From us

On this page we want to provide all interested parties with information about our company and the online print industry.
You are welcome to send us your press releases to press@zipcon.de.
At irregular intervals, zipcon publishes particularly relevant news for the online print industry that zipcon has created itself. If you don’t want to miss these updates, you can sign up for the newsletter here.

#inconceivable: zipcon consulting and Initiative Online Print counter Rewe with their own video clip

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Months after announcing its intention to do away with printed brochures for sustainability reasons, supermarket chain, Rewe, is still facing opposition from a number of sides. No wonder, because print is being unjustly made the scapegoat by the company when it comes to sustainability. Zipcon and the Initiative Online Print (IOP) have compiled the facts on the sustainability of print and are sending out a clear signal against greenwashing with our new video clip. Because communication without print? #inconceivable  
Rewe’s advertising not only wants to give the impression that print is outdated and that the future belongs solely to digital media – the message is also one-sided and simply wrong. The carbon footprint of digital technologies, including their energy-hungry server farms, their need for rare earth elements, and their power generation, which is often still based on fossil fuels, is swept under the rug.  
Click here for the full press release: https://initiative-online-print.de/en/inconceivable-zipcon-consulting-and-initiative-online-print-counter-rewe-with-their-own-video-clip/

10 Years Online Print Symposium: The Anniversary Highlights

The countdown is on: The Who’s Who of the online print world will soon be meeting for the tenth Online Print Symposium (OPS). The anniversary edition of the OPS, which will take place on 23 and 24 March at the Science Congress Center Munich in Munich, has plenty of highlights, exciting topics and top-class speakers in store: this year’s line-up includes not only industry giants such as Cimpress founder Robert Keane, online print mastermind Bernd Zipper or WKS Managing Director Dr Ralph Dittmann, but also specialist book author and ARD digital expert Jörg Schieb and Mark Young from Bluetree UK, to name just a few of the top-class speakers. In addition, a number of innovative start-ups from all over Europe will be presenting themselves – and there will even be one or two premieres at the partner exhibition. The anniversary must be celebrated; and not only on stage, but also at the dinner evenings, which have long become a tradition and are used diligently for networking. This year’s #OPS2023 is once again the place-to-be for everyone who is involved in online print – or wants to be in the future. More info: www.online-print-symposium.de/en

Two years of ZOPI – an interim report on the Zipcon Onlineprint Price Index

There are many indices that show the price development of goods; the best known of these is the consumer price index. However, a price index for print products, especially for the online print market, did not exist for a long time – until zipcon consulting created the Zipcon Onlineprint Price Index (ZOPI) and presented the first results a good two years ago. Since then, the ZOPI has been looking at developments in online print on the basis of typical products such as flyers, brochures or business cards. Today it is clear that prices in online printing have risen significantly. This was initially due to supply problems and rising paper and raw material prices during the pandemic and has continued since the Ukraine war with skyrocketing energy prices. The markets have become volatile – and are likely to remain so. Online printers have largely come through the crisis years well thanks to their high level of digitalisation, because they can react more quickly to changes in the market. It remains exciting to see what the future will bring. More info: www.beyond-print.net/category/zopi

zipcon.de in a new look

zipcon consulting has given its website a new look: Simple and stylish, structured and intuitive to use – with selected design accents, zipcon now presents itself and the services it offers in a modern “newspaper look”, and on all devices. The new zipcon.de homepage – which is also available in English – looks stylish and tidy. It offers all the important information about zipcon consulting’s activities and thus acts as a central hub to direct interested users, for example, to the “Beyond Print” blog, which is highly regarded in the industry, to the “Online Print Symposium”, the live event of European online printers, or to the “Initiative Online Print” (OPS) interest group.
“Not only do we focus on our core competences in our real-life activities, but we wanted to reflect exactly this on our new website. It is obvious at first glance who we are and what we do – this was very important to us. The UX (user experience) was to be improved once again and the use of a new CMS (content management system) has also simplified handling for our team. For me, the new zipcon.de is the perfect symbiosis of functionality and aesthetics,” explains zipcon founder and CEO Bernd Zipper.

ZOPI – ZIPCON ONLINEPRINT PREIS INDEX

A price index indicates how the prices of goods and services in a basket of goods change and whether prices are rising or falling. The Federal Statistical Office, for example, calculates the well-known consumer price index and other indices. Until now, there was no price index for online print products. Therefore, at the beginning of last year the zipcon team started a survey among online printers, resellers and conventional printers. The result was clear: there is a general interest in a price index for online print products. We have taken up this request. The aim of zipcon is not to make a scientific claim – it is to show a trend and to derive from this indicator how well or how badly the industry is doing.

Guys, we can do it!

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Hard times for all of us, no question. But there is no backing down – and we will all stand our ground. It’s also a bit about proportionality – and about the fact that we in Germany are actually still doing quite well compared to the rest of the world. Bernd’s message – for the pre-Christmas season, so to speak – scores with an insight: “Ideas are always children of necessity”. Borrowed from the economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter. So Schumpeter’s and Bernd’s insights could almost become a slogan for perseverance: If we have ideas, they become innovations in times of need, and “innovations that cause creative destruction are the driving force behind prosperity”.

Think Print Movie

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In six minutes, Bernd Zipper gives a well-founded explanation of how society is changing and with it the positions of the media. He makes it clear what an important role print will play in the digitalised world. An image film for the future of the entire printing industry that has never been seen before.

FUTURE: „PRINT OR PERISH“

If you like something, you click it. If you love something, you print it. There is no general recipe for the successful future of print. But one thing is certain: print is becoming more valuable again – printers should seize their chance!

Some just don’t seem to get it: The printing industry as an “old” industry will soon no longer exist. And no one, regardless of whether they print online or not, should stylise digitalisation and the necessary transformation as an enemy image.

No Print? No Business!

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You can spin it any way you want: print remains important. But online and print are interdependent and we are witnessing an exciting time, a time when something new is emerging – a new way of communication. We have to learn that first – but what would the world be without print? Maybe Bernd Zipper’s film, which was produced in a self-experiment, will help.

About us

Bernd Zipper is repeatedly asked for interviews for magazines and trade publications. With his know-how on the subject of online printing, he not only presents facts and findings, but also always gives an outlook on developments and trends. Here you can find an excerpt of the publications.

Not a chance for 08/15

Internet printers will continue to grow in the future – if they offer more personalised web shops and digital services.

Bindereport | June 2022

Top trends for 2021 and later

Who would have believed that a single virus would first paralyse our global society and entire industries and then also change them so massively? Pandemics always play a role in the scenarios of futurologists and, of course, virologists. But because hardly anyone thought that such a thing could ever happen, we were caught stone cold. Will this drama perhaps turn into an opportunity after all?

Publisher | February 2021

Three mega trends for printers

Nobody would have assumed in January 2020 that a pandemic would change our society like this. Sales slumped at almost every online print provider. Only towards the end of the year did the situation normalise a little and the effects of “turbo-digitisation” became apparent. Is the drama turning into an opportunity? Bernd Zipper on the trends for 2021 that give cause for hope.

Druck Medien Dossier | January 2021

ERP Guideline: How to make the specifications work

You don’t choose a new ERP system in passing: After all, it is the backbone of the company. A structured requirements specification facilitates the thorough preparation of the decision. And to clarify the terminology once again, since specifications and requirements are often confused: In the specifications, the client defines the totality of his requirements. The requirements specification later describes in concrete form how and with what the contractor intends to solve these requirements.

Digital Publishing Report | January 2020

Print becomes premium

If everything written in the press, said at congresses, preached by internet visionaries and analysed in studies by whomever were true, print would have died long ago. TV and radio too. But contrary to the thesis that television has the future behind it and its demise ahead of it, this entertainment and information medium is still doing very well. In the last four years, it has even grown significantly in advertising sales, ahead of all other media.

Digital Publishing Report | October 2019

New DNA for Print: Swords to Ploughshares!

Bernd Zipper, founder and CEO of zipcon consulting, is not a simple person and not a run-of-the-mill consultant. He often warns about possible dangers and threats to the printing industry. The self-confessed print enthusiast often criticises the sluggishness and backwardness of many entrepreneurs. But even after more than 20 years as an adviser, his announcements and forecasts still point the way ahead. Because, you have to hand it to him, he is usually right. It’s time for a talk.

Print and Publishing | September 2019

What happens in online print?

There is no longer any doubt that the printing industry is facing massive changes. But what does this mean for companies? In order to still be successful in ten years, it will take more than just the “digital transformation”. Bernd Zipper from Zipcon Consulting explained at the Online Print Symposium 2018 which challenges online print providers in particular must prepare for.

Deutscher Drucker | August 2018

Forecast 2017: Market worth billions continues to grow radically

It can be assumed that online printers will continue to grow. However, this is associated with considerable effort in customer acquisition. And in addition, there could be competition from a corner that has had nothing to do with printing so far. In other words: it is getting tighter for online print and almost hopeless for offline printers.

Druckmarkt | February 2017