The global market for printed signage in 2018 was valued at $43.34 billion. Smithers Pira’s latest market report “The Future of Printed Signage in an Electronic World to 2024” shows a small fall to $43.30 billion in 2019 in constant price terms. The printed signage market has marginally declined by 0.3% year-on-year since 2014. It is now forecast to recover value over the next five years when the growth of 0.2% CAGR will see the market reach a value of $43.73 billion in 2024.
There is a number of key trends covered in-depth in this market report that affects the global printed signage these include:
- World economic outlook: Promotional and informational printed signage demand will be impacted by changes in global and local economic performance. As economies grow, government and private investment in infrastructure and buildings also tend to grow, increasing the demand for informational signage. Similarly, consumers feel more confident and spend more on goods and services, boosting the demand for promotional signage as retailers and brand owners compete for this boom in sales.
- Signage in retail environments: Changes in the structure and strategies of the retail industry will have a direct effect on market demand for printed signage. Increasing competition for brick-and-mortar stores from online retailers has resulted in the traditional retail model changing to compete in the new shopping landscape.
- Globalisation of brand identities: The ease of access to the internet in most parts of the world and the growth of social identities media mean that it is much simpler today to promote a brand globally. A prominent brand identity can open up new markets and be used to promote new product variants that are tailored to local preferences. Signage is an effective method of promoting brands throughout global markets. Striking signage placed in strategic locations will draw attention to the brand within a local setting, whether its objective is to maintain awareness of an established brand or introduce a new brand.
- Technology advances: All aspects of printing technologies continue to evolve and improve: printing processes. The key factors driving developments in all of these print processes are centered around reducing production costs through faster press set-up, and increased use of computer-controlled automation at all stages of the process, from taking the initial order to despatch to the customer when completed. With inkjet taking the largest share of the printed area within the signage industry, this process is the focus of the majority of development activity, particularly for wide-format presses.
- Web-to-print platforms for inkjet: Web-to-print platforms are changing the way that printers take and process orders, for inkjet enabling customers to place orders via the Internet that will flow directly to production and on to the despatch department on completion. The process is ideally aligned with digital print processes that print from a computer-generated image, saving time and costs for both the customer and the printer over the traditional process of initial briefings, artwork modification, and final approval.
