Partners See Significant Shifts in Customer Buying Behavior in 2024

In the Channelnomics 2024 Channel Forecast survey, partners noted that a significant number of customers are reducing spending, increasing expectations, and demanding more transparency in pricing.

Despite the optimistic IT spending forecast for 2024, partner confidence is down for the second year in a row. Macroeconomic trends, the uneven demand for technology products and services, and general uncertainty weigh on partner optimism. A large part of the tempered sales expectations this year comes directly from customers.

In our 2024 Channel Forecast report, we offer a granular view of the shifts in customer purchasing patterns, which are exerting pressures on budget allocations, reshaping service expectations, and steering the decision-making process in IT procurement. Analyst firms across the industry pegged 2024 IT spending growth at 4.3% to 6.8% year over year. Categories such as cloud computing, business software, artificial intelligence, and data center infrastructure will see double-digit growth, they say. Despite the rosy outlook, 36% of partners report that their customers are reducing their IT spending.