The evolution and advancement of printing technologies is the major factor driving the growth of label printing and packaging market. Moreover, the adoption of digital printing technology with the existing label and package printing techniques is bound to bring a huge positive change to small-scale as well as large-scale sectors and hence improving the overall market. The two major factors that come out as driving the growth in digital labels and package printing include brand owners demanding more variations, personalization, and sizes, leading to shorter runs and the other, print service providers are being more efficient towards manufacturing and logistics for faster turn-around time.
Labels, Packaging and the Online Trend
According to a Mintel survey, over one-third of those surveyed purchased groceries online in the past year and most plan to repeat this behaviour. A ‘Future of Food Retailing’ report predicts that e-commerce food and consumables are expected to grow 23.1% each year through 2020.
With the rise of online shopping, there have been challenges like supplying consistent, unique and durable packaging and label solutions. This has opened new opportunities for suppliers of decorative labels and packaging, to offer personalized packaging solutions for product protection during shipping, right-sizing the packaging and making sure that it provides a seamless brand experience for the consumers. The advantage of online shopping may be convenience, but this also means that consumers have even higher expectations from the brands they know and love.
Printing companies can take advantage of these online trends through offering innovative and high impact labelling and packaging solutions.
Consumer Connection through Impactful Labels and Packaging
Consumer packaged goods companies are now vouching for adopting unique packaging and labels to make their products stand out to catch buyer’s attention. Even consumers want to be engaged and prefer interaction with the products they purchase. Packaging that reflects the product’s origin through the use of textures, colors, and various enhancements will resonate with consumers. To some, it may create a feeling of nostalgia. To others, the unique packaging may simply intrigue a shopper. This has proven to be a successful way for established as well as new brands to stand out from the crowd and make their branding messaging relevant.
Leveraging digital printing allows print service providers to offer more personalized and varied packaging solutions. For example, the integration of interactive features in labels and packaging will help CPGs to engage shoppers. This can be accomplished by telling a product’s story or to provide additional product information using a QR code or near field communication that takes the consumer to a website or incorporates augmented reality (AR). Labels and packaging will continue to offer innovative options for interacting with consumers and this trend is sure to lead the demand for personalized and impactful label and packaging solutions.
Role of Product Personalization in Labels and Packaging Market
Digital printing is making a lot of headlines recently with its personalization impact. Brand owners are realizing the advantages of digital printing in adopting advanced label and packaging solutions that can help them in connecting with consumers with relevant messaging and one-to-one personalization.
Digital printing has enabled the brand owners to run national as well as regional promotions with personalized labels. The personalization can include variety of variable data e.g. message, graphics like logos for microwavable, pressure sensitive, cut & stack etc. Since such variable information can be printed individually on each label without the need to produce new printing plates like traditional printing methods, the customization possibilities are endless.
A food company that successfully managed to connect with consumers through personalization is Nutella through “Nutella Unica” campaign. Nutella is not the only company that has launched a successful personalized campaign. Coca-Cola’s “Share A Coke” has also been extremely successful. Mass personalization brings marketing to a new level where consumers no longer see customization as a luxury, but rather as an expectation.
When it comes to custom packaging trend, the subscription boxes are perfect example of how product personalization is bringing a whole new dimension of customer service.
A record 18.5 million Americans visited at least one subscription box site in Q1 2018, up 24% from a year earlier, Hitwise data showed. Separately, a McKinsey study in February showed 15% of online shoppers — often young and affluent urbanites (sweet spots in retailers’ target demographic) — have signed up for one or more subscriptions on a recurring basis. The online subscription market has more than doubled each year over the past five years, with the largest players among them generating more than $2.6 billion in 2016 sales, up from just $57 million in 2011, according to the McKinsey study.
It is great news for the packaging industry as well, as the trend presents a perfect opportunity to capitalize on its versatility and impactful qualities. Print providers are now offering high impact customized packaging solutions that are not only sturdy enough to protect its cargo, but also the graphic and structural design must at par to reflect brand aesthetic. The real challenge subscription packaging must meet is to make receiving the box an experience in itself, and a highly anticipated one at that. If a customer has taken the time to sign up for this service, you can bet they will take the time to scrutinize each component of the box – both its contents and the packaging.
The Way Ahead
As the personalized label and packaging market continues to grow, web-to-print solutions are becoming even more critical in the success and growth of print providers in matters of delivering on consumer demands without sacrificing resources.
If you are offering quality labels and packaging products, now is the right time for you to ride the online eCommerce bandwagon and setup a web-to-print store where your costumers can personalize the products, preview in finished product in 3D with a 360 degree rotating view and order it online with desired minimum quantity.
At Design’N’Buy, we have enabled many leading print service providers to offer personalized label and packaging products online. Our flagship custom packaging and labeling web-to-print software, ALL-IN-ONE DESIGNER allows users to personalize their labels and boxes with text, images and clip art and different color as well as decoration options (foil, embossing etc.). It also allows users to have 3D rotating view of the finished design to bring product to life and allow interactive user experience. That’s not all! Our variable data printing feature allows users to order a multiple quantities of a product with same design but a personalized message/graphics on each piece without need to create each piece individually. With automated workflow, you can easily manage your jobs, generating job tickets, delivery notes and invoices dynamically.
The popular brands we have been working with are:
In the end
There is no indication that the next five to ten years will see a slowing down of the digital trend in the printing industry. As a label and package printing business, it is for you to decide how best to invest your capital to take full advantage of these developments. Targeted investment in new printing technology and online eCommerce solution can help reduce costs, increase productivity and boost your market share by diversifying your services.
It is to not that the stores specializing in custom label and packaging are mostly all start-ups, but many of the established players are adopting the new developments to retains their market share as well as capture the attention of informed buyers. Solutions like web-to-print that leverage digital printing technique has helped these businesses to stand out and serve all customer segments (retail and corporate). Offering direct 2D and 3D visualization of customers’ own designs is now a standard feature for anyone going online. And low minimum order quantities are making custom-designed products attractive to SMEs and direct consumers.
Connect with to our team at [email protected] to know how we can develop a unique web-to-print solution to promote and grow your custom label and packaging business.
