Penny Black FAQs

Keep reading for answers to common questions about how to implement Penny Black, our sustainability credentials and how we work with your marketing and fulfilment solutions.

Implementing Penny Black

Penny Black works by taking customer data directly from your ecommerce platform and bringing it into the Penny Black platform. You can then create segments as well as personalised campaigns and designs based on your customers’ profiles, demographics, purchase history and more. Your campaigns are then ready to go and start delighting customers and growing their lifetime value.

At the same time, the Penny Black team will set up the printers you need in your fulfilment centre (whether you fulfil in-house or using a 3PL). Once the set-up is complete, your flyers will print on demand at the fulfilment centre as part of the pick and pack process. Head here to read more about how the Penny Black platform works.

It only takes one click to integrate Penny Black into your store and we tend to need half a day (or less, depending on how many printers you need) to set up the print tech in your fulfilment centre.

 

Time is then spent creating designs and setting up campaigns. This can be as fast or as slow as you need to make sure you’re happy with the designs and campaigns we launch with.

 

After launch, designs and campaigns can be tweaked in real-time, within the Penny Black platform, without causing any delays to your pick and pack processes.

Once we’ve connected Penny Black to your ecommerce store, we’ll have a meeting to discuss your business objectives, the kinds of campaigns you want to run and how we can help create your designs. We’ll then be on hand to set up those campaigns with you within the platform.

 

We’ll also set up a fortnightly catch-up to make sure we’re always working together to see results with Penny Black.

 

Aside from this, we'll also need an introduction to the individual that handles operations in your fulfilment centre so we can make sure the set-up is as smooth as possible. Set up can then take as little as an hour (depending on how many printers you need).

We’ll take all the fulfilment setup of our hardware off your plate and support with ideation and setting up Campaigns in the Penny Black platform. We also have an in-house design resource that you can tap into to create your flyer designs.

No, we don’t. Instead, we give you the power to personalise every unboxing moment – whether that’s through leaflets or stickers. What we do provide is the consumables for your Penny Black flyers. That includes all the ink and paper you need. We also monitor these levels closely to make sure you never run out.

 

If you would like to be introduced to a packaging partner, don’t hesitate to reach out to info@https://https://pennyblack.io.

No, we provide as many printers you need as part of the install process with your fulfilment centre. These printers belong to us and if you no longer want to use Penny Black, we take these printers back into our inventory.

This depends on your order volume and how many campaigns you’re running through Penny Black. It will also depend on how you fulfil orders and how many packing benches you use. We’ll always advise on the correct amount of printers to meet your needs.

No, we supply you with everything you need and constantly monitor these levels to make sure you never run out of ink or paper.

How we work with fulfilment

Penny Black can be set up in any kind of fulfilment centre – from whether you fulfil orders in-house or use a 3PL. We take all this set up off your hands, all we need is an introduction to your fulfilment centre contact. We can also integrate with most warehouse management systems and have also integrated with bespoke systems previously.

Our team will liaise with your team at the fulfilment centre and bring everything required for installation. We then simply plug in our kit and run a few tests to make sure everything’s up to speed.

Penny Black flyers print in as little as 7.7 seconds, adding no delays to the pick and pack process. If there are any issues with printers we have a specialist ops team on hand to troubleshoot and get printers up and running as soon as possible. To date, our printers have only had 0.014% downtime and we intend to keep it low.

 

For some brands, Penny Black will actually speed up their fulfilment process. As flyers are printed on-demand, packers have no additional flyer SKUs to manage and don’t need to spend time deciding which flyer(s) go into the order.

This is customisable depending on the trigger you set but we recommend triggering the print when the individual in your fulfilment centre confirms the order they’re currently packing – usually through your warehouse management system (WMS).

Ink will need to be refilled every 15k prints a printer does. Paper depends on the size of the media but this shouldn’t be often as we’ve chosen our printer model for packing speed optimisation. Plus, we’ll monitor these levels closely so you won’t need to worry about it.

Next to none. We go to great lengths to cause zero disruption to the fulfilment process and one fulfilment centre even said they even get “no tickets ever” relating to our printers.

 

We chose the most robust printer model and constantly monitor for any print jams. If in the unlikely event there was an issue with the printer, our operations team handles all the maintenance and engineering call outs.

At the fulfilment centre, the personalised flyers take 7.7 seconds to print – adding very little additional time to the pick and pack process. It can take up to three working days for the preprinted side to arrive at your fulfilment centre.

Standard desktop size; 43cm x 58cm x 45cm. They’re as small and compact as possible so they seamlessly fit on your packing benches without adding additional clutter or taking up desk space.

Great news! Drop us an email at info@https://pennyblack.io and we’ll be back in touch as soon as we can to determine if we’re a good fit.

Sustainability

We try and operate as sustainably as possible – always opting for eco-friendly papers, inks and printers. Keep reading for more information on how we make these stages of our process as sustainable as possible.

Our team will liaise with your team at the fulfilment centre and bring everything required for installation. We then simply plug in our kit and run a few tests to make sure everything’s up to speed.

We only work with recyclable and sustainably sourced FSC certified and eco-label awarded paper stocks. We also offer you the choice of using recycled or non-recycled paper depending on how intricate you want your designs to be.

We only use water-based inks that are much less harmful to the environment than petroleum-based inks. They’re also non-toxic and make our flyers much easier to recycle. Plus, because the ink is water soluble, it takes much less energy and fewer chemicals to strip it. And, finally, we only purchase ink cartridges that are made of recycled materials and even manage a recycling program with our clients.

We do our best to make each and every print count so we don’t create excess waste. There are four key ways we do this:

  1. First, because our service is only print-on-demand, it means you won’t ever be left with excess, unusable prints that end up getting thrown away
  2. Because our flyers are personalised we’re making sure we’re always creating purposeful marketing that customers will treasure and keep, rather than adding clutter to their lives
  3. Our flyers allow brands to consolidate information that would normally be spread across multiple pieces of paper (for example, return slips and receipts)
  4. Finally, all the paper we use is recyclable and sustainably sourced

We use inkjet printers because they’re fast and use much less energy than laser-based printers. The model of printer we use consumes up to 85% less power and generates 85% less CO2 than laser printers.

Penny Black and your Marketing

Our cost-per-print model will make sure you see a significant return on investment. Clients already using Penny Black see a 300% ROI within three months and an average of ÂŁ1.10 return per insert. Not only does Penny Black contribute a direct revenue uplift, but it also improves the performance of other KPIs including retention rates, customer lifetime value (CLTV) and lower customer acquisition costs (CACs).

We’re building integrations all the time to make sure Penny Black is an essential part of your marketing stack and will be able to integrate with your ESP (email service provider), SMS platform, loyalty program and reviews provider.

 

If you have an integration suggestion, email us at info@https://pennyblack.io.

Overall, personalised experiences delight customers and, ultimately, keep them loyal long term. In fact, 80% of shoppers say they are more likely to purchase from a company offering personalised experiences. And, any direct mail that includes the customers’ name, increases response rates by as much as 135%. When we compare Penny Black’s personalised flyers to the performance of direct mail, brands see a 3% higher scan rate, showing that when the content is personalised, customers engage with it more.

 

In a nutshell, personalised flyers motivate customers to take action and in turn, converts them into long-term loyal advocates.

Our platform allows you to see and track key metrics including; total matched orders, total printed flyers, total scans and scan rate. We also have an integration with Google Analytics meaning you can bring in specific data such as sessions, transactions, revenue, AOV and conversion rate for customers that have scanned a Penny Black flyer. Plus, because all the QR codes including tracking URLs, you’re able to see the journeys customers take when they land back on your site.

There’s a whole multitude of campaigns you can run depending on your business objectives and your customer base. You can create segments for new customers, all customers and loyal customers. Or, on particular customer attributes like the number of orders a customer has made, their location or what product they’ve bought (and much more).

 

You can then create designs with all kinds of content. This could include: discounts, content related to the purchase (like recipes or how-to tutorials), requests to leave reviews or make referrals or to sign up for your newsletter – the possibilities are endless. Check out this ebook, full of examples of high-performing Penny Black campaigns, for inspiration.

We specialise in hyper-personalisation meaning you can personalise based on previously bought SKUs, the number of orders a customer has made, location, language and more. All data is synced across from your existing ecommerce platform.