Imaging Supplies & COVID-19 A look at the current obstacles & opportunities by: Tricia Judge, International Imaging Technology Council
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he imaging supplies marketplace has always been fraught with problems. The OEMs and the aftermarket have a tradition of animosity. Some new “clone” cartridges made in China look attractive, but come with their own ocean of issues. Are they legal? Do they work as well? Are they a health hazard? All of these issues were hard enough to address in the office environment. Now the pandemic has closed offices chocked full of high-end printing devices that sit dormant. Homebound employees are, quite literally, left to their own devices — devices that tend to be inkjet based and from big box stores. “The situation is bad and it could get much worse,” said Charlie Brewer, president of Actionable Intelligence, in his webinar, “The U.S. Home and Office Printing Markets in the Age of COVID-19,” held May 21, 2020. With the pandemic shutting down offices around the globe, it is no surprise he reported that the amount of printing had greatly declined (a drop of more than 20 percent is expected for this year). He outlined the financials that had been shared by the leading OEMs, and all reported drops in revenue. One had even suffered its worst sales in 16 years. However, Brewer shared some interesting bright spots and potential opportunities. In particular, the SOHO market and inkjet have enjoyed a resurgence. The latter is the medium of the majority of the small household printers that had fallen out of favor, but were dusted off when the stay-home orders were issued. SOHO machines — inkjet and laser — may end up doing double or triple duty, as they became the work printer for Mom or Dad, while they became the school or entertainment tool for the kids. Brewer sees a shift in favor of these desktop models, even after the parents return to work. As COVID-19 forces social distancing, the community copier will give way to individual desktop laser units. Brewer said this is good news for those familiar with SOHO. The printers that line the shelves of the local Office Depot will find homes, and are most likely manufactured by HP, Epson or Brother.
“Everything old is new again,” he said, explaining that these machines had their heyday before MPS took over, back when printers and supplies were transactional sales. The aforementioned OEMs, he said, are “well situated in the marketplace, because they have been here before.” The supplies sales for these printers is not such a sure bet. Brewer believes that consumers may think that cost per page is not as important as the price at checkout, so they’ll be attracted to the lowest priced SKUs. Corporate purchasing agents buying supplies for desktop units will also push for the low-cost supplies. Unless operating costs come down, everyone will soon learn (again) the very high price of inkjet. (I recall it was once found to be more expensive per picoliter than Dom Perignon champagne.) Employees will be turning in expense reports for these high-priced supplies, and business owners will pay them — for a while. At some point, business owners might look elsewhere for ideas on managing their employees’ supplies costs. That’s when BTA members have an opportunity. www.offi cetechnol ogymag.com | Augu s t 2020 | 21
