Amid inflation, who should stock up on tech gear?

With high inflation, most of us have changed our spending and shopping habits over the past several months.

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A recent survey of 1,000 consumers in the U.S. by Smarty, an online shopping browser extension, found that inflation has forced eight in 10 to adjust their budgets. Many say they are delaying purchases like a new car.

“Inflation is at an all-time high, and consumers are becoming increasingly aware of how these price increases affect their daily lives,” Vipin Porwal, CEO and founder of Smarty, said in a news release. “It is clear that the sharp increase in prices on goods has caused consumers to watch what they spend.”

A little tip that many people follow to stretch their shopping dollars: Stock up when you see sales or find coupons to take advantage of the discounts you always use.

But does this advice extend to other consumer goods such as electronics? If your extra flash, should you buy a new laptop, smartphone, keyboard or mouse, TV – in reserve? If you don’t buy it now, will it cost too much to replace based on inflation?

Not necessarily.

Tech products are going down in price, so don’t buy now

In June, the consumer price index jumped 9.1% for all goods over the past 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The increase was fueled by jumps in food (10.4%), new cars (11.4%) and gasoline (60.6%).

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But electronics? Prices in some technology categories have been reduced from June 2021 to June 2022.

“My advice is this: If you believe a recession is coming — or already is — then don’t buy tech stuff right now,” said Scott Lieberman, founder of TouchdownMoney.com, which helps businesses choose the right technology products and services. “In general, technology prices will fall because businesses and everyday people will have less money to spend because of increased spending on everything.”

According to the Consumer Price Index, the price of televisions fell 2.2 percent year-on-year, while computers, peripherals and smart home assistants fell 0.6 percent. The price of smartphones has been reduced by 20 percent.

The Adobe Digital Price Index, which measures inflation in the digital economy, is in line with the BLS’ assessment that electronics prices have fallen sharply, reporting a 7.3 percent drop in June over the past 12 months.

So Lieberman advises consumers to hold off on technology purchases to hedge against inflation because prices are falling.

“Avoid pre-empting technology when you need it, because as we all know, it becomes outdated very quickly.”

Businesses are the exception.

But what about business owners meeting their technology needs? Some technology purchases now make sense not because of inflation but because of supply chain issues, said Cory Donovan, president of Alta Technologies, which sells refurbished computer servers.

“If companies have IT initiatives planned within 18 months that require data center hardware, they should start planning and maintaining equipment now,” he said. It is recommended to set up alternate source channels for unlimited access to backends of IT servers and network switches.

“As I watch quarterly calls from the likes of Cisco, HPE and Dell/EMC, it’s clear that there’s no end to supply in the near future, and we’re hearing that customers are facing backlogs stretching over a year.”

Some businesses cannot wait for new orders. Now they need a technological upgrade.

“For certain product categories … we have waiting lists of enterprise customers queuing up for the next batch of used equipment,” Donovan said. “Some companies are deciding to upgrade existing servers or second-generation gear instead of waiting for new systems that are outdated because they just need to start their projects, and we’ve upgraded equipment sitting on the shelf. IT managers are under a lot of stress and they have to be stupid right now.”

For home tech users, inflation shouldn’t force you to buy tech equipment before you’re ready to do so. Amazon Prime Day is over, but Black Friday isn’t too far away, and you can find some amazing deals during that time.

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