Hardware customers ‘are asking if this is something they should do now versus later in the year,’ Fort Point IT CEO Travis Woods tells CRN in an interview.
These are some of the takeaways from new research from IPED, The Channel Company’s channel consulting arm, which gathers feedback from more than 50 global IT stakeholders on the effects of global tariffs. The research includes responses from solution providers, distributors and vendor channel leaders.
Travis Woods, CEO of San Francisco Bay Area-based Fort Point IT, did not participate in the IPED survey but agreed that the pace of changes to tariff policy is leading to slower actions by his customers.
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Tariffs And The Channel
Customers needing to decide on hardware upgrades this year are especially in a predicament, weighing whether to buy now to avoid higher prices or rolling the dice and seeing if they can continue to use machines they already have and see if prices fall in the future.
This year presents a major device refresh sales opportunity for solution providers with Windows 10 end of support set for October, giving them a chance to sell customers on buying new machines to make the most of Windows 11.
Hardware customers “are asking if this is something they should do now versus later in the year,” Woods told CRN in an interview. “It’s difficult to make decisions like this.”
Solution providers who participated in the study said they are finding difficulty in making decisions until tariff changes settle. Partners fear overreacting to tariffs if the situation changes drastically in the short term.
To illustrate the rapid pace of change in the global tariff war, President Donald Trump announced on April 2 worldwide tariffs of at least 10 percent, with some of those tariffs taking effect April 5, before pausing most tariffs for 90 days starting April 9, giving countries time to negotiate with the U.S. until July.
Trump notably didn’t pause tariffs of 145 percent on Chinese imports, with China hitting the U.S. with 125 percent tariffs effective April 12. On Tuesday, Trump said he is interested in creating a tariff exemption and rebate program for automakers.
Tariffs Cause Channel Headaches
On pricing, the common throughline from solution providers was an inability to absorb any price increases by vendors, planning instead to pass price increases to customers.
Solution providers have seen various vendors increasing prices 10 percent to 15 percent, particularly in hardware. Cloud and software prices have stayed steady for now but solution providers expect rising infrastructure costs could change things.
Solution providers are staying close to customers, communicating on vendor and distributor changes and communications, according to the research. Some see opportunities to lead amid the uncertainty and help customers achieve greater efficiency during this time.
Vendors that participated in the survey say they are actively monitoring the effects of tariffs and investigating ways to adjust their supply chains to minimize the effects. They said they are maintaining investments made for the first half of 2025 but still assessing what to do for the second half of the year.
Any price increases might start in 2025’s third quarter, according to vendors. Vendor channel leaders proposed maintaining maximum pricing transparency with customers, even breaking out tariff line items in bills as opposed to general pricing markups.
Potential difficulty with that strategy emerged Tuesday with a public spat between President Trump and Amazon.com over the online retailer potentially breaking out the added cost of tariffs to product prices, according to multiple media reports.
Vendor channel leaders saw some short-term buying bumps from customers wanting to avoid increased prices, but overall vendors see longer sales cycles and indecision among buyers, according to the research.
Their comments mirror what some technology giants have reported in recent quarterly earnings reports covering the earliest days of global tariff impacts. Executives with Google, AT&T, Verizon, ServiceNow, IBM, SAP and Intel have pointed out some increased short-term customer spending to get ahead of future price increases, strategic maneuvering in global supply chains and the resilience of AI spending thus far.
Companies including Verizon, AT&T and IBM maintained their forecasts for the year. ServiceNow raised its subscription revenue guidance to between $12.64 billion and $12.68 billion, which would represent 19.5 percent growth year over year ignoring foreign exchange.
