When comparing 2021 sales to 2019, pre-pandemic, dollar sales grew 8% based on NPD’s Reseller Tracking Service data
According to the U.S. B2B technology reseller channel saw strong growth in 2021 with year-over-year revenue sales up 12%. When comparing 2021 sales to 2019, pre-pandemic, dollar sales grew 8% based on NPD’s Reseller Tracking Service data.
Over the last year, sales trends in the B2B technology reseller channel have continued to highlight the importance of security and work-from-home needs. In Q4, B2B software sales were up 16%, driven by strong demand for end point protection software (up 27%). Despite beginning to slow, work-from-home device revenue sales remained strong in Q4, with more core peripherals including keyboards (up 41%) and mice (up 21%) driving growth in place of USB cameras (down 29%) and PC headsets (up 1%).
In Q4, data center ecosystem revenue sales were up 7% year-over-year. While this shows recovery for the segment, sales are still down 3% vs. 2019’s pre-pandemic levels. Data center categories that led growth include power (up 14%), storage (up 13%), and compute (up 12%).
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According to NPD’s Vertical Reseller Tracking data, the educational services sector grew the fastest year-over-year in 2021, adding $1B in sales, while professional services, retail trade, and information each added nearly $750M.
“Following strong 2021 performance, the reseller channel may see some shifts in Q1 2022,” said Mike Crosby, director and B2B technology industry analyst for NPD. “We anticipate device sales will slow in the education vertical – shifting focus away from device deployments to more IT infrastructure and security – and that enterprise and midsized companies will accelerate their IT spend overall with technology mix shifting away from hardware to more software, cloud, and managed services. Small businesses are continuing to face headwinds and will likely focus on refreshing critical needs until the market further stabilizes. This leaves opportunity for investment and growth as we head further into 2022.”
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