News in the Channel – February 2023

PERIPHERALS

CONTINUED

exertis.co.uk

Jon Grundy head of AV Solutions Exertis

Quality is now more of a focus over the cheap and cheerful solutions we saw when COVID/lockdown first hit. “ ”

“Historically peripherals are something that can be overlooked by dealers because they are seen as low margin products, however we are seeing more and more partners capitalise on the demand for personal devices and larger deal sizes,” he says. “The demand for personal devices is across remote and office-based staff. The growth of hybrid working means staff now need – and expect – to have the same quality of experience whether at their office desk or working from home. Quality is now more of a focus over the cheap and cheerful solutions we saw when COVID/lockdown first hit. The biggest sellers in this market, in terms of technology, are webcams, headsets and speakerphones.” Meanwhile, the most popular items for purchase in terms of volume has been headsets, mice, keyboards, mobile computing cases and docking stations, says Marie- Christine Pygott, senior analyst at CONTEXT. “The main trend we saw during the pandemic and the ensuing change in working habits was that employees often started to double up on their peripherals – so instead of one keyboard and one headset in the office, they wanted one of each in the office and at home. This, plus the setting up of home offices resulted in massive growth. With the return to offices now and the strong focus on mobile PCs we still

see an increased need for peripherals overall, but also for example for docking stations.” Marie-Christine adds that the awareness of peripherals as a revenue- and profit- generating category has risen strongly in recent years, especially when employers had to equip employees’ home offices. “In particular when it comes to lower-priced accessories such as headsets or mice, as opposed to docking stations which were already on everyone’s radar before.” There will be an ongoing need for the technology peripherals that have been popular in the past three years – although this might not be apparent right now, Marie- Christine adds. “Current numbers tend to be negative because of the huge growth during the pandemic years and the resulting increased base, and the current economic headwinds that lead businesses to postpone projects,” she explains. Nevertheless, Marie-Christine expects the market for the peripherals mentioned earlier to continue to be strong, along with demand for anything that helps connectivity to be stable and secure. “In addition, there is demand for peripherals that can enhance the experience of video calls, such as cameras, noise-cancelling equipment and software,” Marie-Christine adds.

Marie-Christine Pygott senior analyst CONTEXT

contextworld.com