Economic challenges in the coming year will result in revenue declines of 2% versus 2022, says the NPD Group. In contrast, U.S. B2B technology sales through the reseller channel will likely end 2022 with solid unit and revenue gains, up 22% and 10% respectively.

The expected revenue declines in 2023 should only be a temporary downturn, however. The latest Future of B2B Technology forecast reveals unit sales will continue to grow year over year throughout 2025. Revenue for the industry will return to growth in 2024 (up 6%) and remain for 2025 (up 7%).

Losses in sales of computers and consumables plus falling industry average sales prices (ASPs) by 6% in 2023 vs. 2022 will result in the revenue drop next year. There is one bright spot for computers in 2023. There will be revenue growth for desktop computers in the health care and social assistance reseller vertical, according to the forecast.

Budgets Under Pressure

NPD Group’s Mike Crosby

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

“The decline in computer sales is representative of economic conditions and a bit of normalization following very high demand during the pandemic. We expect 2024 will see improvement in the category as the economy improves, B2B hardware investment resumes and a broader technology refresh occurs,” Crosby said.

That said, expert overall budgets in 2023 to be under pressure but IT investment is expected to remain or even increase. Technology is a critical necessity to maximize productivity.

“Spending on commercial software and cloud services have become even more critical to keep organizations from large enterprise to small business running, which is why we expect these areas to be bright spots in 2023.”