manroland web systems will start the pilot stage for the new MARKET-X trading platform from August 2017 in order to connect more and more qualified suppliers to the future marketplace of the printing industry. MARKET-X trading platform will have numerous suppliers and will lift up the one-stop shopping experience to the next level.
Presently, the manroland web STORE supplies well over a thousand web offset customers with spare and wear parts as well as authorized consumables. Completely redesigned and relaunched in July 2016, this well-established online shop follows the model of the most modern shops in the B2C sector.
MARKET-X trading platform is a further development of the established manroland web STORE to offer customers of manroland web systems and others a much wider selection of products and services.
The first suppliers have already started to sell their products at the manroland web STORE. “We are very happy to welcome considerable players from the printing industry. Together with a range of selected pilot customers, we are at the testing phase at the moment. The manroland web STORE has been established to be user friendly and in close cooperation with our customers to implement all additional functions which are required in a B2B world. Having the customer as the main focus of all of our activities ensures ideal solutions. We are proud to provide the same high level of service for the additional MARKET-X products,” explains Alexander Wachter, vice president – eCommerce & Customer Support.
The company will further work on new improvements and functions to offer the most modern shop for the industry. “The main objective is to offer a round-the-clock modern, convenient and reliable one-stop shopping experience no matter from where in the world. That’s what I would like to call a MARKET-neXt Generation,” Wachter confidently says.
2023 promises an interesting ride for print in India
Indian Printer and Publisher founded in 1979 is the oldest B2B trade publication in the multi-platform and
multi-channel IPPGroup. While the print and packaging industries have been resilient in the past 33 months since the pandemic lockdown of 25 March 2020, the commercial printing and newspaper industries have yet to recover their pre-Covid trajectory.
The fragmented commercial printing industry faces substantial challenges as does the newspaper industry.
While digital short-run printing and the signage industry seem to be recovering a bit faster, ultimately
their growth will also be moderated by the progress of the overall economy. On the other hand book
printing exports are doing well but they too face several supply-chain and logistics challenges.
The price of publication papers including newsprint has been high in the past year while availability is diminished by several mills shutting down their publication paper and newsprint machines in the past four years. Indian paper mills are also exporting many types of paper and have raised prices for Indian printers. To some extent, this has helped in the recovery of the digital printing industry with its on-demand short-run and low-wastage paradigm.
Ultimately digital print and other digital channels will help print grow in a country where we are still far behind in our paper and print consumption and where digital is a leapfrog technology that will only increase the demand for print in the foreseeable future. For instance, there is no alternative to a rise in textbook consumption but this segment will only reach normality in the next financial year beginning on 1 April 2023.
Thus while the new normal is a moving target and many commercial printers look to diversification, we believe that our target audiences may shift and change. Like them, we will also have to adapt with agility to keep up with their business and technical information needs.
Our 2023 media kit is ready, and it is the right time to take stock and reconnect with your potential markets and customers. Print is the glue for the growth of liberal education, new industry, and an emerging economy. We seek your participation in what promises to be an interesting ride.
– Naresh Khanna
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