U.S. B2B technology channel revenue grew 9% year over year during the first half of 2021, surpassing $50 billion in sales, according to The NPD Group’s B2B Distributor Track and Reseller Tracking Services. These results are also up 4% from pre-pandemic levels in first half 2019.

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In the first half of the year, many businesses announced plans to keep employees in remote or hybrid work models. As a result, software continues to be a catalyst for growth as companies look to bolster their security capabilities in support of these work models. Through June, security software dollar sales increased 8% year over year, making up 26% of all software sales in the channel. Storage and data protection software also saw strong growth up 8%.

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Hardware revenue for the first half saw a 10% increase, driven by categories such as notebook PCs, up 35%, and printers, up 22%. While some purchases are continuing to be dictated by work-from-home needs, we are seeing categories that could indicate preparations for returning to the office begin to recover as well. This revenue growth is also due in part to increasing average sales prices as a result of rising shipping costs and component shortages.

“As businesses start to bring employees back to the office or switch from a completely remote to hybrid work model we expect to see some adjustments to the hardware and software priorities exhibited to-date,” said Mike Crosby, director and B2B technology industry analyst for NPD. “Categories like virtualization software and desktops, which have been down year-to-date, could begin to see improvements.”

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