Office components like laptops, network peripherals and hardware components continue to witness a surge in demand as an increasing number of people are going on self-quarantine and working from home. Businesses across the world have been hit following the coronavirus outbreak but a change in the work culture seems to be going in favor of electronic retailers.
Coronavirus is biting into the profits of all business with many scrapping their earnings forecasts. The tech companies too didn't have a great start to 2020 given that most have significant presence in China and had to temporarily halt operations. However, a spike in sale of office components might just help them bounce back.
Semiconductors sales surge
Governments across the world have been advising companies to allow their employees to work from home in a bid to contain the spread of the deadly virus. This has seen a change in the work culture with most people trying to quarantine themselves at home and work from there. This has seen a spike in sale of electric goods, especially office components like laptops, hardware components and network peripherals.
Samsung Electronics on Monday said that its semiconductor export has jumped 20% in the past month. According to Reuters, Dynabook too has said that the company saw "brisk demand" of its products, which is probably due to companies asking employees to work from remote locations owing to the coronavirus outbreak.
Demand more in countries in lockdown
Needless to say, China which so far has suffered the most owing to the virus outbreak is likely to witness demand for such products more in the days to come. In the UK, sales of IT monitors bought during the week ending March 14 almost doubled compared with a week earlier, according to GfK. Sales of keyboards also rose during the week, growing 68.8% year over year. Also, there has been a surge in demand for communication devices like docking stations and routers, which have increased 29.4%. According to Financial Times, an Italian supplier said that sales of laptops were 20% higher than normal.
Australian electronics retailer JB Hifi also said that it has witnessed "acceleration" in demand of devices that are required to work from remote locations. Interestingly, the news comes just a couple of weeks after it was reported that laptop shipments, mostly from China, have plummeted 40% as companies continued to halt operations in areas affected by the virus.
