Trade printing is a wholesale business model within the printing industry in which a printer sells its printing services and materials, at wholesale rates, to print brokers, graphic designers, advertising agencies and other printing businesses rather than directly to the end customer who will actually use the finished product. Under the arrangement, these intermediaries buy the printed materials from the trade printer at a reduced price and then resell them to their own clients, while the trade printer itself stays invisible to the final customer, since its name and other identifying information never appear on or within the finished packaging. The model lets designers and agencies offer printing as part of their own services without operating printing equipment themselves, while letting the trade printer move volume through business-to-business relationships rather than through direct sales to individual consumers.
Facts
Core MechanismTrade printing works as a wholesale, white-label supply arrangement: a trade printer sells printing materials and production services at wholesale rates to print brokers, graphic designers, advertising agencies and other printing businesses, who resell the work under their own name to the end client. The trade printer either ships the finished order back to the reseller or drop-ships it directly to the end user on the reseller's behalf, and the trade printer's own name or branding does not appear anywhere on the product or its packaging. 1 Connections
Associated With
Trade printing, one printer producing work on behalf of another business such as a graphic designer or reseller rather than dealing directly with the end client, is a standard business-to-business segment of the printing industry.
Open Questions
Source Wikipedia, Trade printing
Sources
1. Wikipedia, Trade printing
WikipediaLead section, first two sentencesQuote, Lead section, first two sentences
Trade printing is a business model wherein a printer offers printing materials to print brokers, graphic designers, ad agencies, and other printing businesses at a wholesale rate. When a trade printer ships an order, the reseller passes it on to the end user or ships the order directly to the end user on behalf of the reseller.
Open Questions (1 open question)
What year, decade or historical event marks the origin of trade printing as a wholesale, unbranded printing business model?
The cited Wikipedia article on trade printing describes the mechanism in full (wholesale sale of printing materials and services to brokers, designers and agencies who resell to the end client under their own name) but gives no year, decade or historical event for when this arrangement began; a companion Print broker article that might have carried the missing history does not exist on Wikipedia (404).
What would resolve this A citable printing-industry history source naming when wholesale, unbranded printing for resellers first emerged as a distinct business model.
business historyWikipedia, Trade printing
Reader Challenges (0)
No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.
Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.