. You can have everything printed by
the best local print shop in South Kansas City, and if your design doesn’t cut it, your new signs won’t either.
If you aren’t a professionally-trained graphic designer, it can be almost impossible to properly execute an aesthetically-pleasing print that follows the principles of design. But
graphic design isn’t just about color and layout. The best graphic design draws the eye and inspires action in your customers. It tells your story in a meaningful way, without audibly uttering a word.
Without technical knowledge, it also can be hard to save your files in the right format to make your professional printing go off without a hitch.
For the best-printed files, we prefer:
- Portable document format (PDF)
- A minimum of ⅛” bleed
- Crop marks
AlphaGraphics South Kansas City can help you achieve quality graphic design on all your print materials.
Contact us to learn how.
4. Create a Seasonal Theme and Keep Your Retail Signage Fresh
Holiday sales are special. The season itself is special. Winter holidays come with good memories, and most people are looking for reasons to feel merry and cheerful.
While your standard sales signage during every other time of year is totally appropriate to reuse, your holiday sale or promotional signage should be a little different. It can become part of your seasonal store decor rather than something that creates visual clutter.
Your seasonal signage doesn’t get used very often, it’s true. But it’s still important to check the condition of any signs from last year that you’re thinking of reusing this year. Take an inventory of what isn’t in good enough shape to go back out onto the sales floor and have AlphaGraphics South Kansas City reproduce it, or start completely fresh for the 2020 holidays.
5. Provide Direction with Signage
Enthusiastic shoppers look forward to the holidays every year because it gives them a really good reason to partake in one of their favorite holidays. When your store gets busy, the environment can feel chaotic and create unpleasant emotions and confusion.
Help your customers get what they’re looking for by using
directional signage designed for retail that draws the eye to gorgeous holiday displays, special sales, popular items, or important areas of your store, like the cash wrap or fitting rooms.
To help determine where you might need directional signage, you’ll first need to plan how you’ll merchandise your store for the holidays. Then, walk through your store as though you’re a customer. Consider what would help you navigate, and make a list of the signs you’ll need to print and hang. If you need a fresh perspective, ask a friend or family member to help you perform the walkthrough. Then,
call AlphaGraphics South Kansas City to take care of printing all that new signage for you.
Your One-Stop Shop for Business Signage
Small business owners in South Kansas City, Olathe, Shawnee, Lenexa, Leawood, and Overland Park know that when it comes to the printed materials they rely on, the best place to have it printed is AlphaGraphics South Kansas City. With coast-to-coast resources and a can-do attitude, AlphaGraphics can take your ideas and transform them into stunning signs, documents, displays, and designs.
See what we’re capable of, and visit us at 14965 W. 117th Street, near the intersection of 117th Street and South Black Bob Road, in Olathe, Kansas.