Survey highlights instore POS opportunities

12 March 2013

A survey of 500 European retailers and brand owners has revealed some startling predictions on the resilience of print against the onslaught of electronic signage and highlighted the emerging opportunities for POS printers.

The findings of the Epson 20/20 Vision survey on the future of instore marketing were the result of 100 interviews with retail, brand and marketing managers in each of the five largest European economies: the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain.

"The research was intended give us a better view of how things are seen on the ‘outside’ of the industry and add some substance to our own thinking, but also look at the differences across Europe and highlight where the opportunities are in POS for our customers and it delivers on all counts," said Nick White, business manager, professional graphics Epson.

Some of the key findings of the study were: 55% of respondents believed that budgets for instore point-of-sale (POS) are predicted to grow "substantially" over the next seven years; the acceleration of the switch to digital screen-based POS would be largely dictated by product type, but that ultimately print would remain a critical component across the board and that retailers and agencies highlighted that the trend of "design centrally/print locally" was one of the most important trends impacting their business.

One of the more startling findings was that just over 40% of UK POS activity was currently delivered electronically compared to almost 60% via print.

"That does seem high, but that may be because of the types of businesses surveyed, it’s not necessarily representative of the high street, but it’s telling none the less in terms of what the key brands think," said Steve Sowden, managing partner at Intermarketing Agency, which has a client roster that includes Adidas, Tie Rack and Reebok.

Encouragingly, the survey indicated that by 2020 print would still account for 39% of all POS activity.
According to the study, the migration of POS activity to electronic screens will be largely dictated by product value and, less surprisingly, campaign length. Currently 85% of the companies polled said printed POS is the most popular medium for high value products, compared to 76% for FMCG products; however these numbers were predicted to fall to 47% and 25% respectively by 2020.

"What we’re seeing is a clear mix of print and electronic executions. Printed POS does a fantastic job of delivering an always ‘on brand’ message, where you don’t need complex, multiple messaging... ...electronic POS tends to be used in a more tactical way, where something changes frequently, for example discounts, and you don’t need the same ‘cut through’ of messaging," said Sowden.

"But I think you can do more interesting things with print too... if you do something really cool with print and a cardboard structure I think it has more prestige. By combining print and electronic though you can come up with something that is really fantastic."

Other factors dictating the application of print or electronic POS were age and gender, with half of respondents split 50/50 on which media, print or electronic, would be used to target women in 2020, compared to only 25% believing that electronic media would be used to target men.

The comparative resilience of printed POS for high-value products may also have a hand in driving one of the other key changes highlighted by the survey, which suggested that many retailers/agencies who currently print their own POS would be outsourcing print to skilled specialists by 2020 – with the number of respondents stating that they print all of their own POS collateral inhouse (38%) expected to more than halve to 15% by 2020.

The move to outsource more printed POS may itself also be one of the drivers behind 81% of respondents stating that the focus on "design centrally/print locally" is the single most important production trend to impact their business as campaign lengths shorten, although the UK was singled out in the report as being ahead of the curve in terms of shorter campaign lengths.

The Epson 2020 Vision survey was commissioned from Coleman Parkes Research and is based on interviews with consumer product marketing and brand managers and brand, promotion and marketing specialists from the world of retail.

Click here to see an Epson infographic.