3DVIX: An Exciting New Marketplace for 3D Printing
Online, June 19, 2014 (Newswire.com) - Prinvix (prinvix.com), a group of 3D printing related businesses headquartered in the 3D Castle - in the heart of Miami's fashionable Wynwood Art District - has just released the beta version of its 3D printing marketplace, 3DVIX (3dvix.com).
3DVIX works as your "printer in the cloud". It prints your 3D designs in a wide variety of materials and ships them to you wherever you are, worldwide. When you upload your design files to 3DVIX, you get instant quotes for printing it in all available materials, which includes many types of plastic, gypsum (sandstone), metal and - coming soon - ceramics. The site also offers design services for those who have not yet mastered 3D modeling software.
You can also make money with 3DVIX. Aside from allowing you to order prints of your own designs, 3DVIX allows you to set up a store front and start selling products made from your designs. Setting up a store with your own banner and your own sub-domain within 3DVIX only takes a few minutes. You set the selling price for 3D-printed objects that you design by marking up our printing fee for each material you want to make available for your designs. The amount of the mark-up is your income. 3DVIX will manage the entire sales process so you don't have to worry about printers, processes, inventory, invoicing or shipping. You focus on designing and promoting. 3DVIX will do the rest - and will send you payments monthly for your portion of the sales proceeds.
3DVIX's business model differs from its main competitors Shapeways and Sculpteo in two main ways. The first one is that it is building a global network of local print shops in order to reduce international delivery fees and import duties. It is currently in the process of setting up three of such local shops in Brazil - in Sгo Paulo, Brasilia and Porto Alegre. For designers who do have an interest in profiting from their designs, the access to the Brazilian market enabled by 3DVIX's local manufacturing is a major competitive advantage, as import duties are extremely high in Brazil, which makes products made in the United States and Europe uncompetitive.
"Brazil is the 6th largest economy in the world and there is a great demand there for 3D printers and printing services", explains Victor Mendes, CEO of Prinvix, who was a featured speaker at the "Inside 3D Printing Conference and Exhibition" which took place in Sгo Paulo last April. Mendes spoke about 3D printing technologies, applications and opportunities. VIXBOT (www.vixbot.com.br), also part of the Prinvix group, was a Silver Sponsor of the event, where it introduced its first made-in-Brazil desktop 3D printer, the VIXBOT VB1X.
"Part of our vision at Prinvix is to promote mainstream awareness and education about 3D printing, and also make it accessible to less privileged folks in developing countries", says Mendes. The company's long-standing presence in Brazil translates to a vested interest in the development of educational programs for 3D printing in cooperation with local schools.
The other way in which 3DVIX intends to differentiate itself from Shapeways and Sculpteo is through a more robust curation process for the designs on display on their site. "Our focus is quality, not quantity", explains Joaquim Venancio, 3DVIX's Chief Technology Officer. "We want the stores on our site to feature interesting, creative designs that people actually want to buy - not just anything".
For more information, designers should contact 3DVIX at marketing@3dvix.com.