Growing sales for home office equipment reveal investment in working from home

New Zealanders have invested in setting up home offices for the long term. Photo / Supplied

Kiwi consumers are investing in home office set-ups that suggest the work from home movement kicked off by Covid-19 is here to stay.

Just-released data from Pricespy shows just in the past month the popularity of webcams, laptop docking stations and microphones has skyrocketed as New Zealanders continue to work from home.

Ergonomic desks and chairs, external keyboards and printers have also seen increased sales.

This week marks a year to the day New Zealand business owners were told to make changes so they could operate from home or close their doors.

"One year on, even though New Zealand is no longer in a lockdown situation, we continue to see popularity growth across products that help people work more effectively from home," said Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett, New Zealand country manager for PriceSpy.

"Some may have thought working from home was a temporary solution to the current situation but our consumer buying interest data indicates people are looking to make long-term changes."

Matinvesi-Bassett said the data showed consumers were investing in home office equipment that allows them to operate and communicate more professionally.

Before the global pandemic hit, webcams were not a very popular shopping category.

In 2019, the global webcams market size was worth USD 8325.4m It is now expected to reach USD 24670m by the end of 2026.

Desk and chair sales had also seen exponential growth during the first lockdowns but have also had higher growth since.

Sales for ergonomic flat-pack desks by Fiasco climbed during 2020 and are now higher than ever. Photo / Supplied

Joe Bradford from New Zealand-based business Fiasco said the sales for flatpack desks continued to grow here and in the US.

When the pandemic hit Fiasco went from supplying road cases to the events industry to producing wooden ergonomic desks to sell in New Zealand and America.

"While lockdowns were a major driver of sales in mid-2020 we started to see more consistent and growing demand towards the end of 2020 which has carried into 2021," Bradford said.

Bradford said sales in New Zealand continued to grow but in the US it was corporate companies who had made the call to support their staff to work at home "for the long term."

Employment website Seek NZ had close to 3000 jobs listed that offered some remote or work-from-home component.

Janet Faulding, Seek NZ General Manager said more businesses had embraced flexibility since the pandemic hit.

"This time last year, as the country went into level 4 lockdown, many Kiwis found themselves working from home. Seek research indicates half of New Zealanders have experienced change to their working situation," Faulding said.

"At the height of the pandemic, we found nearly half (48 per cent) of New Zealanders were working from home."

Faulding said since August there had been a gradual decrease in Kiwis working from home.

As of February 2021 around 15 per cent of respondents to a Seek survey indicated they work from home.

"We've seen businesses across New Zealand embracing flexible working arrangements as per their job postings," Faulding said.

"In the last year we've noticed an increase in positions referencing flexibility in working location and opportunities to work from home."