Must Read | The State of Innovation 2023 The State of Innovation 2023 PPAI research reveals how distributors and suppliers of all sizes are approaching technology and assigns high marks to some of the companies doing it best. by John Corrigan Promotional products firms that have embraced the digital revolution tend to be leaders in the industry. They’ve harnessed technological advances to streamline processes, improve communication and protect customer data (as well as their own), all in the name of better service, ultimately, for end buyers. As part of the PPAI 100 research program, the Association gathered benchmarking data provided by companies that appeared in the inaugural ranking of promo’s leading distributors and suppliers, as well as those who didn’t make this year’s list or were too small to be eligible. This report focuses on the very questions that allowed PPAI Media to score the PPAI 100 innovation category. Here, we look at some key performance indicators of these businesses in terms of technology, sharing the state of innovation among the very largest companies in the industry, all the way down to the industry’s more typical small businesses – suppliers earning less than $5 million per year, and distributorships making less than $1 million. The following pages offer a breakdown of each benchmarking statistic, with insights and reactions from tech decision-makers among companies who participated in the surveys. ZinetroN / Shutterstock.com 46 • OCTOBER 2023 • PPAI
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