Technology plays a more important role in our lives today than ever before.

We believe in the power of technology to improve lives, help people stay connected, productive, fed, clean, healthy and entertained.

We are here to help everyone enjoy these benefits and with our scale and expertise we are uniquely placed to do so.

Continuing growth drivers

Many of the trends that accelerated during the pandemic are enduring trends. Hybrid working is here to stay, with around 30% of the UK workforce based at home for at least some of their work, double the amount there were three years ago⁽¹⁾. In the same way, online learning and home entertainment continue to grow fast⁽²⁾⁽³⁾. As a result, there are more products in people’s homes, and this drives more familiarity, reliance and greater use of tech. This growth is further underpinned by amazing supplier innovation, and we have several of the world’s largest companies as trusted suppliers. We believe these trends provide long term upside for our markets and will make tech spend less susceptible to cyclical downturns.

<sup>1. UK ONS; UK Parliament
2. Coursera.
3. Digital Entertainment and Retail Association (ERA)
4. Deloitte UK
5. European Commission</sup>

Key market drivers over the next year

1. Consumer sentiment

After two years of high inflation and falling consumer confidence across our markets, there are early signs of inflation and interest rates falling. This has led to an improvement in consumer confidence in all of our markets, which could lead to increased sales in our more discretionary product categories.

2. Technology replacement cycle

Technology equipment undergo replacement every four to seven years due to obsolescence or the emergence of superior alternatives. A large amount of product was bought during the Covid pandemic, as consumers sought to upgrade their home technology. It has now been four years since the pandemic and we may start to see customers upgrading and replacing products bought during that period.

3. Artificial Intelligence (AI) evolution

AI is a rapidly emerging technology and we expect more of the products that we sell to incorporate AI enabled technology. As use cases become clear to customers, this emerging technology could drive further uptake and upgrades of technology products. In the last year, Samsung launched the S24 mobile phone, which features AI technology, including live translation capabilities and generative photo and video editing. After the year end, we were the first retailer globally to launch Microsoft Copilot+PC. This innovative productivity tool simplifies tasks using natural language queries. Some of its key benefits include market leading speed and performance, over 22 hours of battery life, and live translation.