Thermal label printers are becoming increasingly popular among businesses of all sizes across a range of sectors. But customers are exacting in their requirements – especially connectivity and sustainability – so if resellers can take that into account, there are opportunities to be had.
E-commerce continues to grow across the world, with the amount of goods available to order online continually increasing, from takeaways to medical prescriptions. They all need to be delivered – and this means they need to be correctly labelled.
This means demand for label printers, particularly thermal ones, is continuing to grow in the UK. Deyon Antoine, Toshiba Tec UK Imaging Systems Ltd, says demand is driven by long-term shifts in how businesses operate. “Growth across the market is typically in the 4–6% range annually, supported by the continued expansion of e-commerce and the increasing need for accurate tracking, labelling and inventory visibility,” he says.
“Retail, logistics and warehousing remain the most active sectors, while healthcare is emerging as a key growth area due to stricter compliance and identification requirements.”
Gordon Atkins, business development executive, UK, Ireland, Nordics & Baltics at Star Micronics EMEA, says the rise in multichannel ordering is driving demand for customer collection and third-party delivery. “This results in the need for versatile printers to print food and drink ingredient labels, food orders, clear permanent and repositionable delivery and customer collection labels as well as bag seals,” he says.
“Coupled with increasingly focused legislation around accurate ingredients and allergy identification for pre-packed food and drinks, label printers have a range of tasks to perform, which is culminating in the emergence of multifunctional printers that can respond and adapt to any environment and application.
“The sectors that are particularly active are retail and hospitality for click and collect and home deliveries.”
Stuart Colverd, head of sales POS, Northern Europe at BIXOLON Europe GmbH, says demand is growing across organisations from large corporates through SMBs to startups, again citing the retail, logistics and healthcare sectors as being particular areas for growth.
“At the same time, businesses are seeking greater flexibility in thermal label formats and sizes to support different operational requirements, from product markdowns and food labelling, which require 2-inch labels, to standard shipping applications, requiring 4-inch labels, and labels for industrial pallets, which need to be 6-inch,” he adds. “All require different sizes to suit their purpose and, in some cases, regulatory requirements.”
Trends
As the thermal label printer market evolves, so do customers’ demands. For instance, Stuart says customers no longer select thermal printers based solely on print quality and price. “Increasingly, they are looking for solutions that improve workflow efficiency, integrate with existing business systems such as ERP, WMS, POS and cloud-based printing platforms and reduce overall operating costs,” he explains.
“From a hardware perspective, customers are looking for a broad range of connectivity options, including faster output speeds and productivity, alongside greater durability,” he says. “This includes printers that have ergonomic designs, are made to withstand demanding environments and have a resistance to water, temperature changes and chemicals.
“Mobile printing is also becoming increasingly important. Businesses increasingly require lightweight devices with long battery lives that can support printing on the go for a full shift, whether in the warehouse, shop floor or in the field.”
Gordon notes that within hospitality and food retail, the introduction of specific legislation relating to prepacked for direct sale (PPDS) goods has resulted in the requirement to print labels that can accommodate a full list of ingredients at a sufficiently high resolution to ensure the information is clear and legible for the customer. “In addition, logos, barcodes and graphics need to remain sharp and impactful,” he adds. “Providing the option to print on either strong linerless or traditional die cut labels for freshly baked and packaged goods, multifunctional printers can deliver on all these fronts.
“Integrating printers into the food preparation process that allow different sizes and types of labels to be printed from one easy-to-use device; variable length food and allergy labels, nutrition information alongside food delivery orders and labels, means businesses can meet today’s requirements as well as more future-oriented labelling applications.”
Ease of use, reliability, cost-effectiveness alongside a compact and aesthetically pleasing design are key features in a label printer, Gordon adds. “Footprint size is always dependent on location; most hospitality and retail label printers offer clamshell or front-facing options with the latter allowing for on or under counter installation,” he says.
Deyon says integration, efficiency, cost savings and sustainability are at the forefront of evolving customer expectations. “Low total cost of ownership is a major driver, particularly the ability to operate with minimal maintenance and maximum uptime, while also reducing consumable spend,” he adds.
“Features such as ribbon save technology, and thin film thermal ribbons available on select BX models, help minimise ribbon usage, lowering operating costs and material waste. High-speed performance, reliability and seamless integration with ERP and warehouse systems are increasingly essential, alongside wireless connectivity and flexible deployment. Ease of integration is also crucial, with Print Language emulation enabling straightforward replacement of legacy devices, and Direct PDF printing allowing output without reliance on specific print languages capabilities supported across Toshiba’s BX range.”
Another trend is the expansion of 2D digitisation, adds Richard Barfield, EMEA business partner, Asset Visibility Solutions, Zebra Technologies. “With the upcoming GS1 Digital Link standards change and the introduction of the Digital Product Passport, businesses must capture and encode richer data sets for traceability and compliance,” he says. “Advanced thermal printers are critical in enabling this transition seamlessly. As are the current versions of our scanner, mobile computing and tablet portfolios, that with the latest firmware are ready to decode the latest versions of 2D formats.”
There is also demand for unified oversight. “Customers increasingly want centralised management,” says Richard. “The ability to manage an organisation’s entire fleet of thermal printers, alongside barcode scanners, mobile computers and tablets, from one single pane of glass drastically reduces IT overhead and ensures maximum uptime.”
Sustainability
Sustainability is another growing trend, with Richard noting that things like linerless labelling are becoming increasingly popular. “By eliminating the silicon liner on labels, businesses can significantly reduce waste, fit more labels per roll to decrease changeovers, and lower their overall carbon footprint,” he says. “We are finding these solution benefits are aligning well with challenges that customers have today.”
Gordon adds that as popularity grows for sustainable packaging and reusable cups, accurate customer order identification becomes even more critical, and linerless labels are a key part of that. “Among the range of labelling solutions currently available, linerless labels offer eco-friendly properties and operational efficiencies with a range of different adhesive strengths,” he says. “For all linerless media, a key benefit is the reduction in waste.
“Linerless media is available in a range of widths, enabling businesses to create labels for any product type including larger labels for food deliveries to smaller, more compact beverage labels.
“Equally, variable length linerless labels enable the printing of shorter orders or labels with less information on minimal paper, further promoting efficiency. Star linerless label printers allow food orders to be printed onto variable length low adhesive ‘sticky receipts’, which can follow the order through the preparation process and can even be used as the final bag seal with customer pick up order number and/or delivery address.”
Innovations
While thermal label printers are a mature technology, there is nevertheless plenty of innovation in them currently. Deyon says the current focus of innovation is centred on making printing more intelligent and connected. “RFID-enabled label printing is improving inventory accuracy and automation, while IoT integration enables real-time monitoring and remote management,” he says.
“Cloud connectivity and AI-driven diagnostics are helping reduce downtime and simplify operations and smart labels incorporating QR codes and RFID are turning labels into data-rich assets within the supply chain. Toshiba’s A-BRID platform plays a key role here, embedding intelligence at the device level and supporting integration into wider business systems with features such as its native Direct PDF printing and ability to emulate other printer languages.
Stuart notes that ongoing innovation is focused on improving connectivity, automation and efficiency in label-based workflows. “This has meant that thermal labels alone are not enough – and instead, customers are increasingly looking for RFID or linerless thermal options,” he says.
Reseller conversations
For resellers, thermal label printers present a range of opportunities for sales, but they must get their pitches to customers right. Gordon says resellers need to highlight current legislation around food and drink labelling and how versatile multifunctional thermal label printers can allow new requirements to be met including ample space for ingredient listing and high-resolution printing for clear and concise text, barcodes and logos as well as providing a future-proof labelling solution.
“The benefits of linerless labels should also be highlighted in terms of their flexibility and benefits as a sustainable and cost-effective labelling solution,” he adds. “In addition, resellers should focus on how cloud-connected label printers meet the requirements of local printing as well as printing from central databases, while providing simple set-up and provisioning of wireless printers to facilitate printing ‘out-of-the-box’.”
Deyon says that the conversation should focus on outcomes: cost savings, sustainability, productivity improvements and workflow reliability. “Emphasising integration, scalability and future readiness, particularly through connected platforms such as A-BRID will resonate strongly,” he says.
Stuart says resellers should focus on the total cost of ownership rather than upfront purchase price. “Thermal label printers are incredibly cost-effective in the long run as they are ink-free products with low-cost consumables and offer compatibility and labour cost savings, too,” he says. “Conversations, therefore, should highlight that purchasing the cheapest printer is not always the most cost-effective option, and instead, customers should focus on the long-term operational costs and productivity gains of the printing solution.
“Additionally, customers often require thermal printers as part of a wider system, so it can be advantageous to bundle a printer with peripherals, software and label media, depending on the application requirements. Ultimately, resellers should take time to understand the full needs of the customer, including integration with existing systems such as ERP, WMS, POS and cloud platforms. They should also scope out if scalability is, or will be, required to provide a solution that meets all current and ongoing requirements, while managing workflow and volume expectations.”
Continuing growth
All commentators agreed that the thermal label printer market will continue to grow in the next 12-18 months. “The inherent advantages of thermal printing – speed, durability and low maintenance – combined with innovations in linerless tech, 2D tracking, and unified fleet management, cement them as an indispensable asset for the modern supply chain,” says Richard.
Stuart agrees. “Demand will increase for shipping, returns, warehouse and tracking labels across a wide range of industries, including retail, hospitality, warehousing and logistics, healthcare and the government and public sectors,” he says.
