Bulk Printing and You: Economies of Scale - Gold Image Blog
Written by Andrew Quirk on Tuesday, December 20, 2022 12:00 AM
Written by Andrew Quirk on Tuesday, December 20, 2022 12:00 AM
When you order printed materials, whether for your business or for a personal event like a wedding, a lot goes into the process! Every order takes time, skill, and hard work to set up, whether it’s setting up a digital press, dealing with color correction, or arranging a more traditional technique like letterpressing or embossing. The more of each product you print, the less work is required for each individual copy you receive. This brings bulk printing costs per page down.
In economic circles, this is called economies of scale. It is the same reason that buying everyday products in bulk oftens cost you so much less in the long term. If you’ve ever bought household or business products from a wholesaler, and been amazed at the savings vs regular commercial retailers, you won’t be surprised to hear that you can see similar per-unit savings if you opt to get your printing done in bulk at a reputable print shop like Gold Image Printing.
Bulk printing, and the savings it can provide, is pointless without looking into the quality of print you’ll be receiving. The savings you make on the cost of printing bulk flyers for example, will be meaningless unless they look and feel good enough to bring new customers to your business. When you simply search for “cheap printing near me” and head right for the cheapest deal you can find, you might be missing out on a business that will provide years of experience, guidance, and a reputation for quality in everything from all kinds of large format printing including bulk offset posters, to much smaller items like bulk offset flyers.
Custom bulk printing services on large format items may seem like they’re out of your reach, but when it comes to larger, more unique items, the savings offered by bulk offset printing can be even more amazing. If you’re not sure whether your printing job qualifies as large format, help is at hand. What is Large Format Printing? Is a fantastic blog post which lays out exactly what is meant by large format printing.
Bulk printing services aren’t the only way to save money, however. A respectable business will often look for ways to help its customers and local communities. For example, anyone looking for material for a charity or other not-for-profit group may find the nonprofit printing services offered by Gold Image Printing a real boon.
Finding bulk printing services can be a real boon for almost any business, as well as more individuals than you might expect. Bulk offset business cards are a great example. How often have you reached for a business card and not found one? It’s always at the worst moment. In a worst case scenario, it could lose you an important client, an unexpected chance to network, or even an unforeseen business opportunity. When the purpose of the product is to give it away, you’d be amazed at how quickly 500 business cards can disappear.
Remember: the more business cards you’re giving away, the more amazing connections that can come your way.
Bulk printing costs may seem high when you’re considering the total cost, and while we’ve already discussed how they actually break down into lower cost-per-item prices, that’s not where the savings end. The amount of time you can save on items like custom sticker labels when you’re not consistently having to reorder them is not inconsiderable! Bulk sticker printing can be a truly amazing practice to increase productivity. And that’s without even mentioning the delays you could face on delivery if your business has run out of your custom bulk offset envelopes. The initial outlay for items such as custom postcards for your business can pale into insignificance next to the increased business you could gain from direct mail marketing, or even a personalized note included in the packaging of popular products.
Even personal events like weddings can benefit from ordering bulk items such as invitation envelopes. The last thing anyone wants is delays on things like invitations getting sent out affecting their big day. With the costs typically associated with weddings being so high, making sensible savings without sacrificing quality is a really smart move.
If you’re thinking about finding “bulk printing near me” you might be less familiar with the ins and outs of the printing world. You might be presented with the option to choose whether you’d prefer digital printing, or offset printing (also known as lithography or bulk offset printing) when you’re exploring the websites of various print businesses. How can you know what’s right for you?
The answer might be more complex, but much more interesting than you’d imagine. There are many places to discover the in-depth differences between the two, but if you’re wondering, the Gold Image Blog Post Should You Ask Your Printer To Do Offset Printing or Digital Printing? is a great starting point, and should answer the question of which method is right for you. The main differences are in the way each technique scales differently in terms of cost saving between bigger and smaller runs. Bulk offset printing uses plates to seamlessly recreate the same image, again and again, using only one input, whereas digital printing creates the same image from scratch each time, meaning it doesn’t benefit the same way from economies of scale.
While this is the reason the initial cost is so much lower, when you factor in the ways in which bulk printing can also save you money in terms of time and efficiency, you can see that bulk offset printing is actually even cheaper than it first appears.