What Is On-Demand Printing? How It Works and Why Businesses Are Switching Print only what you need, when you need it — no warehousing, no waste. See how on-demand printing works & why UK businesses are switching. By Brent Ervin-Eickhoff • Published on 19 March, 2021 • Updated on 28 July, 2026 • 8 min read • Print Management & Workflows Why make the move to an online print on-demand service? The benefits start with cost savings. Find out more in this article. On this page What is print on-demand? How the process works What are the benefits of moving to fully online print? The top 5 ways that online printing on-demand helps you save time and money 1. Gain days of productivity time 2. Eliminate unnecessary operational costs 3. Take control of your budget 4. Say goodbye to document waste 5. Boost morale Who uses on-demand printing Frequently Asked Questions Most businesses still order print the old way: guess how many brochures, manuals or training packs you’ll need, print them all at once, then store the leftovers in a cupboard until they go out of date. On-demand printing flips that model. Instead of printing in bulk and hoping the forecast was right, you print exactly what’s needed, exactly when it’s needed — whether that’s ten copies or ten thousand. When you think of printing documents, you likely picture in-office printing, with one or more printers, where you send all of your print jobs. You purchase or rent the equipment, pay for its upkeep as well as paper and ink, handle the ongoing paperjams, and deal with other inconveniences. This is the office print experience that we are all too familiar with, and it consumes 1 to 3% of annual revenues. Have you considered a more efficient alternative to printing in the office or using a traditional print vendor—moving to an online, on-demand print provider? You will save a significant amount of money and time, almost immediately. These are just some of the benefits of switching to a new, more flexible print model that gives you options. For a broader guide to how print-on-demand transforms corporate document management, see our full overview of print-on-demand for businesses. Learn more in this brief article. What is print on-demand? On-demand printing (sometimes called print-on-demand or POD) is a production model where documents are printed only after an order is placed, rather than pre-printed in large batches and held in storage. Each item is produced individually or in small runs, using digital print technology that makes short-run, high-quality output cost-effective — something traditional offset printing struggles to do economically below a few hundred units. In practice, this means a single training manual, a rebranded set of sales folders, or a personalised proposal can be ordered and produced just as easily as a run of ten thousand. How the process works Upload once. Your approved templates, manuals or marketing materials are stored in a central digital library. Order as needed. Anyone with access — an employee, a regional office, a partner — places an order for exactly what they need, in the quantity they need. Print and ship locally. The job is produced at the print facility closest to the delivery address, cutting shipping time and cost. No warehousing, no waste. Because nothing is pre-printed, there’s no obsolete stock to write off when a product, policy or logo changes. What are the benefits of moving to fully online print? The benefits of moving to an online printing service start with savings—up to 60% in hardware costs alone. But, perhaps the most substantial savings are in getting time back to focus on what you do best. Let’s explore further! The top 5 ways that online printing on-demand helps you save time and money 1. Gain days of productivity time What would you do with 10-12 more business days of employee time? An online, print on-demand model allows you and your team to focus on your job and be more productive by taking the burden of printing out of your hands. Instead of wasting time running back and forth to an in-house printer and fixing constant paper jams or overspending with a traditional print vendor, you can do everything online. Store all of your materials in a secure online document library, edit them whenever you want, and quickly order and have them delivered anywhere in the world. The North American Proposal team at Motorola Solutions replaced their time-consuming, internal printing process with Mimeo’s print on-demand services. As a result, they were able to concentrate on producing high-quality proposals instead of on the logistics of printing and delivering RFPs. Read the full case study here. “Before Mimeo, our team stood in front of the printers up to 30% of the time. Just because you can, doesn’t necessarily mean you should. Mimeo gave them back time in their lives.” – Dawn A, Senior Manager, North America Proposal Center, Motorola Solutions 2. Eliminate unnecessary operational costs Your in-office printing comes with extensive, ongoing costs, including equipment and maintenance fees, not to mention the cost of paper, ink, and binding supplies. On-demand print uses fully digital technology, so there are no operational or hidden costs and no financial commitments to equipment that stands idle when it’s not being used. Instead, you build and place your print order online, any time, 24/7, specify the exact number of copies that you need, and re-order as soon as you need more, in just minutes. 3. Take control of your budget Do you know how much you’re spending on your printing? Many companies don’t, and hardware, supply, and other costs get lost across multiple project budgets. When you move to a print on-demand partner, you receive regular, clear reports on everything from print spend to inventory management. This way, you can see exactly how much you are spending on print, and you have complete control of your budget. 4. Say goodbye to document waste The average office employee prints 10,000 pages of paper per year, which is equal to 1.2 trees. And, according to InfoTrends, about 10-20% of business documents are thrown away without ever being used. What a huge amount of document waste and a negative impact on the environment! By moving to on-demand printing, you no longer waste thousands of pages of paper. You can easily print what you want on your own timeline. On top of that, with digital printing technology, it takes the same amount of effort to print one page as it does 500, so you don’t have to order in bulk to get a better per-page price. You’ll no longer have stacks of outdated documents to store or warehouse. 5. Boost morale We mentioned the days of productivity that your team will gain when you switch to online, on-demand printing. But there is one more aspect to making this change—your employees will feel a sense of relief without having to worry about printing, binding, and manually shipping documents. They will have a weight taken off of their shoulders and one less item on their to do list. This is a big deal since 82% of employees report feeling overworked and experiencing burnout one or more times. By taking just one responsibility off of your employees’ plates, you will see an overall boost in morale and productivity. Who uses on-demand printing On-demand printing suits any organisation producing recurring but variable-volume materials: Marketing teams distributing branded materials across multiple offices (marketing materials print) Training and L&D teams issuing manuals and course packs on a rolling basis (training materials printing) Clinical and life sciences teams managing controlled, version-critical documentation (clinical trial print) Associations and membership bodies printing on-demand for events and renewals (associations print) As you can see, the benefits of moving to online, on-demand printing are extensive and range from cost savings all the way to eliminating waste and protecting the environment. It’s simply a smart business decision that will improve your bottom line. Want to learn more about print on-demand and how it can work for your company? Request a quote and one of our print experts will show you how Mimeo can meet your unique needs. Frequently Asked Questions How much can a business save by switching to online print-on-demand? Businesses typically save up to 60% in hardware costs alone by eliminating in-office printers and their associated maintenance, paper, and ink costs. Additional savings come from reduced document waste, eliminated storage costs, and productivity time returned to staff. What is the difference between online print-on-demand and traditional printing? Traditional printing requires upfront setup, minimum quantities, and often results in overprint waste and storage costs. Online print-on-demand lets you order exactly what you need, when you need it, with no minimums — everything is managed digitally and delivered directly to your destination. How does print-on-demand improve document management? With print-on-demand, documents are stored digitally and only printed when needed, ensuring every copy is the most current version. This eliminates the problem of outdated materials circulating internally and removes the need to physically store or warehouse printed stock. Is there a minimum order quantity? No. One of the core advantages of on-demand printing is that a single copy costs the same, proportionally, to produce as a large batch — there’s no minimum to make it worthwhile. How is this different from a print storefront? On-demand printing is the production model. A print storefront (like Mimeo Marketplace) is the ordering interface that sits on top of it — a branded portal where your team or partners can browse and order approved materials whenever they need them. What you should read next Print-on-Demand for Corporate Document Management: A Scalable Approach for Modern Businesses How On-Demand Print Reduces Your Document Waste What to Look for When Selecting an Online, On-Demand Print Vendor Brent Ervin-Eickhoff Director of Marketing Brent Ervin-Eickhoff is Director of Marketing for Mimeo Business, where he leads marketing strategy across content, demand generation, and brand. A Chicago-based marketer with B2B and B2C experience spanning corporations, agencies, and non-profits, from Volkswagen to the University of Chicago, he brings a storyteller's background as a writer and director to campaigns that drive measurable results. His posts help businesses connect the dots between print, marketing strategy, and customer experience. Previous Post Next Post
