We first introduced the ZOPI on February 8, 2021. There has never before been a price index for online print products. This first publication received a very positive response from the industry. Many thanks for the numerous suggestions! Of course, we are keeping an eye on the market and including new players in the ZOPI. For example, the Red Print Group has now also been included. However, the Red Print Group’s data is not currently represented in our average. We will have to wait until the Red Print Group figures no longer have a significant effect on the average.
There are various factors that influence a company’s pricing strategy other than that of costs. Seasonal demand, competition or simply adjustments to objectives in the marketing mix. At launch, companies often spend a lot of time on a comprehensive pricing policy. Once the prices are fixed, however, they start to gather dust. I know traditional print shops that have often not touched their service catalog for years due to a lack of up-to-date cost accounting. That doesn’t work online, of course. Comparisons can be made here. With the ZOPI, you have an orientation for the pricing.
Highlights!
In July 2020, we saw an industry-wide price decline of about 2.52% across all companies. In January 2021, we saw an industry-wide increase of about 2.59%. The fact that it can be tracked almost congruently across all companies may be related to the VAT adjustment in this case, as decreases and increases in prices correlate with it.
One might have expected an additional change outside of July 2020 and July 2021 (due to VAT changes), but we did not see any price adjustments at either Wir-machen-Druck.de or Onlinedrucken.de. Either those responsible saw no need for action here or hoped that the economic turmoil in 2020 would result in a market shakeout.
Flyeralarm, in addition to adjustments due to VAT, made price adjustments in December 2020 and February 2021. In December 2020, they reduced business card prices by 52.36% from their base price and in February 2021, they reduced flyer prices by 11.23%. Both were significantly larger price reductions than any other company in the index. One does have to wonder what happened at Flyeralarm to cause them to cut their prices so significantly during these times. One could speculate an adjustment in pricing strategy or other internal, financial circumstances.
On the other side of the spectrum, Unitedprint was adjusting its prices almost constantly. Most of the time, prices went up. Here, it can be speculated that Unitedprint did not experience a decline in demand and that the decision-makers were certain that it would not decline even if prices were increased.
