Has price inflation ended (or slowed down) in the security market?

The unfortunate reality is that the security market is beholden to the same factors impacting inflation as any other market. Though we can’t fight against rising fuel or parts costs, our job remains the same: protecting people and places from danger. The latest reports do indicate that inflation at large is slowing down and that physical security is still a priority for organisations, which means that strong growth is likely for the industry. Lingering supply chain disruptions and labour shortages continue to pose challenges across industries, which means it’s more important than ever for system integrators and end-users alike to focus on the versatility and total cost of ownership of solutions. With this in mind, security organisations should keep a close eye on inflation rates and continue to work to best serve their customers, partners, and the broader public – despite a fluctuating economic landscape. 

Post-pandemic, the security market, like many other sectors, experienced price inflation due to various factors such as supply chain disruptions, and rising production costs. These factors contributed to higher prices for security equipment, technologies, and services. Inflation has certainly slowed down but is still influenced by other market factors. The global economic condition and shipping and logistics costs remain higher than pre-pandemic, and with no “new normal” on the horizon, future changes are much harder to predict. 

As supply chain issues have improved along with steadying demand, we have seen price inflation in the market slow down over the past six months. While we expect some price increases from vendors over the next year, they will not be as significant as in 2023. At i-PRO, we moved our manufacturing centre back to Japan at the beginning of 2023, in part to take advantage of the well-established logistics and supply chains available there. We have also developed new products and manufacturing processes with a modular approach that shares components among more models. The result is higher volumes of fewer components being sourced, which creates economies of scale in many facets. All these decisions have helped to shield our customers from price inflation for i-PRO products. We remain optimistic that 2024 will continue to see price inflation coming under control across the security industry.