- The three most pressing concerns within the entire dealer universe comprising our Survey continue to be: declining clicks (50%), competing with manufacturer’s direct branches (27%), and hiring and retention (11%).
- When viewing those concerns regardless of where the dealer ranked them as a concern, the three concerns cited most regardless of ranking are declining clicks (79%), hiring and retention (54%), and maintaining profitability (50%).
- Concerns that increased dramatically from last year to this year are declining clicks (+24%), keeping up with new technology (+14%), effectively diversifying product/solutions/services offerings (+14%), and a clear vision of where the industry is heading (+11%).
- Competing with manufacturers’ direct branches has been a long-time dealer concern, but for the second consecutive year when examining concerns regardless of positioning, it has declined. Last year, this concern dropped to fourth place (39%), and this year, it has fallen to sixth place (37%), behind effectively diversifying your product/solutions/services offerings (43%) and a clear vision of where the industry is heading (42%).
- For the second consecutive year, dealers representing Canon (47%) were most concerned about competition from direct branches compared to dealers representing the other Big Six OEMs.
- Dealers representing Canon (50%), Kyocera (50%), and Sharp (47%) were most concerned about diversifying their product/solutions/services offerings.
- Only 2% of Survey respondents identified “Other” as a concern. The most frequently cited “Other” concern was the COVID-19 pandemic.
- Dealers’ ratings of their A3 manufacturers saw a slight increase over the previous year, with the Big Six averaging 4.5 out of a possible high score of 5.0. Last year, that figure was 4.4.
- For the second consecutive year Sharp received the highest A3 manufacturer rating (4.7).
- Canon’s rating as an A3 manufacturer continues to improve. In our 2018 Survey, the company was the only OEM to score under 4.0 (3.9). Last year, Canon’s rating improved to 4.3 and this year, it rose to 4.5.
- Four of the Big Six OEMs’ dealer meetings were rated 4.0 or better, while two OEMs—Canon and Kyocera—received ratings below 4.0. Kyocera received one of the lowest ratings for a dealer meeting we have ever seen in the history of our Survey (3.3).
- Each of the Big Six OEMs received ratings of 4.1 or higher for their A4 product offerings. The average A4 rating among the Big Six was 4.3, up from the 4.1 rating for the Big Six OEMs in our 2019 Survey.
- Ratings for A4 providers HP, Lexmark, and “Other” (Brother, Epson, OKI Data, and Xerox) continue to rank behind the ratings of the Big Six OEMs for the second consecutive year. Lexmark received the lowest rating (3.8), down from 4.0 a year ago.
- For the fourth consecutive year, the average number of leasing partners was 2.6.
- The ratings of the top five leasing partners—those identified by 25 or more dealers as a primary leasing partner—were DLL (4.3), GreatAmerica Financial Services Corporation (4.8), LEAF Commercial Capital (4.1), U.S. Bank (4.5), and Wells Fargo (4.0).
- The percentage of dealers handling their own leasing dropped to 3.3% from 5.8% last year.
- The top two ECM/document management providers in this year’s Survey were DocuWare and Square 9, followed by Laserfiche and MFiles, which were tied for third place. The top four print management providers were ACDI/PaperCut, FMAudit, PrintFleet, and Print Audit.
- Fifty-seven (34%) of the respondents indicated a primary print supplier that is not their primary A3 supplier as their primary production print supplier.
- Despite the pandemic, 86% of dealers are optimistic about the future of their businesses, while 6% percent were neutral and 8% were pessimistic. Optimism was down 4% from last year when we asked dealers whose core business was A3 MFPs. (This year, we did not track dealer optimism for A3, A4, or production print, choosing to focus instead on how optimistic Survey participants were in general about the business.)
- Canon and Sharp have the most optimistic dealers (88%), and Kyocera and Ricoh the fewest (83%).
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