The UPS Store is growing its presence across the United States, offering 2D and 3D Printing services in an impressive number of major cities.
Regarding 3D printing services, these kind of services are targeted at metropolitan areas with a major engineering presence. These locations, all run in a franchise model, are targeted largely toward those who might benefit most from such services: small businesses.
The UPS Store has noted a rising trend in the 3D printing arena, as many businesses are gearing themselves toward consumers. This leaves great opportunity for development of both technology and operations. One major barrier, too, that exists in the consumer market: consumers don’t want to spend a lot of money for services. While there is a lot of fun to be had in the consumer market –3D printed selfies come to mind– development is more likely to arise from investments in creations that are functional.
For this reason, The UPS Store looks to focus more on the industry side, and small businesses, as well as consumers who are looking for more from their builds than they might be able to achieve on their own desktop 3D printers.
Regarding technology, The UPS Store favors Stratasys uPrint machines due to their reliability and regularity. A key benefit of using these machines in their locations is that they are professional, high-quality equipment that aren’t necessarily affordable for a small business or prosumer, but these are just the users who can often benefit most from access to this hardware.
