Pick a Card, Any Card

Card printing solutions help retailers focus on the bottom line

• By Kathryn Lodato
• Nov 05, 2007

Retail operations large and small have a need for single- or multi-purpose ID cards for employees. Consumer loyalty or gift cards with stored balances also are growing in popularity as revenue drivers. Traditionally, this card-printing function has been outsourced, but affordable and efficient card printers make it possible to bring identification and loyalty card printing back onsite. Today's card printers are smaller, faster, more reliable, easier to use and create much better quality cards than their predecessors.

At costs 20 percent lower than previous-generation card printers, retailers can print dual-sided cards. And, instead of printing just one side at a time, these new printers provide dual-sided printing.

Enhanced Versatility
Such printers change the game in retail card printing. From large department stores to smaller shops, a dual-sided printer helps users create attractive gift and loyalty cards on site and on demand. Often, cards have an abundant amount of information on one side, leaving the backside blank. Now, users can quickly and affordably create much more effective gift and loyalty cards that use both sides of the card for photos and information.

With dual-sided gift and loyalty cards, retail operations have  more options for designing attractive and functional personalized cards. Such cards provide more space for larger photographs and graphics. More printed information can be added, including details of the gift or loyalty program, details about store locations, maps or even special promotions. Cards can even be personalized right at the store with the bearer's name or photograph. Full-color panels provide unlimited design options. There also is room for sharper, more readable bar codes, if desired.

Using one-at-a-time card feeding and printing, users simply insert a single card into the front of the printer, just as on an ATM machine. The card is pulled into the printer, printed and encoded, then returned to the user from the front of the printer. This front-feed and front-exit design is particularly important for retail applications, which have a high demand for printing instant personalized gift and membership cards.

In addition to gift cards, advanced technology options, such as smart card and magnetic stripe encoding, allow for a wide variety of uses. A single store may require cards that not only provide positive identification, but also control access to employee-only areas. Whether the need is for high-security, tamper-proof encoded cards linked to a database or access control system, or simple monochrome gift cards, there's a card printer on the market to fit the application.

Bought for Security
Although initially implemented primarily as an access control tool, Rite-Aid shows how card printing can migrate throughout a retail business. At Rite-Aid's Mid-Atlantic distribution center, cards are used not only to identify employees, but also to provide access control, for timekeeping functions and to measure productivity. The Mid-Atlantic distribution center serves 760 stores from Connecticut to the Carolinas in one building with approximately 1 million square feet and 1,400 employees.

With such a large facility and many temporary employees, every employee must have a badge, and every function in the facility is based on the badge. Rite-Aid uses two single-sided card printers, producing full color on one side and black and white text on the other. Each badge has a picture on the front and a bar code on the back. With a standing order of 20 to 30 new hires each week, and the re-issuing of lost cards or those in need of repair, Rite-Aid produces 150 to 200 badges per month.

The color cards are created in 25 seconds, and the black-and-white sides take between 4-5 seconds. The cards provide an extensive security system at the center.

Cards for Any Retailer
Optimum Card Solutions is generally credited with refining the business model for independent service bureaus offering high-speed imaging on plastic cards.  Optimum offers a one-stop gift card solution that includes high-quality Department of Defense imaging, encoding, matched-affixing, card inventory management and complete distribution services. To ensure customers get the best possible cards, Gerry Blight, president of Optimum Card Solutions, decided to include RFID-enabled card printers in the mix along with other current-production technologies in their Addison, Ill., facility.

“RFID functionality simplifies the personalization process and saves us in training time for operators. Automatic driver configuration, intelligent color optimization and a special RFID system, along with internal system monitors like a ribbon image counter and low-ribbon notification, simplify card printing to allow an operator to simultaneously operate more than one machine,” Blight said. “This enhances profitability by keeping expenses low while keeping productivity high.  Because of that, there is less cost per impression.”

CEO Cynthia Rojas’ original concept behind shopLAstyle.com was to create a site that features great Los Angeles-based designers. The online fashion retailer purchased a Zebra P330i card printer to print its own gift cards.

“Because fashion is constantly changing, so does our site. We receive new merchandise on a weekly basis, so customers check back often and sign up for our mailing list to receive e-mails about new items and special offers,” Rojas said. “That’s why we felt it was so important to create our own gift cards on site and on-demand. Buying a large quantity of pre-printed gift cards from an outside vendor didn’t make sense to us.

“We custom print each gift card with the denomination and a code number. At present, I’m the only one printing cards. However, it is so easy to learn to operate, that I’m not worried about the staff creating gift cards in the future. We really like the flexibility of creating our own cards and would recommend that any retailer do so.”

Being aware of the new available card-printing technology is key to finding the correct printer for any size retail operation. It's also important to choose a printer dealer who will demonstrate each recommended printer and its features. Ask to print a few cards before purchasing any printer to ensure that the printer eventually purchased is intuitively constructed, easy to use and performs to its stated specifications.