By George Mixco; COO Aleyant
The U.S. commercial printing industry is under significant pressure, as new tariffs and rising labor costs drive up expenses across the board—from materials to manpower. For print businesses trying to stay competitive, automation tools aren’t just a nice-to-have—they are an effective strategy to protect against external market forces, such as the uncertainty caused by recent tariffs.
The Tariff Squeeze on Print
Recent tariff changes have had a direct effect on the cost structure of the printing industry:
- Increased Import Costs: A 10% blanket tariff on all imported goods—combined with a 34% rate on Chinese products and a 20% rate on European Union imports—has driven up the cost of essential print components such as paper, ink, toner, machinery, and spare parts.
- Material Price Hikes: Items such as circuit boards, rollers, and inkjet printers have been specifically targeted, disrupting both production costs and vendor inventory/supply chains.
- Shrinking Margins: A PRINTING United Alliance survey found that 66.5% of print businesses expect operating costs to rise by at least 10.5%, while 61.4% foresee reduced profit margins.
For companies already dealing with competitive pricing and slow-paying clients, these added costs threaten financial stability unless strategic cost-saving measures are implemented.
Automation: Your Competitive Advantage
In the face of rising costs, automation offers a compelling solution by streamlining workflows, cutting waste, and reducing heavy reliance on labor.
- Labor Efficiency Gains: By automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks like file intake, preflighting, proofing, and job routing, print shops can repurpose staff toward higher-value and more custom projects—or enable leaner teams altogether.
- Real-World Savings: One Aleyant customer noted, “Using Aleyant’s automation tools, we eliminated over 20 hours a week in manual file prep and reduced customer service time by 40%. That directly translated into lower costs and faster turnaround for our clients.”
- Improved Throughput: Automation enables printers to handle higher volumes without adding headcount, making it easier to maintain service levels—even when labor is limited or costs increase.
Implementing Automation for Resilience
To get the most from automation, printers should:
- Map Your Workflow: Pinpoint bottlenecks, repetitive tasks, and areas where jobs slow down.
- Invest in Flexible Platforms: Choose workflow automation software that integrates with existing MIS, storefront, and production systems.
- Standardize for Scale: Use automation not only for efficiency but also for consistency in quality and turnaround, improving customer satisfaction.
Enhanced Order Volume Through Automation
Consider the impact of 15% tariffs on material costs for print orders. You can either pass this cost increase to your customers or reduce operating costs to offset it. These options apply if there are no changes in your current order processing speed.
Introducing automation into your processes can significantly impact both your bottom line and customer satisfaction. Reducing the normal turn time from 3–4 days to a shorter period and offering faster shipping options can lead to higher conversion rates and stronger customer loyalty. A 2020 study by Ware2Go found that offering 1-2 day shipping increased cart conversions by 52%, and free shipping resulted in a 56% conversion rate. Speed is crucial in the decision-making process for customers. Turnaround time plays into the perceived overall value of an order beyond the total paid at checkout.
By understanding customer behavior and reducing the job life cycle by 1-2 days, you can achieve higher conversion rates and increased order volume.
If the challenge is getting orders, a webstore via Pressero can greatly increase your footprint while automating the order intake process.
For file preflighting, file fixes, and proofing, PDF2Press can streamline the process during checkout, saving hours to days.
PrintJobManager can address price consistency, material cost increases, and job scheduling, ensuring stability.
For preparing print-ready files, both tFLOW and PDF2Press can expedite the process, moving files from checkout to production faster.
To provide a conservative scenario: assuming improving turn-time on orders could increase order volume by 25%, this volume increase can offset tariff-related costs and cover the expenses for the systems needed to achieve these time improvements. This can be done without adding headcount, allowing you to redirect available talent to optimize processes and focus on custom orders.
Thriving Through Change
Tariffs and labor costs may not go away anytime soon, but smart printers don’t have to absorb the full impact. In 2020, when COVID hit, print shops that had invested in automation tools saw impressive growth amidst high market instability, whereas others were caught trying to catch up. Workflow automation can be the difference between a struggling shop and a thriving one in today’s economic climate.
With the right tools in place, commercial printers can turn today’s economic headwinds into opportunities for smarter, faster, and more profitable operations. These tools are key to removing friction and hurdles that customers face when getting orders into your hands.
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