{"id":633932,"date":"2026-03-19T17:07:56","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T15:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=633932"},"modified":"2026-03-19T17:08:27","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T15:08:27","slug":"explosive-allegations-about-tech-price-increases-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/hardware\/633932-explosive-allegations-about-tech-price-increases-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Explosive allegations about tech price increases in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At least two prominent South African online PC hardware retailers believe that some major tech distributors could be exploiting the global memory crunch to inflate their prices and boost profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The prices of DDR5 RAM and NAND flash memory used in SSDs have skyrocketed due to surging demand for processing power and storage in artificial intelligence (AI) applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earlier in 2026, local stores including Evetech, Wootware, Dreamware Tech, and Progenix confirmed that many DDR5 products’ prices had more than tripled since the shortage emerged in late 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile networks, including Vodacom, MTN, and Cell C, have also warned that the issue will affect smartphone and laptop prices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, more recently, MyBroadband received a message from the owner of a PC retailer expressing concern that one distributor could be using the opportunity to gouge prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“There is a specific supplier that phoned us, letting us know that pricing is going to increase from next week [23 to 29 March 2026],” they said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They are talking about increases of thousands at a time and are encouraging their retailers to purchase now to ‘beat the price increase’.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retailer reached out to a few suppliers after the call and found that no other distributor had indicated price increases. “I question whether they are just trying to drum up a few sales,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retailer was concerned that the supplier’s behaviour could encourage other distributors to raise prices even when costs haven’t increased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“When the first RAM price hikes started, one supplier increased their pricing exponentially, then it was just a matter of time before the other suppliers got wind of it,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s not like I’m saying there isn’t a shortage; there definitely is, but it’s starting to feel like it is any excuse nowadays to increase pricing and create a feeling of scarcity in the market.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most distributors know gouging is risky<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband followed up with several other major PC hardware retailers to hear whether they had noticed something similar.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One store owner said they also had an issue with another distributor’s price increases but were unaware of more price increases at the majority of distributors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While he believed a handful tried to gouge prices during the early days of the memory shortage, almost all quickly backtracked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The owner explained that distributors, in general, were not eager to gouge prices, as their stock is not selling, even at prices from a month or two ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Retailers aren’t going to stockpile at today’s pricing when pricing from several increases ago was already more than the market was willing to pay,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“No business wants to lose sales across the board because they’ve made a few segments unaffordable by gouging.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He also explained that distributors’ product managers often worked on commission and had sales targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If they can’t reach their targets, it affects their pockets personally, so they’re doing what they can to reduce pricing and get sales,” he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“More than one product manager has told me they’re considering moving to a different industry, as they’re running the lowest margin they’re allowed to and not getting a fraction of the sales they need.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The retailer said RAM prices had increased by about 500% since the shortage began in late 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While sales volumes have remained fairly stable, the retailer has found that business customers have shifted towards older CPUs that can be paired with more affordable DDR4 RAM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Enthusiast PC builders are also buying lower-end graphics cards with cheaper or less graphics memory. More people are also spending money on peripherals or aesthetics instead of extra storage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At least two prominent South African online PC hardware retailers believe that some major tech distributors could be exploiting the global memory crunch to inflate their prices and boost profits.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":497055,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[42318,92451,103069,11441,46641,3096,38527,54003],"class_list":["post-633932","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hardware","tag-ddr5","tag-ict-distributors","tag-memory-shortage","tag-nand-flash","tag-pc-hardware","tag-ram","tag-tech-prices","tag-tech-stores"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633932"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633932"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":634584,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633932\/revisions\/634584"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/497055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}