Yes, the headline you just read is correct. There has been a run on ethernet adapters on Amazon ($AMZN), which has caused the average price to go up 20% in the last few weeks. But if you're worried about paying through the nose for one, and REALLY need a wired network connection while you're working at home, don't worry, the average price didn't go up too much. On average, ethernet adapter prices went from $14.99 to $17.99. So three dollars difference.
An entire year without any price increases, only discounts and sales, and then April 2020 rolls around and suddenly there is a major spike. Three dollars isn't major, again we stress your financials won't suffer buying a new adapter, but this is a familiar trend. We wrote about a similar phenomenon with routers, which we figure is the same group of people who have never worked from home now having to make the transition to relying on their home internet.
Both the "Amazon Ethernet Adapter for Amazon Fire TV Devices" and "UGREEN Ethernet Adapter USB 2.0" items are best-sellers in both the "Amazon Devices & Accessories" and "Video Games" categories respectively. They each hit top 30 in their respective ranks, and the Amazon-branded ethernet adapter was #7 on April 5th. Yesterday it was rank #16, the day before #14, so these are definitely selling really well.
About the Data:
Thinknum tracks companies using the information they post online - jobs, social and web traffic, product sales and app ratings - and creates data sets that measure factors like hiring, revenue and foot traffic. Data sets may not be fully comprehensive (they only account for what is available on the web), but they can be used to gauge performance factors like staffing and sales.
Further Reading:
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