ITscope Market Barometer Q1/2026: IT Channel Off to an Active Start as Price Pressure Increases

The ITC chan­nel is off to an acti­ve start in 2026, and resel­lers are noti­ce­ab­ly adjus­ting their purcha­sing beha­vi­or. Click num­bers for the top 1,000 pro­ducts on ITscope rose by 3.5 per­cent in the first quar­ter com­pared with the same quar­ter last year.

At the same time, the avera­ge cart value drop­ped by around 6 per­cent, while order volu­me increased by about 4 per­cent. Resellers are orde­ring more fre­quent­ly, but sel­ec­ting their pro­ducts more deli­bera­te­ly. “We are curr­ent­ly see­ing strong demand, but also grea­ter pri­ce sen­si­ti­vi­ty,” says Dr. Oliver Charles, Managing Director at ITscope. “Many pro­ducts are being com­pared more inten­si­ve­ly befo­re they are ordered.”

The momen­tum is par­ti­cu­lar­ly visi­ble in the memo­ry modu­le cate­go­ry: pri­ces for high-demand DDR5 modu­les fluc­tua­te noti­ce­ab­ly within short peri­ods of time, often direct­ly depen­ding on avai­la­bi­li­ty. A look at the pri­ce and inven­to­ry trends of indi­vi­du­al pro­ducts makes this con­nec­tion clear. Analyses of seve­ral top models show a distinct pat­tern: when stock beco­mes scar­ce, pri­ces rise signi­fi­cant­ly. As inven­to­ry levels grow, they ease again. “We are see­ing pro­duc­tion capa­ci­ties incre­asing­ly shift toward AI infra­struc­tu­re. That direct­ly affects the avai­la­bi­li­ty of tra­di­tio­nal memo­ry pro­ducts, and the­r­e­fo­re pri­ces as well,” Charles says.

Interest in SSDs is also rising noti­ce­ab­ly. Click num­bers for the top 100 SSDs increased by around 60 per­cent in the first quar­ter of 2026 com­pared with the same quar­ter last year. In demand are models with capa­ci­ties ran­ging from 500 GB to 1 and 2 TB, all the way up to lar­ger enter­pri­se devices.

In the note­book seg­ment, demand is focu­sed on clas­sic busi­ness con­fi­gu­ra­ti­ons. Half of the most-clicked models com­bi­ne 16 GB RAM with a 512 GB SSD. This con­fi­gu­ra­ti­on accounts for around 61 per­cent of all clicks in the top 100. At the same time, the­re is a clear brand dis­tri­bu­ti­on: Lenovo makes up the majo­ri­ty of the most-clicked devices and the­r­e­fo­re has a par­ti­cu­lar­ly strong influence on the chan­nel. HP and Dell fol­low with ste­ady demand, while Apple draws sel­ec­tively high atten­ti­on with fewer models.

A simi­lar pic­tu­re also emer­ges for com­ple­te sys­tems: demand is gro­wing and is con­cen­tra­ted on com­pact mini and tiny devices with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB SSD in the mid-range pri­ce seg­ment. The stron­gest play­er here, with more than 16,000 clicks, is the HP Pro 400 G9 Mini.

In the gra­phics card mar­ket, high-priced models in par­ti­cu­lar gene­ra­te many clicks. However, the order data shows a dif­fe­rent pic­tu­re: actu­al pro­cu­re­ment in the chan­nel is focu­sed pri­ma­ri­ly on the mid-range pri­ce seg­ment. While high-end gra­phics cards attract strong inte­rest, they play a much smal­ler role in ope­ra­tio­nal purchasing.

Rising click num­bers com­bi­ned with a fal­ling avera­ge cart value show that resel­lers are taking a clo­ser look and making more deli­be­ra­te decis­i­ons, revie­w­ing their opti­ons and pri­ces. The first quar­ter of 2026 thus shows an acti­ve but more cau­tious IT chan­nel. Demand is rising, while fluc­tua­ting com­po­nent pri­ces, espe­ci­al­ly for memo­ry, are dri­ving more com­pa­ri­son and more tar­ge­ted purcha­sing. “The cur­rent pha­se is hea­vi­ly shaped by short-term mar­ket move­ments,” Charles sum­ma­ri­zes. “Once exis­ting invent­ories are deple­ted, pri­ce pres­su­re along the sup­p­ly chain will beco­me even more apparent.”