3D Printing Opportunities in retail

According to a recent article in Forbes, there are tremendous 3D printing opportunities in retail. Just as the technology promises to revolutionize how products are manufactured, it will also change the way that they are sold.

Imagine that a store, instead of having a warehouse filled with inventory, has a number of 3D printers capable of creating a number of products on the spot. These products could be from designs that exist in the “cloud” that can be created when a customer orders them or they can be made to order according to a customer’s specification.

This arrangement has two major advantages.

First, it reduces supply chain and inventory costs. Products sold in a retail store would not exist in a centralized warehouse, to be shipped to stores as needed. Instead they would exist as computer stored designs, to be created as needed at the point of sale.

Second, it expands the number and types of products that can be sold. Mass produced products tend to need a large customer base in order to be profitable. But with 3D printers, smaller customer bases can be serviced with on demand manufacturing.

3D printing technology will not likely entirely replace more conventional manufacturing techniques. The two technologies will likely coexist and even support one another. 3D printing can be used to “prototype” new products at low cost to ascertain what their market appeal is. Customer feedback can be used to refine and improve products on the spot. If there is enough demand for a new product, they can be mass produced and then distributed and sold. Thus both manufacturers and retail stores will save millions in product research.