NAPCO Research Experts Chart Potential of Digital Packaging

At PRINTING United, Nathan Safran and Lisa Cross of NAPCO Media Research offered compelling evidence that digital packaging is an opportunity ripe for printers to take advantage of. In a packed conference session, they spelled out the details from a recently published NAPCO Research report, Unwrapping the Packaging Opportunity with Digital Printing.

One reason the time has come, Safran said, is the fact that only about 1% of all packaging is produced digitally, offering plenty of room for the share to grow. Brand owners and marketers, moreover, are favorably disposed to digital packaging, with eight of 10 of those surveyed stating that they prefer to work with print service providers able to print labels and packages on digital equipment.

Safran said that brand owners see digitally printed packaging as something that can help them overcome their principal challenges: improving supply chain efficiency and responsiveness; keeping up with frequent product introductions; and producing packages that influence purchasing.

According to the NAPCO Research data, barriers to digital adoption within the packaging industry are falling fast: 70% of converters surveyed for the report are either printing labels and packaging digitally or intend to within the next 24 months. The objections of the holdouts, Cross noted, are internal issues that aren’t related to technology.

Customer objections, she added, don’t represent a significant obstacle to adoption either. Nevertheless, survey data indicate that converters do have reservations about the total cost of ownership of digital packaging systems and their ability to match spot and conventionally printed color.

Technology will overcome these hesitations, Cross predicted.

Unwrapping the Packaging Opportunity with Digital Printing is available for download at www.piworld.com/resources, along with other information products from NAPCO Research.