Situation
Choosing the right vendor for printing and fulfillment can be a difficult task. If you start off small with limited operations, using a service like Amazon KDP initially makes sense. As you continue to grow, it's worth reevaluating to see if another option suits your operations better. In this case, a small turned mid-sized educational publisher used Amazon KDP to print and fulfill their workbooks and began exploring other options.
Solution
Bradford & Bigelow offered long-run printing to combat Amazon's high book cost; $2.78 per book with B&B vs. $8.48 + 60% royalty cost to Amazon*. B&B also worked with the publisher to set up their e-commerce site via WooCommerce to sell their books directly to consumers. WooCommerce then integrated with VeraCore, B&B's WMS so every time an order was received on the publisher's site, B&B also received a notification to ship.
Outcome
The long-run printing cost enabled the mid-sized publisher to make a profit of $37.21 with B&B vs. $15.51 they would've made with Amazon KDP*. In addition, there was minimal disruption to their supply chain while transferring fulfillment operations. By making the switch to Bradford & Bigelow, the publisher was able to make more money and streamline her operations, ultimately driving greater success.
