«And tomorrow fight again.» The printing device market has adapted to change

The analytical company ITResearch called last year's situation on the market of printers and MFPs "the most successful in recent years": "If at the end of 2019 it was difficult to say with certainty whether the market stagnated or there were signs of its decline, in 2020 sales grew immediately by almost 7.5% in units and 4.7% in the money. In total, in 2020, 2.5 million printers were sold in Russia for a total of $566 million."

According to Viktor Ivanov, Regional Director of Russia & CIS CONTEXT, in 2020, there was "unprecedented demand and growth for consumer printers (entry and mid-range devices), due to the consequences of the Covid pandemic."

And according to the results of research by IDC, in 2020, manufacturers' supplies to the Russian market of printing devices decreased by 5.3% compared to the level of 2019 to 2.69 million units, and in monetary terms, they decreased by 4.1% to 664 million US dollars.

Of course, there has always been a difference in estimates: IDC measures the market based on vendor shipments to Russia, CONTEXT counts only sales through the distribution channel, and ITResearch considers sales by distributors to the channel and direct retail sales. However, there has not been such a huge "difference in readings" on the printing device market for a long time.

Distributors also have different assessments of the 2020 results in the printing device market. <…>

Tatiana Skokova, Director of the Wide-Profile Distribution Division of Merlion, also noted: the printing equipment market in 2020 showed that the consumer for home office equipment purchased mainly laser devices of a low price segment. "The purchases were made via the Internet, which allowed large online stores and platforms to increase their turnover seriously," she says. "The first hard lockdown in the second quarter was a shock for all market participants, but starting from June, demand began to gradually recover. Sellers and buyers learned to live and work in new realities, this allowed the market to recover and even grow by the end of the year. According to our data, as a result, the printing device market showed an overall growth both in unit (+ 10%) and in monetary terms (+ 20%). The growth drivers were laser devices (+ 20% in units). Successfully launched in June and July, CISS (continuous ink supply systems) and cartridge devices are surprisingly scarce in Q3 and Q4, which did not allow the segment of inkjet printing grow for the year." <…>

What to expect from 2021?

"The market for printing equipment in units will most likely not grow in 2021, since most of the business has switched to telecommuting and is not going to return to offices in full. As a result, the budgets for updating the fleet of printers, scanners, MFPs will be greatly reduced", Tatyana Skokova believes. "In 2020, employees equipped their "home offices," and we will not observe any demand from them. The only category that can show growth in 2021 compared to 2020 is inkjet CISS devices, which were in short supply in 2020. Suppliers can also influence the market. Due to the already outlined difficulties with production and a shortage of various components during the current year, the markets will be supplied with what vendors can produce. That is, it is not the demand that will form the market, but the available offers (goods), which, naturally, will lead to a decrease in the market volume in units and a possible increase in money due to the rise in the cost of printing devices. At the same time, in unit terms, the market is likely to fall by 5-7%, while in money terms, it will grow by 10-15%. Most likely, we will see a drop in the segment of laser devices with a print speed of up to 20 ppm and in the segment of high-speed (over 45 ppm) and color devices. A slight increase is possible in laser devices with a print speed of 30-40 ppm and CISS". <…>

Did the worst predictions come true, and what is the main lesson of the printing device market — this information is available in the full version of the article with the opinions of all experts (distributors, vendors, analysts) on the CRN website.