The entire lockdown period has forced people to turn to home office setups for work. Third-party sellers are taking advantage of this unusual demand.
Ever since the lockdown has kicked in around the world, the demand for the home office equipment has seen an expected spike.
There is also an unusual spike in the need to find devices that can provide entertainment during the whole lockdown situation.
As basic economic principles would indicate, as the demand goes up, prices go up. Additionally, as demand goes up, the supplies naturally deplete, which then gives profiteers the opportunity to command the price.
Price of home office devices are skyrocketing
Many companies that rely on computers for the business to run have told their employees to just work from home. The reality is, some people don’t have the equipment to do. As a result, they turn to online shopping to hastily set up their home work stations.
In a report, it was found out that since the lockdown has started, the demand for routers has skyrocketed. The list for the best-recommended routers in Amazon was just numbered at ten. Now it has jumped into a full-blown list of 27 items and brands all just for routers.
Other home office devices that are necessary for a work from home setups are webcams. A market research has found out that there was a noticeable 179% increase in total sales of webcam since the start of the lockdown.
Many third-party retailers have taken this advantage to increase the prices three-fold.
Demand for home entertainment and equipment has spiked
The research also has found out that Amazon listings for home gym equipment have also seen price increases from third party retailers.
People are stuck in their homes. They are not even allowed to walk around, even just around their own block. To solve this problem, people are turning to treadmills as a remedy.
The price increases are not limited to big home gym equipment. Retailers are also taking advantage of selling home gym gears at absurd prices. Some desperate gym rats are paying hundreds of dollars for second-hand gym items.
Nintendo sees a global shortage in the shipment of its new Nintendo Switch gaming consoles. The Switch retails at only $299 each, but third party retailers are jumping on the gun and are selling these at $500 each.
Amazon crackdown price gougers
Although equipped with the most powerful data, Amazon is still having a hard time running after these opportunistic retailers. The company reported that they have already removed almost 500,000 bad listings.
Additionally, they have committed to holding these price-gougers accountable as soon as the situation normalizes after the Coronavirus pandemic.
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