NPD Group: B2B Technology Channel Sales Up 4% in Q3 2021

U.S. B2B technology channel revenue grew 4% year over year during Q3 2021. This is according to market research group NPD and its B2B Distributor Track and Reseller Tracking Services. Year to date through September, channel revenue is up 7% year over year. This is compared to a 3% decline for the same period in 2020 vs. 2019.

In August, the NPD Group reported that channel revenue did remarkably well, rising 9% in the first half of 2021.

Channel revenue is not only up since last year, but it is above the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. There is a need to support an increasingly hybrid workforce, in addition to higher average sales prices, due to component shortages and increased shipping costs.

NPD’s Mike Crosby

Mike Crosby is director and B2B technology industry analyst for NPD.

“Resellers are benefitting from an improving economy across all verticals, especially midsize and enterprise customer segments that support remote workforces,” Crosby said. “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.”

Workplace B2B Technology Products

The products driving gains remain consistent as security software (up 14%), notebooks (up 28%), and monitors (up 12%) see continued growth through September. However, sales of collaboration products have accelerated as employees return to office settings in some capacity. As a result, collaboration software sales, combining cloud and on-premises, are up 10% year to date in 2021. In addition, large format commercial displays have seen 18% gains. Cloud revenues alone have increased 34% year to date and growth is expected to continue.

As for the reseller channel specifically, Q3 2021 sales grew 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.