Peripherals: Margin-Boosting Trends to Watch

There are plenty of peripherals available for computers now, but what’s on the horizon? We asked Kevin Prewett, vice president of vendor management at distributor Ingram Micro, to point out the trends to watch.

Peripherals is certainly an opportunity category for solution providers—especially those targeting the needs of small and midsize businesses that operate within vertical markets such as healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and so on.


The great reality surrounding peripherals is that the sales cycles can be relatively short, and these products and technologies do not have to be “attached” to a bigger sale. A peripheral can be an impulse buy, a one-off, or be brought in to complement the bigger solution. Even if there’s not a technology refresh, there’s still opportunity to refresh the peripherals within a business. Also, when customers do buy new products, they always seem to upgrade their peripherals (or what many would call accessories) that go along with them.


One of the larger product categories we see making a splash these days is the document scanner. These products are hot within small businesses looking to save space and build efficiency. Vertical market players and larger companies that need to maintain documents for compliance and regulatory reasons, or simply need to access stored information instantly (like prior client care records), are also good targets. A few key vendors include Fujitsu, Visioneer, Kodak, and Canon.


Another sales opportunity within the peripherals category is anything affiliated with Apple’s iPod and iPhone. Vendors like Belkin have done a good job of staying ahead of these products and bringing to market complementary accessories that cross over from personal to business use. With each successive version comes the opportunity to sell a wide range of cases, speakers, connectors, and accessories.


On the more visual side of the market we’re seeing widescreen displays gain ground over standard-format displays. Why? Outside of the obvious visual appeal, widescreens enable customers to run multiple applications on a single screen, provide better performance and a better user experience, and simply bring more flexibility to the desktop. As widescreen products become more affordable when compared with the standard-format offerings, look for corporate America to make that upgrade.


Along the same line, desktop mounts are gaining traction because of their ability to drive business productivity, save space, and build efficiency. The ergonomics associated with these products also helps drive demand and sell value.


There is a growing need and demand for surge protectors and universal power supply backup products. This is being driven by environmental concerns, the growing adoption of de-duping technology and virtualization, as well as the demand for blades, racks, servers, and all the cooling efforts that accompany building a high-performance network.


Peripherals are not the flashy part of the IT business, but look on any desktop and you will see that these products are the common denominator from consumer to SMB to enterprise users. The margin opportunity for resellers is much greater on these products than on the main hardware purchase. The reseller that can sell the necessary peripherals will be completing the solution—and be rewarded.


RACHEL CERICOLA is a freelance writer and regular contributor to ChannelPro-SMB.