Printing market trends reviewed in the printing forum held at the exhibition REX-2013

The International Exhibition of Advertising and Marketing REX-2013, which was for the seventeenth time held in Ukraine on 24-27 September, 2013, is undoubtedly one of the brightest and most anticipated events in the life of any self-respecting advertising expert. This is a kind of enlightener in marketing industry, where the target audience can get acquainted with the latest technologies, equipment, services and innovative solutions, which are successfully applied into real life in due course.

This exhibition is also a right place for vigorous communication, sharing experience, building forward-looking rapport with all those involved in advertisement business in Ukraine. As advertising is inextricably intertwined with printing, in the framework of the exhibition REX-2013 there was held the printing forum where participants learnt the recent trends in the printing industry and its prospects.

According to Igor Agarkov, an editor-in-chief of PrintPlus magazine and an expert in the Ukrainian printing sector, the today’s printing market has mainly demonstrated the tendencies of inertia, just like the entire economy has. During the year 2012/2013, there were no notorious installations, and the market mainly survived through industrial cooperation, grouping of printing houses, disposal of used printing equipment both within the country and far beyond its borders. Probably, it is just the calm before the storm of new printing developments, since during the year one could well notice an increasing interest of the Ukrainian delegations of printers towards international printing exhibitions.

In a number of cases, particularly in the area of digital printing, there has been outlined the tendency of further decreasing in the prices of printing services, while the quality of services continues to improve. In the final reckoning, this will toughen the competition in this market segment and level the investment threshold up.

Some printers exert themselves to carve their own niche in new segments, using all their creative and technological resources. It mainly concerns the luxury market segment. A few printing houses, specializing in commercial printing, have switched into cardboard package printing. However, the segment of innovative packaging is not so much in demand due to lower purchasing power of the population. Printers have also become more active in social networks.

Mr. Agarkov also noted that on the printing market have emerged many online printing companies, which, when closely examined, appear to offer in most cases “online” service limited to only online application form. Just very few of them actually perform complex technological assignments and render web-to-print services, that meet online customers’ needs.

As we can see on the slide, the high-quality online services are rendered by: vizitka.com, online print shop vizitochka.ua, printstore.com.ua, zakaz.wolf.ua

This particular business is still found at an early stage of development, in view of the complicated and knowledge-intensive nature of the provided solutions and developments. Meanwhile, given the fact that an ordinary customer appears to prefer Internet resources, the demand on online printers will, obviously, keep increasing over time. The attractive for investments areas in the segment of online services remain the following: photobooks, web-to-print, online assembly, printing cost calculators, consultation. 

Generally speaking, when summing up the events in the printing market of the expiring year, one can conclude that the modern printing market has become more flexible, careful in terms of investments, able to quickly adapt to market trends and changes, and willing to keep pace with the technological advance.