Staples Advantage, the business-to-business division of office supplies giant Staples Inc., recently launched its Print-to-Store program, which allows customers to order print jobs online and pick them up at their nearest Staples store. The program is available at all stores that offer copy and print services, and allows telecommuters to use their Staples Advantage accounts to submit for print jobs, meaning that workers don’t have to worry about paying in-store or submitting expense reports and waiting for reimbursement. Likewise, the program affords procurement departments with visibility and control over what workers are printing, says Steve Bussberg, senior vice president of Staples Advantage.

Print-to-Store launched in early 2015, and Bussberg has “high expectations” for B2B demand. 

“We see a real need at the very enterprise level,” Bussberg says. “Customers from Fortune 500 companies all the way down to a 20- to 30-person real estate company that needs to make brochures or marketing materials can submit their project online and pick it up at a local store.”

Customers can choose from Print-to-Store’s more than 2,000 options for printed copy including, digital black and white printing, color documents, and booklet making. Buyers can also preview all items before they are submitted.

Because StaplesAdvantage.comis a centralized website—where procurement departments can log in StaplesAdvantage.com and create a branded company profile—expense department personnel can set up an approval process so employees can only print work-related documents.  Oversight on telecommuters printing could decrease the potential for “rogue” or “inconsistent” spending, Bussberg says.

The program launch follows a Staples Advantage November study that found that only 28% of procurement professionals consider the needs of their office’s telecommuters when planning the company budget. 59% of procurement professionals purchase products for telecommuters; and approximately 23% of these mobile workers request copy and print services, according to the survey. 

The Print-to-Store program aims for transparency in telecommuter’s spending, Bussberg says, and also allows companies to negotiate prices for these goods and services.

“This is really a great way for Staples to extend the capabilities of our stores to our B2B customers who typically don’t go into the stores,” Bussberg says. “It leverages the B2B website and drives feet to our retail channel Staples stores.”

Staples Advantage has been working on the functionality of the Print-to-Store function for the last eight months. The company would not disclose the project cost of adding the Print-to-Store option to staplesadvantage.com. 

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