Medical Supplies Wholesale

BARRIERS TO ENTRY
High barriers to entry mean that new companies struggle to enter an industry, while low barriers mean it is easy for new companies to enter an industry.

CAPITAL INTENSITY
Compares the amount of money spent on capital (plant, machinery and equipment) with that spent on labor.
IBISWorld uses the ratio of depreciation to wages as a proxy for capital intensity. High capital intensity is more than $0.333 of capital to $1 of labor; medium is $0.125 to $0.333 of capital to $1 of labor; low is less than $0.125 of capital for every $1 of labor.

CONSTANT PRICES
The dollar figures in the Key Statistics table, including forecasts, are adjusted for inflation using the current year (i.e. year published) as the base year. This removes the impact of changes in the purchasing power of the dollar, leaving only the "real" growth or decline in industry metrics. The inflation adjustments in IBISWorld’s reports are made using the US Bureau of Economic Analysis’ implicit GDP price deflator.

DOMESTIC DEMAND
Spending on industry goods and services within the United States, regardless of their country of origin. It is derived by adding imports to industry revenue, and then subtracting exports.

ELECTRONIC DATA INTERCHANGE (EDI)
The transmission of electronic documents between businesses from one computer system to another.

GROUP PURCHASING ORGANIZATION
A group of businesses that form to leverage their purchasing power and gain discounts from vendors based on their collective buying power.

HEALTH MAINTENANCE ORGANIZATION
A type of managed care organization that provides a form of healthcare coverage that is fulfilled through providers with which the HMO has a contract.

POINT-OF-SALE (POS)
A system used at checkout in retail stores using computers and cash registers to capture transaction data at the time and place of sale.

RADIO-FREQUENCY IDENTIFICATION (RFID)
A technology that tracks products from the time they leave the assembly line to the time they leave the store by releasing continuous signals from a chip.

WHOLESALE BYPASS
A trend within retail and manufacturing industries where producers supply goods directly to retailers, eliminating the need for independent wholesalers.

The COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic spurred demand for medical supplies from hospitals facing a shortage of personal protective equipment, including respirators, surgical gloves and other supplies, that help protect doctors and nurses from contracting and spreading the coronavirus. To meet this demand, industry wholesalers worked with state and federal government agencies to ensure that necessary equipment and supplies were distributed to the healthcare facilities with the most need. However, healthcare providers were also unable to provide elective and non-essential healthcare services due to the virus. Without these services, most healthcare providers had less demand for medical supplies. Additionally, with national attention on the industry and a critical need for these products, wholesalers mostly avoided raising prices for crucial medical supplies. As a result, the industry profit margin is expected to decline. However, as COVID-19 restrictions are rolled back, demand for healthcare products has recovered, resulting in an estimated 5.4% revenue increase in 2022.