30 Minute Interview

Canon targets retail sector with print-on-demand

Som Gangopadhyay Director, Business Imaging Solutions Division, Canon India talks to Faiz Askari about the digital printing market and Canon’s Retail Print on Demand initiative.

Som Gangopadhyay

Canon’s foray into digital printing

The digital printing industry is undergoing a lot of change. Due to the stress on customized convenience, the need for fast turnaround times has been felt. We at Canon are providing solutions for short print runs. Canon is just entering the pre-function area of the main hall of digital printing and, in today’s scenario, customized demands from customers are acting as a catalyst for the overall growth of the digital printing.

Retail Print on Demand

The retail segment is expected to contribute 48 percent of consumer revenues by 2007. Canon has chalked out an aggressive strategy to capitalize on the recent boom in organized retail. We have created a new division whose exclusive focus is on various types of retail chains.

The growing need for information dissemination has made Print on Demand (POD) more relevant in present times. POD publishing, combined with the Internet, as a marketing tool has democratized the publishing industry and it has become much easier to self-publish and self-market today than ever before.

Partnerships

Canon is currently in talks with multiple large format retail segment players to enter this segment. Tie-ups are also happening.

Selling proposition

Today’s commercial printing environment is more complex and competitive than ever before. Our customers are increasingly demanding faster turnarounds, shorter run lengths, and personalized color documents. The key to leveraging these trends is to develop new ways to work that translate into finding innovative ways to increase productivity and RoI. POD will result in an increased production capacity coupled with a faster speed of production.

At present national chains contribute a paltry 1.2 percent, while regional stores and specialty stores contribute 15 percent each. But by the end of 2008, national chains will contribute a good 7 to 8 percent, while the share of regional retailers will go up to 25 percent. The share of Canon exclusive franchisees in the overall retail pie will be a constant 15 percent.

The growth in the number and spread of retail chains will only create more shopping platforms and help to expand the market.

The total business of the traditional IT channel will continue to grow in absolute numbers, although their percentile share will come down.

Investments and execution

Canon India will be undertaking scaling up operations of the technology in this segment of POD services. POD can be applied to more customers in various segments as it is more of an enabler.

Canon is showcasing its strength in Retail POD segment at IPEX India. Moreover two showrooms are coming up—one in Gurgaon and another one in Mumbai. An estimated Rs 5 crore is earmarked as the initial investment apart from the A&P expenses.

There will be a dedicated team to carry out this [program] apart from sales as well as service. Apart from that a slew of associated software will be delivered and sourced.

With the entry of large format retail stores like Pantaloon, Staple, Reliance fresh, POD segment will progress very quickly in India. POD will be driven from customer’s point of view or the family point of view.

The digital printing market

Digital printing is cost-effective, and opens up new avenues with features such as variable data printing which allows large volumes of prints to be taken with significant differences in each printed item. India is witnessing a shift in consumer preferences towards high-end products. Consumers are willing to pay more for performance, efficiency and durability. Hence we see tremendous growth in the digital printing market.

One of the advantages that digital printing offers is variable printing, which means that each printed document can incorporate personalized or customized data. Another advantage of digital printing is the ability to offer a quick response time due to its minimal press setup and its built-in multicolor registration system. This eliminates many of the upfront and time-consuming processes that can cause analog printing methods to have a slower turnaround time. Besides, even the inventory requirements for end products are low along with simpler production steps.

faiz.askari@expressindia.com