Market development and forecast of China's barcode printer industry in 2022

Regeneration Times Report/Recently, Limu Information Consulting released the "China Barcode Printer Market Forecast and Investment Strategy Report (2022 Edition)". The report shows:

Manufacturing companies around the world are automating and streamlining their processes to reduce time and material waste and increase efficiency and yield. Barcoding is one of the widely used technologies. This technology can significantly reduce the production time in the process, thus driving the demand for barcode printers.

Digital barcodes have become the standard for product information storage and labelling. Retailers worldwide use barcodes to record items and sell them to customers. By sticking the barcode printed on the label to the product, information such as product quantity, manufacturing/delivery date, selling price, etc. can be recorded. By scanning products with barcodes, you can retrieve and monitor the information in the barcodes. This action, which can be done in seconds, not only increases efficiency but also minimizes errors, making it easier for retailers to keep track of their products and inventory in stores and warehouses.

The main limitations of the current bar code printer market development include that radio frequency identification (RFID) tags may become a substitute for bar code labels, and the compatibility of bar code printers between different operating systems is too low.

The global barcode printer market can be categorized based on printer type, printing technology, consumables, application, distribution channel, and region. Printer types include desktop barcode printers, industrial barcode printers, mobile barcode printers, etc.; printing technologies include thermal transfer (Thermal Transfer), thermal printing (Direct Thermal), dot matrix, laser and inkjet.

Barcode printer uses include industrial/manufacturing, transportation/logistics, retail, medical, government and commercial services. Among various types of barcode printers, industrial barcode printers have the highest market share, reaching 46.1%. Followed by desktop barcode printers. Industrial barcode printers are expected to grow the fastest during the forecast period with a CAGR of 8.3% due to their robustness and higher productivity.

In terms of printing technology, thermal transfer barcode printers account for 62.8% of the market and will continue to grow during the forecast period due to their low cost; matrix, laser and inkjet technologies will be phased out. Dealers/distributors are the preferred supply channel and will continue to dominate in the future due to higher distribution efficiency, lower supply costs and faster delivery times.

North America and Western Europe are the fastest growing regions for barcode printers; Latin America has slow market growth due to the low adoption rate of barcode technology. In the Asia-Pacific region (excluding Japan), the growth of the barcode printer market also slowed down due to the saturation of the mainland manufacturing industry and the slowdown in growth.

At present, the main suppliers of barcode printers include Zebra Technologies Corporation, Avery Dennison Corporation, Oki Electric Industry, Toshiba TEC Corporation and Honeywell International, with a combined market share of 50%. Other suppliers include SATO Holdings Corporation, Printronix and TSC Auto Id Technology.