Growth in Shopping and Dining Drive Opportunities in Wide Format

The printer market is growing because demand is growing. In fact, one of the biggest markets for wide-format graphics, retail and dining, is on a growth spurt of its own. According to new data from Placer.ai, based on Placer’s 100 Retail & Dining Index, U.S. retail and dining foot traffic has grown nearly every month from June 2023 to May 2024, compared with the same period a year prior. All of those retail and dining establishments need wide-format graphics.

Additionally, Placer.ai reports…

• Physical retail will account for 83.7% of all U.S. retail sales this year, amounting to $6.234 trillion.
• Retail stores, including Bloomingdale’s, Whole Foods Market, and IKEA, are embracing smaller-format stores to draw foot traffic where consumers live and work.
• These localized shopping experiences are gaining further traction. For example, BJ’s Wholesale Club’s small-format location in Warwick, Rhode Island, outperformed its state and nationwide averages in four of the first five months of the year.

Notable from the Placer.ai data is the shift to smaller format locations. This means the potential, not just for more wide-format graphics, but for shorter, more customized runs. Instead of long runs of in-store signage, for example, this might mean the opportunity to create smaller runs more precisely tailored to the needs of local geographies and individual communities.

For shops offering wide-format capabilities, the message is simple: “Think local”!