Categories including direct mail, e-commerce and barcodes/RFID saw improvements far from modest. This year, direct mail achieved $177 million (2007: $77 million); e-commerce put forth a showing of $507 million (2007: $110 million); and barcodes/RFID reinforced their value in the marketplace with sales figures of $126 million (2007: $8 million). The discrepancy appears to stem from how distributors opted to fill out this year’s form. In years past, with categories such as e-commerce and barcodes/RFID, distributors typically included these products with other category sales like labels and tags—the rationale being the majority of label products include a barcode or can be ordered through an online store. But this year, many product categories were treated individually, giving the appearance that sales have suddenly skyrocketed with the latter categories.
Top 100 Distributors
Breaking It Down