Updated OPI survey underlines the impact of pandemic.

 

The demand for office products in developed countries has weakened considerably as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to disrupt the business sector.

 

According to a global survey of senior OP executives, the expected overall rate of decline in demand for core OP in 2020 has now accelerated significantly with 94 per cent of all respondents now expecting a core OP market decline in 2020, compared to 85 per cent earlier in the year – and the anticipated rate of that decline is now also much deeper.

 

With COVID-19 causing fundamental shifts in working habits and product demand worldwide, specialist office products market research firm Martin Wilde Associates (MWA) and OPI recently revisited the senior industry executives in Australia, Benelux, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and the USA who had originally participated in the State Of The OP Industry survey in early 2020 and asked them to revise their forecasts.

 

The report shows that, whereas catering/breakroom supplies and office furniture were previously among the categories that were most widely expected to grow in 2020, these are now rarely mentioned as being growth categories.

 

The product category that is most widely expected to be declining in 2020 continues to be traditional stationery products, but other core OP categories, such as cut office paper and printer/IT consumables, are now less likely to be mentioned.

 

The supply channels that are most widely expected to be taking share in 2020 continue to be Amazon/Amazon Business and – to a lesser extent – other internet-only OP resellers.

 

The channels that are most widely believed to be losing share in 2020 continue to be the national contract stationers, small independent OP dealers and OP wholesalers.

 

The report shows that there are some product specialists, such as paper merchants and furniture distributors, that are now more widely expected to be in decline in 2020.

 

The full update report – including the original survey published in April that reports on OP market trends in 2019 – is now available at: www.opi.net/soti2020