Think personalized gifts are everywhere these days? You couldn’t be more right. And that popularity is only projected to increase. In fact, according to Market Research Future, the global personalized gifts market industry is projected to grow from $51.98 billion in 2024 to $138.17 billion by 2030, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.97% during the forecast period (2024-2032).
In a world full of mass-produced products, the allure of something unique and deeply personal is more powerful than ever. Personalized gifts, those thoughtful items imprinted with a name, message, or image that holds special significance, have become a favorite choice for gift-givers.
Beyond being trendy, however, personalized gifts also offer opportunities for businesses to enhance customer loyalty and broaden their market reach. Digital printing equipment offers high-quality personalization across a wide range of materials, objects, and media. Modern digital printing techniques, such as UV direct-to-object printing, heat-applied graphics, and photo impact printing, provide high-resolution images and durable graphics, ensuring that the final product is both visually appealing and long-lasting.
Here, we review the reasons why personalized holiday gift production can be a good opportunity for your business and provide a few examples of popular types of personalized holiday gifts.
Why offer personalized gifts?
For print shop owners, offering personalized, digitally-printed gifts presents numerous advantages, such as:
- New revenue streams: Offering personalized holiday gifts opens up new revenue streams and helps diversify business risk. Customers are increasingly seeking unique, custom-made items, particularly during the holiday season, and offering these products adds to your shop’s one-stop appeal for your clients.
- Higher profit margins: Personalized items often command higher prices due to their unique nature and perceived added value. Additionally, the cost-efficiency of digital printing — particularly for small-batch or single-item production — means lower costs and higher profitability.
- Improved customer retention: Personalized products have a higher emotional value, which can lead to increased customer satisfaction and loyalty.
- Easy integration with e-commerce platforms: Digital printing technology can seamlessly integrate with e-commerce platforms, allowing print shops to easily accept online orders for personalized gifts, expanding market reach beyond local customers.
- Efficient inventory management: With on-demand production, shops don’t have to hold large amounts of inventory, which reduces storage costs and minimizes waste.
- Flexible production: Digital printing allows print shops to easily switch between jobs and products without the need for extensive setup or changeover procedures and without compromising on quality or delivery times.
Gifts that keep on giving
With digital printing equipment in-house, many print shop providers are already equipped to begin offering personalized holiday gifts. Below are some of the most popular types of personalized gifts among consumers and corporate clients.
- Personalized apparel: Adding graphics, text, or images to apparel makes instant connections among friends, family, or associates. Today’s DTF printers can add vibrant color and precise graphics that transform a plain T-shirt, sweatshirt, tote, apron, onesie, and more into a treasured keepsake.
- Customized devices: In an age where technology is an integral part of daily life, our gadgets have become more than just tools — they’re extensions of our identities. Whether it’s a smartphone, laptop, tablet, AirPods case, or gaming console, these devices are our constant companions. Adding graphics to these devices offers a unique way to make someone’s technology truly personal, blending functionality with self-expression. Today’s UV printers offer a range of sizes and options for printing directly on a wide variety of objects and surfaces. Devices as compact as a desktop UV printer can print on objects up to four inches deep, while larger printers offer up to eight inches of depth, along with accessory options for printing on cylindrical objects.
- Colorful stickers: Blend thoughtfulness and creativity with a set of custom stickers, personalized to your recipient. From minimalist designs to bold, colorful illustrations, stickers can be tailored to suit anyone’s taste. Stickers can be designed to represent your client’s identity and interests. Desktop printers/cutters can print and cut these designs quickly and easily, as can wide-format devices like eco-solvent printers/cutters.
- Impactful images: Use a photo impact printer or engraver to add personal touches to metal items like jewelry, keychains, pendants, lighters, or even flasks. Devices like photo impact printers or rotary engravers make these embellishments easy and cost-effective, adding value to otherwise ordinary objects.
- Decorative objects: Decorating devices such as a UV flatbed printer can take a simple frame, box, or notebook and add personalized flourishes, designed to customize, convey a message, elevate, or simply add pizzazz to everyday objects. Use a desktop device, a benchtop printer, or a wide-format UV printer to print vibrant graphics and unique dimensional or textural effects directly on a vast array of items.
Wrapping up
The combination of on-demand convenience, quality, and emotional appeal makes digitally-printed personalized holiday gifts a popular choice for both consumers and businesses looking to purchase memorable and meaningful products. Now is a good time to review your digital printing capabilities and look for ways to unlock some of these revenue opportunities, enhancing existing customer satisfaction and attracting new clients while diversifying your product line.
