In 2020, the outbreak of the epidemic has brought great changes to our work and life. Under the requirements of the quarantine policy, measures such as store closures and travel restrictions also have an impact on the performance of the printing industry. However, printing industry experts have always maintained a cautious but optimistic attitude towards the future, because changes will not only bring shocks, but also write new opportunities for the future. For example, the home economy has allowed more people to shift their lives online, accelerating the development of e-commerce. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, my country's online retail sales will increase by 174% year-on-year in 2020. The explosive growth of e-commerce will bring more demand in areas such as packaging and labeling, and bring more room for development to the printing industry.

Quocirca, an internationally renowned research institution, recently released the "2025  Global Printing Industry Insights and Forecast Report". Research shows that the series of changes we are currently experiencing will become a post-epidemic era in at least four years. The new normal. Among the printing service providers participating in the survey, 70% believe that the epidemic has caused a decrease in printing volume. But in contrast, the decline in volume of traditional printing is significantly greater than that of digital printing. With the improvement of the epidemic situation and the gradual recovery of the economy, the average compound annual growth rate of digital printing is expected to reach  7.5% in 2025. The real feedback from HP customers can also confirm this view: Compared with the same period of  2019 , HP Indigo  customers still achieved a 52% growth during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Based on such research results, Quocirca also makes suggestions to practitioners in the printing industry to adopt cloud, digital workflow and collaboration services as soon as possible, and use the power of digital transformation to help itself explore more development possibilities.

Strike iron still needs its own hard work, digital printing empowers printing factories to grasp “new opportunities”

In 2020, a year full of changes, flexibility and agility have become the key to whether we can capture opportunities in the changes. And these two points are also the biggest characteristics of digital printing. This is why, when the industry as a whole is under impact, digital printing has suddenly emerged. With the production advantages of timely response and flexible turnover, it helps brand customers to bring their products to the market more quickly.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, in 2020, my country’s online retail sales of physical goods accounted for the total retail sales of consumer goods from 10.8% to 20.7%. With the increasing proportion of e-commerce sales channels, the brand's demand for printed products has also changed. The single order quantity is smaller, the batch is more, and there are stricter requirements on the delivery time of the printed products, and the demand for delivery on the same day is strong. Brands need to use this method to speed up turnover and reduce inventory at the same time, so as to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

In order to meet the needs of brand customers, printing service providers must also adjust their operating models accordingly. Through digital deployment, the work process is networked and automated, so as to reduce costs, reduce errors, improve efficiency, and meet the needs of e-commerce and personalized commercial printing.