Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 9

75 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 9 RP I 2 days ground shipping throughout the region. In August of 2020, amid the pandemic, RPI acquired Blurb.com, a platform that services both the creative professional as well as the consumer in the design, creation and selling of a book. Bellamy reports, “All of that has turned us into a company that is very focused on serving the consumer and the creative professional – both are market intense – in creation, in production, and in the selling of personalized products.” Integrating a newly acquired company during a pandemic could have been a challenge but the timing has had its advantages. “It is working well,” says Bellamy. “There are a lot of benefits and a lot of growth capability in that space. More and more people, what we call the prosumer, as well as the creative professional, are really expanding on this passion economy. So, they are driving the entrepreneurship, being able to sell their work combined with this demand for personalization. We are seeing a broad range of books and products and magazines that serve very interesting niches.” Along with Blurb, RPI also acquired MagCloud, a tool which allows users to publish a high-quality print or digital magazine and manage subscriptions and distribution.