A growing number of commercial printers and packaging converters are adopting digital printing technologies to deliver not only faster time to market with less waste, but an array of new applications that would have been difficult or cost-prohibitive to produce using conventional printing technologies.

Of course, we don’t see offset and flexo printing going away anytime soon. There will be demand for extremely long runs of packaging for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) for the foreseeable future. Think of your box of Cheerios.

But especially with the continued growth of ecommerce, there is market opportunity for digitally printed boxes as well as in-store POP/POS display graphics. Not only does digital printing virtually eliminate waste and inventory obsolescence, but it opens the door for increased customization of packaging and display graphics, seasonally, geographically, personally, and more. Plus, digitally printed shipping boxes offer an opportunity for brands to utilize white space for on-box advertising (OBA), externally on the box, inside the box, or both. Finally, many brands are focused on improving the unboxing experience and taking advantage of better customer engagement as well as market visibility from all those unboxing videos on YouTube!