Cloudprinter, which has established an online platform for drop shipping printed merchandise, has announced radical plans to expand by setting up its own fulfilment centres in the US and Europe.
Cloudprinter offers customers some 50,000 different products, ranging from stationery and photobooks to garments and drinkware that can be customized through printing. Brands can choose to add their own logos to the packaging to create a drop shipping solution without the manufacturing overheads.
Cloudprinter originated in Denmark in 2016, going live in 2017 as a print-on-demand platform. Currently, Cloudprinter takes orders on its online platform and then relies on a network of existing print service providers to fulfil those orders, with each order sent to the printer nearest to the delivery address for faster delivery and to cut down on transport costs. However, despite having some 381 print sites across 104 countries there are some gaps in the coverage, and not all printers cover the full range of products.
Martijn Eier, CEO of Cloudprinter.com, explains, “By launching our own specialized print fulfillment centres, we are providing the physical infrastructure required to ensure our customers — whether they are individual creators or global enterprises — win on speed. The ‘Now-economy’ doesn’t wait for a box to travel across the country. Whether it’s a viral TikTok trend or a high-velocity Amazon seller, the winner is determined by who is closest to the customer’s front door.”
To this end the company is promising Zone 1 shipping for every American customer, which would normally apply to a radius of up to 50 miles from point of origin. Cloudprinter has said that it aims to have a physical proprietary presence in nearly every strategic US state to ensure that shipping stays within the immediate local zone.
For now, the company has committed to have the first wave of these centres in the US up and running by the second quarter of this year, with two sites, one on the East coast and one on the West coast. The plan is to have 18 of these sites in the US operational by mid-2027.
At the same time, the company is setting up its own hubs across Europe, specifically in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. Again, the plan is to have the first two sites, which are planned for Spain and the UK, operational by Q2 of this year. Eier notes, “By the close of the year, we expect to expand this to a total of eight centres in the US and six across Europe, covering all major economic zones.”
These centers will be brand new print sites as Eier explained to me: “Our operational model is built on efficiency. Instead of acquiring existing shops, we are building new, lean fulfilment centres from the ground up. Each center is designed to produce only one specific product category, allowing for a highly automated workflow where orders flow directly from our cloud platform into the print engines. This specialization ensures we maintain a simple and scalable operation, and these centres will never attempt to handle our full product range.”
He adds that these new sites won’t conflict with Cloudprinter’s existing print network, stating, “It is also important to note that this expansion is designed to create a flywheel effect for our entire network rather than cannibalizing existing volume. These centres will act as load balancers and focus on strategic gaps in the market. In the US, for example, our facilities will handle product lines that are not currently offered by our major partners, allowing us to broaden our reach without competing directly with their core business.”
Cloudprinter is a venture capital-backed company. Eier notes, “Our investors include Capital Mills, Impuls Zeeland, and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM). The rollout of our first fulfilment centres in 2026 is being financed through a combination of internal working capital, additional funding from our existing shareholders, and supplier credits.”
