New business opportunities

Then there is the question of whether print businesses feel that print software can provide a business opportunity. This is a key point. After all, printers usually buy things—equipment mostly—based on the extent to which they feel it will bring more business in the door. It’s not always easy to see software in the same way one sees a new press, for example.

So, do print businesses see business opportunities in software? As you can see, not at especially high levels.

“Automating production” was an opportunity for 15% of print businesses in 2016, topped out at 22% a year later, then plummeted in 2018 before rebounding slightly toward the turn of the decade.

“Adding web-to-print/online storefront” peaked in 2018 and then declined in the following years. It’s likely that the mid-2010s saw the majority of print businesses building out their online storefronts; the surge in 2020–2021 was likely due to a pandemic-generated spike in using web-to-print during the pandemic lockdowns, as well as to sell COVID-related products.

“Print MIS implementation” was seen as a business opportunity by 6% of print businesses when we added it to our survey in 2019; it subsequently dropped, but is back up to 5% in 2022.