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Vistaprint is a global e-commerce company that produces physical and digital
marketing Marketing is the act of acquiring, satisfying and retaining customers. It is one of the primary components of Business administration, business management and commerce. Marketing is usually conducted by the seller, typically a retailer or ma ...
products for small businesses. Vistaprint was one of the first businesses to offer its customers the capabilities of
desktop publishing Desktop publishing (DTP) is the creation of documents using dedicated software on a personal ("desktop") computer. It was first used almost exclusively for print publications, but now it also assists in the creation of various forms of online co ...
through the internet when it was launched in 1999. Vistaprint is wholly owned by Cimpress plc, a publicly traded company based in
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
.


Business

The company is based in Venlo, Netherlands, and employs over 5,100 employees in its 13 offices and printing facilities.


History

Robert Keane founded a company in
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
in 1995 called Bonne Impression, a direct marketer of desktop publishing software and pre-printed laser-printer-compatible specialty papers for printing brochures, stationery, and business cards, particularly for small businesses. In 1999, the company adopted an internet-based business model and changed its name to Vistaprint. In September 2005, the company filed its
initial public offering An initial public offering (IPO) or stock launch is a public offering in which shares of a company are sold to institutional investors and usually also to retail (individual) investors. An IPO is typically underwritten by one or more investm ...
and began trading on the
Nasdaq The Nasdaq Stock Market (; National Association of Securities Dealers Automated Quotations) is an American stock exchange based in New York City. It is the most active stock trading venue in the U.S. by volume, and ranked second on the list ...
. It opened a European office in
Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...
, Spain, in September 2006, and in 2009 relocated to the Netherlands. In November 2014, the company announced it would reorganize; Vistaprint continued operating under the Vistaprint brand while the parent company rebranded to become Cimpress. As a result of the change, the company's ticker symbol was changed from VPRT to CMPR. In November 2016, Cimpress announced that it would be opening a manufacturing facility in
Reno, Nevada Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada–California border. It is the county seat and most populous city of Washoe County, Nevada, Washoe County. Sitting in the High Eastern Sierra foothills, ...
. The facility came to serve more than 20 brands, Vistaprint being one. In August 2018, Vistaprint announced that it would expand its presence in North America with a new facility in
Dallas, Texas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
. This was to be the second manufacturing facility in the United States. Vistaprint planned to have manufacturing fully completed by 2023. In October 2021, Vistaprint acquired Crello and its parent company, Depositphotos, for a total price of $85 million. After the acquisition, Crello was rebranded to VistaCreate. In January 2023, VistaPrint announced that Florian Baumgartner would succeed Robert Keane as CEO as of February 1, 2023.


Printing process

Orders are processed online and jobs are printed using a formula based on type of job, paper stock type, print run quantity, finishing (if any) and ship-by dates, among other factors.Gang Run
User-selectable options are minimized, printing standard types of printed materials, such as business cards or postcards. Within each category, only specific sizes, paper stocks and ink colors are supported. This results in higher numbers of similar jobs which can be ganged together. Changeover time is reduced because there's less need to change paper or inks between jobs.
Self-service Self-service is a system whereby customers acquire (or serve) themselves goods or services, paying for the items at a point-of-sale, as opposed to a shop assistant or clerk acquiring goods or providing services in addition to taking payment. Comm ...
design, proofing and ordering are handled at the front-end through the web, with controlled printing, cutting, packing and dispatching handled at the back-end through printing plants. Cimpress' process involves multiple software components, and the management of multiple production components, in an end-to-end production
workflow Workflow is a generic term for orchestrated and repeatable patterns of activity, enabled by the systematic organization of resources into processes that transform materials, provide services, or process information. It can be depicted as a seque ...
from "click to ship". Vistaprint is vertically integrated with production facilities for North America in Windsor, Ontario, and for Europe in Venlo, Netherlands. The company uses presses such as the Manroland 700 as part of its printing
assembly line An assembly line, often called ''progressive assembly'', is a manufacturing process where the unfinished product moves in a direct line from workstation to workstation, with parts added in sequence until the final product is completed. By mechan ...
. Computer-integrated manufacturing techniques help minimize human intervention and labor costs. Using browser-based desktop publishing environment, customers design and proofread the job. Jobs are routed for printing without intervention. The printing is done in a single pass on automated, high-volume, large-format presses. Once printed, the products are cut down to size using a computerized robotic cutter, assembled, packaged and addressed using proprietary software-driven processes, and shipped to the customer. In a form of
mass customization Mass customization makes use of flexible computer-aided systems to produce custom products. Such systems combine the low unit costs of mass production processes with the flexibility of individual customization. Mass customization is the new fro ...
using as little as 60 seconds of production labor per order versus an hour or more for traditional printers, orders are printed faster and at lower costs than traditional printers. Their strategy is to target small-run orders usually excluded from conventional large printers.


Patents

One of the company's early hires was an in-house patent attorney. Vistaprint currently holds over 100 patents worldwide and has stated its objective is to lay a "minefield of patents". Vistaprint actively pursues companies that happen to infringe on one of its many patents. In 2006, the company filed a
patent infringement A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A ...
suit against Print24 GmbH and UnitedPrint.com AG. A German court ruled in favor of Vistaprint in July 2007. However, after appealing, the German Federal Patent Court ruled in favour of Unitedprint.com, rescinding Vistaprint’s controversial software patent in March 2009. Separately, in May 2007, Vistaprint filed a patent infringement suit against Taylor Corporation subsidiaries 123Print and DrawingBoard.


Partnerships

In 2007, a strategic partnership was announced with OfficeMax to provide an in-store station in up to 900 OfficeMax stores in the US and Mexico. OfficeMax ImPress is an OfficeMax-branded web site for small business printing based on Vistaprint technologies. In 2008, Vistaprint announced a strategic partnership with Intuit, a supplier of
accounting software Accounting software is a computer program that maintains accounting, account books on computers, including recording Financial transaction, transactions and Balance (accounting), account balances. It may depend on virtual thinking. Depending on ...
, tying their service into Intuit's QuickBooks software using an Intuit-branded web site. In 2009, the company also announced it will supply services for the FedEx Office brand. The company announced in 2012 that it had entered into a strategic partnership with Staples Inc. Vistaprint is also the official jersey sponsor for the
Boston Celtics The Boston Celtics ( ) are an American professional basketball team based in Boston. The Celtics compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the Atlantic Division (NBA), Atlantic Division of the Eastern Conference (NBA), ...
of the
National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada). The NBA is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Ca ...
(NBA). Vistaprint became Wrexham A.F.C.'s sleeve and back-of-shirt sponsor.


Controversies


Rewards program

In the US, Vistaprint was accused of enrolling customers into Vertrue's paid-membership reward plan without the customer's agreement. Credit card details were passed on to Vertrue (formerly Memberworks Incorporated) by Vistaprint, and charges were then made on those credit cards by Vertrue allegedly without the owner's consent. Numerous complaints were received by ConsumerAffairs.com and The Better Business Bureau by consumers objecting to these charges including the complaints of still being charged after canceling and that more than a year after cancelling membership, the charges began again. Vistaprint's partnerships in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
have attracted criticism. Critics have stated that Vistaprint's customers are enrolled without their knowledge in a reward voucher operated by an associated company, VPrewards.com, at a cost of GB£9.95 a month, and that no information is provided to customers subsequently. Additionally, it is up to the customers to detect the fact that they have been enrolled as members and to cancel unwanted membership. In August 2008, four class-action lawsuits were filed against Vistaprint. The four complaints alleged that the defendants were in violation of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (which protects from unauthorized charges) and the federal Electronic Communications and Privacy Act (which prohibits the unlawful access of financial information) for charging relatively small amounts from customers accounts "hoping that consumers just won't notice." On November 30, 2009, the company announced that it had terminated its contract with an affiliate of Vertrue Inc., effective December 20, 2009, and that, it had ended all membership rewards or similar programs.


ASA investigations

In 2011, following complaints from UK customers, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated pricing irregularities on Vistaprint's UK website and leaflet distributions. The ASA also upheld a complaint that Vistaprint was misleading customers in its £40 worth of printing for a £10 spend promotion.


Discriminatory mix-ups

In 2018, a recently married gay couple sued Vistaprint after they received anti-gay pamphlets, "Understanding Temptation: Fight the good fight of the faith", instead of the wedding programs they had ordered. Vistaprint CEO, Trynka Shineman, said that the wedding programs and the flyers were printed at the same time, and that the wrong shipping label was put on the boxes by a third-party partner. Vistaprint resolved the matter with the couple and the lawsuit was dropped, with an apology to the couple and donations to LGBTQ organizations. In June 2020, two fundraisers for
Black Lives Matter Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a Decentralization, decentralized political and social movement that aims to highlight racism, discrimination and Racial inequality in the United States, racial inequality experienced by black people, and to pro ...
found that their order for Black Lives Matter posters also came with All Lives Matter posters. In an interview with Buzzfeed News the customer said "this felt like very, very clear attempts to undermine our message and undermine the message we’re trying to put out". A Vistaprint representative said that an internal investigation "found that it was an error in the automated packaging process which combined two separate customer orders." In response, the customers said that they are skeptical of the explanation, especially since the LGBTQ incident in 2018 made this seem less like a one-off.


Security Lapse

In November 2019, security researcher Oliver Hough discovered an exposed database on the internet belonging to Vistaprint. The company quietly took the database offline after
TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American global online newspaper focusing on topics regarding high tech, high-tech and Startup company, startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. I ...
reached out to inform them about the discovery. Robert Crosland, a spokesperson for Vistaprint, said in a statement that the exposure affected customers in the US, the UK and Ireland.


See also

* 4imprint * RushOrderTees


References


External links

{{Finance links , name = Cimpress , symbol = CMPR , sec_cik = 0001262976 , hoovers = Vistaprint_NV.3e22a66b472785c9 Companies formerly listed on the Nasdaq Companies of Bermuda Printing companies of the Netherlands Self-publishing online stores Marketing companies established in 1995 Companies based in Limburg (Netherlands) Buildings and structures in Venlo