Advercado challenges the status quo of print ecommerce

UK-based advertising marketplace, Advercado, has announced plans for Version 2 of its marketplace platform, which introduces a refined interface, improved booking tools, and greater scalability.

Advercado was first founded as a ‘one-stop shop’ for small businesses to browse, book, and buy local out-of-home (OOH) advertising spaces. The website acts as a middleman, connecting small business owners directly with vendors who sell advertising space.

Speaking to Print Monthly about the core concept behind the company, Advercado’s managing director, Joe Reid, says: “We wanted to offer the same OOH opportunities to the 99% of small businesses, by giving them the tools to create a marketplace where local ad spend also stays within the community.”

Advercado has since expanded its offering to incorporate a range of other potential marketing services, including small-format and wide-format print.

The latest update to the community‑driven online marketplace now enables small- and medium‑sized printers to create their own online storefronts and product catalogues, in a format that Advercado labels as “comparable to Vistaprint, but without the cost, complexity, or ongoing technical burden.”

Explaining this concept further, Reid says: “Where we can offer a suite of tools to list variable products to print businesses, the printers can simply take advantage of these listing tools to create their own store and storefront.

“These have individual URLs that can be shared and promoted by both us and the vendor, meaning that their space at Advercado is truly theirs to utilise. This saves on the development costs required to build an ecommerce store.”

Through Advercado’s variable product system, each registered printer can create their own store page and list configurable products, offering customisable options such as sizes, finishes, quantities, paper stocks, and delivery choices.

The system also allows for tiered pricing structures based on volume, as well as centralised enquiry and booking management.

With the new version of the marketplace due for full release, Advercado claims that independent printers no longer need to build or maintain their own ecommerce system to sell print online at scale.

Reid describes Advercado as being in “the chicken-or-egg stage of the website,” with the site yet to be filled with vendors while the full concept is still in development. He explains: “The more vendors we can attract, the better our chances of securing more opportunities that we have listed on our site.

“As you can see, we are ambitious with what we want to offer and many of these services and spaces can feedback to vendors in the printing industry.”

To accelerate adoption across the print sector, Advercado is offering free onboarding support including product setup and optimisation, as well as three years at the platform’s lowest rate (currently 10%), for printers who reference Print Monthly when corresponding with them.

As part of this deal, if the commission rate drops it will be matched, while if it goes up the 10% will be honoured for three years.

Reid adds: “We want to give tools to individual printers so they can stay competitive in the printing sector.

“This creates a space where relationships can develop and spend can be kept local. Building business relationships is key to survival in a competitive market that is dominated by big print companies. We want to level the playing field and bring more options to customers with our open marketplace.”

In the medium‑term, Advercado aims to run a crowdfunding campaign so that it can build on the concept it has created. Reid concludes: “With Version 2 of Advercado underway, we’re excited to bring a smarter, more intuitive marketplace to printers.

“We want printers to play a big role in shaping where we go next. By working closely with print businesses, we can make sure we keep developing tools that genuinely meet their needs.”