U.S. B2B Technology Channel Sales Up 4% in Q3 2021, Reports NPD
B2B technology sales through resellers alone are up 12% in Q3 2021
U.S. B2B technology channel revenue grew 4% year over year during Q3 2021, according to The NPD Group’s B2B Distributor Track and Reseller Tracking Services. This follows a 1% decline in Q3 2020 compared to Q3 2019. Year to date through September, channel revenue is up 7% year over year, compared to a 3% decline for the same time period in 2020 vs. 2019.
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Channel revenue is not only up versus last year, it is also above the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. This is being driven by needs to support an increasingly hybrid workforce, in addition to higher average sales prices, as a result of component shortages and increased shipping costs.
The products driving gains have remained consistent as security software (up 14%), notebooks (up 28%), and monitors (up 12%) see continued growth through September. Yet sales of collaboration products are starting to accelerate as employees return to office settings in some capacity. Collaboration software sales, combining cloud and on-premise, are up 10% year to date in 2021 and large format commercial displays have seen 18% gains. Cloud revenues alone have increased 34% year to date and growth is expected to continue.
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When looking at the reseller channel specifically, in Q3 2021 sales have grown 12% compared to Q3 2020 and are up 9% vs. Q3 2019. Commercial software had the highest revenue share, with dollar sales up 17% over Q3 2020 sales and 25% vs. Q3 2019. Education remained the top performing reseller vertical sector in B2B technology, representing 15% revenue share in Q3. Following a strong Q3 2020, this was still up 2% year over year and up 39% when compared to 2019 levels.
“Resellers are benefitting from an improving economy across all verticals, especially midsize and enterprise customer segments that support remote workforces,” said Mike Crosby, director and B2B technology industry analyst for NPD. “As we head into the last few months of 2021, look for organizations across the channel to focus on business continuity and productivity. With so much change occurring real-time within many organizations; return to work, hybrid work weeks, and digital transformation efforts, organizations need to be able to manage these shifts effectively with minimal disruption to the business(NPD).”
