On Sept. 8, Lockport, New York-based NetPlus Alliance announced that its distributor members “remained mostly optimistic going into 2024,” according to its latest quarterly report based on a survey of NetPlus members.

The NetPlus Alliance Industry Outlook tracks business results and trends in the industrial and contractor supply markets. The latest quarterly survey was completed in August 2023, and the outlook was based on the second-quarter results for 2023. The survey found:

• Just over 47% of members in the survey reported significant gains in the second quarter of 2023 (+8% or more).
• 26% of members reported moderate gains in 2Q 2023 (+3% to 7%).
• Almost all members (87%) are expecting sales to be up significantly (+8% or more) in 2023.

“NetPlus Alliance’s second-quarter results and the response to the Industry Outlook survey indicate that business is still very good but may be slowing a bit,” said Dan Judge, Founder of NetPlus Alliance, in a news release. “But NetPlus members continue to take action to grow their business with new branches, additional salespeople, new NetPlus suppliers and new customer relationships.”

Uncertainty of 2024

NetPlus members cited uncertainty due to inflation, interest rates, fears of a recession and the election cycle, making it difficult to see what’s coming in 2024. Talent will also be a challenge for many, NetPlus officials said.

In this quarter’s survey, NetPlus Alliance also asked distributor members about their plans for emerging technologies. Business process automation and data/analytics were members’ top two priorities moving into 2024.