The growth rate in the custom installation market leveled off in the first half of 2024 following a solid bounce back in the second half of last year. Integrators are producing significantly more proposals to maintain the same number of projects, while also contending with inflationary pressures affecting the business.
Those are among the key takeaways to be gleaned from the D-Tools 2024 Midyear Market Report, which draws its data from nearly 85,000 proposals and nearly 31,000 signed contracts that were produced in D-Tools Cloud during the first six months of 2024. The report is available as a free download for integrators and suppliers to gauge their own businesses against these industry averages.
The Report’s results show that the market is experiencing much higher average contract sizes, a greater number of proposals being generated, a flat average number of contracts being executed and much higher average contract sizes during the first six months of 2024. The market conditions are an improvement from the first half of 2023, when the electronics integration industry was feeling the effects of wage inflation and consumer debt that led to a lackluster first half last year.
Specifically, comparing the first six months of 2024 to the first half of 2023:
- The average number of proposals grew nearly 9% to 85 proposals, or about 14 per month per integrator.
- The average number of signed contracts grew 3.7% to 44 contracts, or about 7 per month per integrator.
- The average signed contract value rose a whopping 19.6% to $18,224.
The market for professional installation remains solid in the first half of 2024 and performed much better than the lackluster first half of 2023. Rising inflation and high interest rates appear to be in the rearview mirror, and the Fed is expected to orchestrate a soft landing from last year’s turmoil and uncertainty. The stock market has been volatile, and it is something to keep an eye on, as customers get anxious as the market fluctuates. The U.S. election outcome is also sure to breed some market hesitancy.
Based on the D-Tools Cloud data, demand remains solid but clients are being slow to pull the trigger on signing deals, but when they do, it is for a noticeably higher price tag. There is still plenty of negotiation taking place, which might spur integrators to try to stretch clients’ initial budgets to combat potential value engineering.
D-Tools Cloud, now in use by more than 3,000 system integrators, is the leading end-to-end business management platform for residential system integration companies. The software includes sales pipeline and CRM administration, in-the-field estimating, intelligent visual quoting, interactive system design, multimedia proposals with e-sign and payment collection capabilities, product procurement using supplier-authorized integrator-specific pricing, scheduling, time tracking, task management, project management, change order handling and service management.
Download your free copy of the report today.
