Rising printing costs - the pandemic and its consequences

Again and again we are asked by returning customers why the prices of some products have increased compared to older orders from years like 2019. With this article we would like to explain the price differences.

Since the beginning of 2021, material suppliers for papers and cardboard as well as printing inks and coatings have significantly increased their prices, as have many other material manufacturers around the world. The price increases currently amount to approx. 25 - 30% compared to the prices from 2020. The reason for this is a lack of raw materials, staff reductions and bottlenecks in supply chains.

WirliebenDruck and the entire PIXPRESS Group had tried to absorb the additional costs for all customers until summer 2021 in order to ease the already difficult time caused by the pandemic by not passing on the price increases to our customers. The reason for this was the hope that the price changes by our suppliers were only temporary changes necessary due to the pandemic. Unfortunately, we discovered in the third quarter of the year that price increases in the printing industry were still being maintained. In order not to carry the price increases any further, we recently had to adjust some product prices. However, these adjustments are not remotely as high as increases from our suppliers. On average, some prices in the print store were increased by about 8 to 15%. Thus, we hope for a price reduction in the near future in addition to steadily increasing inflation and material costs.

Ways to save on printing despite price increase

Of course, there are some freely available coupon codes that you can use to save up to 10% off in our webshop. Also a quantity discount is directly possible in the shopping cart. To do this, proceed as follows if you want to order several items:

1. Add a product to the shopping cart
2. Click the "Duplicate" button
3. The first position is duplicated and you get 5% discount directly
4. For each additional position this applies, so you get up to 25% discount

This volume discount feature is unique in the print market and offers especially large customers or Amazon FBA merchants to complete their most diverse folding cartons or stickers with only one order and at low prices.

Supply bottlenecks possible with online printing?

While beverage cups and some special materials, which we only call off on customer request, are indeed more difficult to obtain, we already took precautions months ago for our largest production area, namely custom folding cartons, and expanded our storage capacities by another warehouse in order to store high-quality cardboard boxes for follow-up orders. This investment was price-intensive but nevertheless necessary in order to continue to supply our customers with the accustomed and so far unbeaten production time of 3 to 4 working days.

However, the waiting times for kraft cardboard, some corrugated cardboard materials and beverage cups have unfortunately been delayed by a few days and weeks. Particularly urgent print orders should therefore be coordinated with our customer service.

You can also find more information here:

https://www.beyond-print.de/markt-papierknappheit-besorgt-die-druckindustrie/

https://www.n-tv.de/wirtschaft/Warum-Papier-derzeit-Mangelware-ist-article22856261.html

https://www.capital.de/wirtschaft-politik/warum-papier-derzeit-immer-teurer-wird

We hope for your understanding and look forward to further exciting orders with you!

Your Jan Simmerling,

CEO WeLovePrint