By Erwin Busselot, Director Business Innovation & Solutions, Ricoh Graphic Communications, Ricoh Europe
Ricoh Europe, London, April 25 2025 – Retailers that don’t have print as part of their customer communications strategy suffer.
In fact, almost one in two customers buy less from providers who place only digital advertising, according to new research.
Customers miss printed advertising brochures as retailers in Germany have found.
Rewe and Obi are among those vendors that have abolished their classic, printed advertising brochures and the retail research institute IFH Cologne discovered the decision was not universally well received.
The survey of 1,260 people in Germany in February 2025 found:
- 52% of customers who used to regularly read brochures sent in the post, miss print advertising.
- 62% say they now receive less information about offers from those retailers.
- 45% buy less from these providers as a result.
A digital first approach is not appealing. Many customers do not like apps. 45% find using other channels or media complicated while 49% of those impacted are engaging more with brochures from other chains.
Receiving paper based communications is appealing. 87% perceive reading as comfortable and relaxed.
This latest research confirming the preference of print joins others that include the European Shopper survey. It revealed 48% of shoppers use printed promotions weekly, and 73% engage with them more than once a month.
Marketreach highlighted the effectiveness of print catalogues in driving engagement and sales. They turn browsers into buyers as 76% of consumers said catalogues give them ideas of what to buy while 55% made a purchase based on catalogue content. Further, in a period of sustained price sensitivity, catalogues support shoppers’ desire to be able to compare offers to obtain the best deal.
Print generates positive interaction and drives action.
Hyper personalisation can turbo charge that capability.
By analysing real time data such as customer information, purchase history, and location, content and recommendations can be highly customised to foster deeper engagement.
It allows businesses to target potential customers more precisely, reducing marketing spend waste.
Twilio’s State of Personalisation report found that 56% of 5000 consumers surveyed from Australia, Brazil, Colombia, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Singapore, Spain, United States, and Great Britain, said a personalised experience would motivate them to become repeat buyers.
McKinsey reported that companies excelling in personalisation can generate up to 40% more revenue. It also found that 65% of American consumers polled see targeted promotions as a top reason to make a purchase.
Digital inkjet and toner print technologies such as those delivered by the webfed RICOH Pro™ VC80000, and sheetfed RICOH Pro™ Z75 and RICOH ProTM C9500 can cost efficiently and creatively deliver hyper personalised relevance that your clients’ customers will value.
While Ricoh’s high performance personalised document creation solution FusionPro
removes the complexity from the personalisation process. Creating highly targeted, relevant marketing materials that increase response and conversion rates with intelligent rules based templates and automated workflows.
To discover the many ways to harness print’s power to connect, contact our expert team.
