- Mike Crosby
- Apr 22, 2025
- 2 min read
At the start of 2025, business expectations were high driven by two converging factors within B2B; a significant pool of notebooks and desktops at or near end-of-life, and the sunsetting of Windows 10 scheduled for October. While a major PC refresh is a significant driver of revenue and margin, a less visible though potentially richer opportunity exists with complementary categories and products that are bought concurrently with the host device.
Enter attach.
Historically, attach rates have been near impossible to capture and track, due to the lack of transaction-level data, leaving only opinions, outdated assumptions, and estimated ratios to drive strategy and tactics. Today, transaction-level analytics (Circana’s B2B Solution Insights) provide unparalleled visibility into transaction-level data, empowering OEMs and partners to see exactly what is being purchased alongside host devices, by category frequency, size of business, and sector vertical, along with volume and transaction-level pricing. By analyzing attachment frequencies—say, how often docking stations or warranties accompany notebook PCs—it highlights patterns that might otherwise go unnoticed. For OEMs, this means smarter bundling decisions that boost revenue and margins without inflating costs. For partners, it is an opportunity to deepen relationships with end-user customers by offering tailored solutions that align specifically with their business needs.
Be sure to remember deal size and volume pricing.
Maximizing identified attach opportunities requires knowledge of not only frequency, but order quantity and transactional pricing by volume. Core to the solution is setting proper level discounting for bid-based opportunities by identifying competitive pricing without unnecessarily conceding margin. The forecasted PC refresh is expected to generate significant revenue in 2025 and 2026 yet attach-based strategies offer incremental opportunities today. By adding attach and competitive pricing, leading OEMs and partners can benefit well beyond a PC refresh.
