Sales of desktop monitors through Western Europe distributors grew in early Q4 2019 following the trend begun in the earlier three quarters of the year. Sales were once again driven by higher demand in consumer channels, according to data published by CONTEXT, the IT market intelligence company.
In the first month of the quarter, combined sales of business- and consumer-targeted monitors were up by +7% year-on-year. While Q3 saw increased sales of business models alone, sales in both segments were up in October and, as expected, overall growth was driven mainly by increased sales to consumer etail and retail.
“Historically, November – which includes the weeks leading up to Black Friday – has been a very strong month for consumer monitors”, said Howard Davies, CEO & co-founder at CONTEXT. “Last year, however, sales had already started to pick up in October, and distributors have seen the same thing happen this year. Sales to consumer channels in Germany, UK, Spain and France were +30% higher than in September.”
In Germany, month-on-month sales grew by over 60% in October. However, sales were lower than in 2018 (falling by -1%) showing that the market is slowing down. It is interesting to note that in October revenues from sales to consumer etail again reached their highest yet market share of over 30% and are now similar to those generated by sales to SMB resellers.
This year has also seen a different trend in terms of pricing. Last year, there was an increase in the number of €200–€250 models distributors sold to consumer channels whereas, this year, sales have been driven by increasing sales of cheaper 59,7, 55,9 and 54,6 cm models costing less than €200.
“While it is still expected that Q4 volume sales will be strong (with most of the demand being in October and November), the gradual slow down in the monitor market will trigger more aggressive behaviour from vendors – and any increased price competition may affect this year’s desktop monitor revenues”, added Howard Davies.
