Digital Printing Market Trends

Growth Drivers

• Proliferation of the e-commerce industry: The seamless growth of online retail has fueled the demand for flexible, short-run, and high-quality packaging to develop a billboard effect during unboxing, which is positively impacting the digital printing market. According to an article published by NLM in November 2022, the environmental impact of e-commerce and conventional in-store shopping has demonstrated that in-store shopping can diminish carbon dioxide emissions by nearly 70% or 84%. Besides, in terms of packaging waste, cardboard and paper wastage account for 10% in South Asia, which is followed by 8% for plastic. Additionally, the majority of waste is discarded in India without segregation, with 75% openly dumped, 4% landfilled, 16% composted, and 5% recycled. Therefore, to overcome increased wastage, the digital printing market’s demand is increasing across different countries.
• Resiliency in the supply chain system: The nearshoring trends, along with the need for rapid time-to-market, are readily encouraging brands to bridge the gap between production and home. This is possible by highly favoring the speed and agility of the digital printing market over offshore and slow analog methods. As stated in an article published by the Blue Intelligence Organization in July 2024, it is expected that the international valuation across overall printed and printed technologies will reach USD 843 billion by the end of 2026. Moreover, the digital twins adoption is also upsurging the printing technology, in connection with cloud-based software and sensors. Based on these, there is continuous export and import of industrial printers, which is also uplifting the overall digital printing market across all nations.

2023 Industrial Printers Export and Import Analysis

Source: OEC

• Increased demand for product personalization: Customers are increasingly expecting customized products, from personalized beverage bottles to unusual apparel. This is a suitable trend that is economically feasible through digital printing. Critically, this transformation is viable, owing to the digitalized printing technology. Besides, conventional analog-based printing methods, such as flexography or offset, heavily depend on expensive physical plates as well as lengthy setup processes. Moreover, digital printing eliminates short production runs and demands no platers, and instead comprises near-instantaneous setup, permitting variable data printing. Based on this, the packaging line can uninterruptedly switch from printing one usual design to the upcoming one without any barrier, thus suitable for bolstering the digital printing market.

Challenges

• Increased ROI uncertainty and initial capital investment: The substantial upfront expense of industrial-based digital printing equipment remains a primary gap to entry, especially for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). While the per-unit expense for short runs is beneficial, the capital outline for a high-speed digital press can be several times that of a conventional press. This has created a huge barrier for printers and converters, for which investments need to be carefully justified. Besides, the ROI aspect is not always immediate and guaranteed; instead, it relies on the ability to gain a continuous volume of high-margin, personalized, and short-run work to utilize the expensive asset. For the majority of businesses, there is a need for a fundamental shift in their client acquisition strategy and business model, shifting away from competing on price for the long run, which negatively impacts the digital printing market.
• Performance and material compatibility restrictions: Despite efficient innovations, the digital printing market continues to witness risks in matching the raw material versatility and absolute performance of a few conventional methods, particularly in industrial and packaging applications. The performance of digital inks is extremely dependent on the substrate, which frequently requires suitable primers, coated, and pre-treatment materials to ensure proper durability, color gamut, and adhesion. In addition, this also adds cost and complication to the production process, and can ensure limitation in employment opportunities. Moreover, for a few high-volume applications, including metal decorating or commodity folding cartons, the absolute printing durability and speed of a complete digital print might not be similar to that of an established analog process.