Staples has been selling 3-D printers for about a year; now it wants to begin selling access to them.
The office-supply retailer began offering 3-D printing services in two stores on Thursday, one in New York and another in Los Angeles. Anyone can walk in and have Staples crank out a tchotchke—or 1,000 of them—while reveling in the glory of the 3-D printing revolution without spending thousands on an actual printer. If the pilot takes off, Staples says it will expand 3-D printing services to more stores.
The concept is a logical extension of a non-revolutionary but lucrative part of Staples’s existing business: the one where an employee runs off a bunch of flyers or pamphlets for a customer. For the last two years, the company has increased its revenue from copying and printing, partially offsetting the fact that it’s making less money selling office supplies, ink cartridges, and computers.
Staples stores won’t be the first businesses to offer 3-D printing services. Shapeways already allows customers to print out their own designs on its machines and even helps market and ship the resulting products through its website. 3D Systems, which is working with Staples on the pilot, has been offering its own 3-D printing service since 2010.
Staples has already been offering 3-D printing services in Europe for about a year. Customers so far are primarily small businesses, and Staples is trying to distinguish itself by helping those customers through the entire process, says Damien Leigh, senior vice president of business services at Staples.
While 3-D printing enthusiasts generally describe the process as simple, that simplicity only kicks in once someone has a 3-D file to work from. Turning a vague idea into such a file requires is going to be a bit over the head of your average Staples customer. The company plans to begin training its graphic design consultants, who work in the stores, to be able to hold customers’ hands as they move through the process. “The way we envision this working is from soup to nuts,” says Leigh.
Much of the printing will happen in the store. There are seven printers in the New York location, that can make objects in six different materials. For bigger jobs, Staples will outsource the printing to 3D Systems.
Staples declined to give much of an idea of how much the service will cost, saying that will vary widely depending on the complexity of the design and the amount of material involved. Leigh says some objects cost as little as a few dollars, while a printed guitar ran into the thousands. Buying a 3-D printer at Staples will run you at least $1,500.
Like everything surrounding 3-D printing, there’s a bit of tension between the future and the present. Staples says the technology will be a boon to architects and jewelry makers, who can run off prototypes or even use the store to manufacture their products. But part of the point is to evangelize for 3-D printing itself.
Leigh sees the test stores as mini Maker Faires, where people can come in, play with the printers, and try to understand what 3-D printing is all about. At the New York store, the thing the company seemed more proud of was a photo booth that would take your picture and print your face onto a customized action figure.
