After 2020’s sudden stop in operations and everyday life, companies worldwide started rethinking their transition to digital printing. Many companies had containers in transit from overseas of preprinted fabric for summer collections, products decorated with the Olympics logos, among other items. All these turned into higher inventories or waste. Now, more companies realize the flexibility digital printing brings to the table and why it’s the best way to do business from a sustainability standpoint. Not only from an environmental point of view but socially and financially as well.
With digital printing, customization and personalization businesses can offer more products with better margins, lower inventory risk, improved cash flow, low waste, and happy customers.
The added value from customized products with complex images has no rival in the minds of consumers. It is proven that a low-cost product with names and/or a complex design has higher perceived value than a mainstream product with no personalization that costs more. Today product customization can be delivered in record times, increasing customer satisfaction and offering better turnarounds for companies. As a plus, there is a higher probability a consumer will reuse their customized products.
In our world of digital UV printing, we see huge growth in product decoration on-demand versus outsourcing high volumes to reduce unit cost. Manufacturing companies are noticing that it is better to brand their products in-house to avoid large inventories in transit. Although mathematically proven to be valid in most cases, economies of scale showed their vulnerabilities recently, and, unfortunately, supply chains were affected badly, causing serious disruptions to everybody’s business.
Today, businesses can buy a UV printer, brand, serialize, and even customize each product on-demand, ultimately providing better management of working capital and a better customer experience. This is of great value from a local manufacturing aspect, too, as you bring additional manufacturing steps to your plant, translating into more jobs for more qualified people. UV digital printing combined with creative minds also offers the possibility to add new products to portfolios and reach different audiences. This, in turn, brings higher value products with all its benefits.
In the end, it is all about being able to have a healthy business in and out. After last year’s eye-opening events, we have to make sure we are not caught off-guard again with our resources in the wrong place. It is time to think about whether what we are doing today is sustainable for our people, the environment, and our financial health.
UV digital printing has helped businesses diversify, add value to their products, manage inventories better, reduce time to cash, and reduce waste significantly.
