PC hardware is bought by people who read spec sheets for pleasure and by people who only want a game to run. Both ask the same question before paying: will this part work with what I already have? A case, a graphics card or a memory kit is no use if it does not fit, connect or get enough power. That puts compatibility, more than appearance, at the centre of a hardware shop’s product pages.

This guide covers the channel, where hardware retailers lose money, and what a component page should carry. Published data on this sector is thin and mostly global, so I say where each figure comes from and where none exists.

How hardware reaches buyers

I found no public figure for the share of UK PC component sales made online. The nearest UK number covers all retail. Statista put internet sales at 26.8% of all retail sales in Great Britain in March 2025, down from a peak of 37.5% in February 2021 (Statista, 2025). The page does not name its original source and shows no split by sector, so it says nothing specific about hardware.

Company filings show how concentrated the channel is, though they are global and cover whole businesses. In Corsair’s annual report for 2025, Amazon accounted for 27.4% of net revenue and the ten largest customers for 49.3% (Corsair 10-K, 2025). Europe, the Middle East and Africa together made up 38.4%. The previous year’s filing put revenue through channel partners at 57.4% in 2024 (Corsair 10-K, 2024). I read only the opening sections of both filings.

Logitech shows a similar pattern. In its year to March 2026, Amazon and its affiliates made up 18% of gross sales. The distributors Ingram Micro and TD Synnex took 14% and 12% (Logitech 10-K, fiscal 2026). Its gaming sales rose 6% to $1,414.2 million in that year, a total that includes streaming software revenue (Logitech results, May 2026).

For a UK independent, the shape matters more than the numbers. Big brands sell a large share through marketplaces and distributors, so the same part typically appears at many shops. A specialist competes on what it adds: checked compatibility, a build service, a clear warranty route and advice from people who build. The product page is where that has to show.

Where hardware retailers lose money

Parts that work but do not fit

No source I found gives a return rate for PC hardware, in the UK or anywhere else. General figures, mostly UK, do exist but are now dated. IMRG, in a report supported by the returns company ReBOUND, gave an average return rate of 15% to 17% across retailers in September 2019 (IMRG, 2021). Electricals appear in a chart in that report, but the values could not be read.

Hardware returns follow a familiar pattern in trade practice. A part can work perfectly and still come back. The cooler is too tall for the case, the board has a different socket, or the power supply lacks a connector. Those are information failures, and a product page can prevent many of them. An opened box may have to be resold as open-box stock at a lower price, so an avoidable return can cost margin as well as handling.

A later report from IMRG and ReBound, a returns vendor, surveyed 41 UK retailers in October 2022 (IMRG and ReBound). Asked how they were trying to cut returns, 74.4% named clearer sizing charts and better product descriptions. For a hardware shop, the equivalent of a sizing chart is a clearance and compatibility table. It is a small survey with a commercial sponsor, so read it as a pointer rather than a measurement.

Faults, warranty and dead-on-arrival claims

Hardware shops deal with faults as well as change-of-mind returns. Many specialists run a short dead-on-arrival period followed by a return-to-base warranty. The clearest example in my check was a warranty block stating 28 days for dead-on-arrival claims and 12 months return to base. Where terms sit only behind a footer link, buyers with a fault are likely to phone or email to ask, which costs staff time.

Expectations about timing matter too. In the 2021 IMRG report, 63% of customers expected a return window of up to 30 days, while 25% expected the 14-day legal minimum. Those were pre-pandemic expectations.

Launches, allocation and end of life

Components have short shelf lives. A graphics card or motherboard can be replaced within a year or two, and launch stock typically arrives in small allocations. Pages can then sit in pre-order, out-of-stock or discontinued states for weeks. In my check, one discontinued case page still showed a price, and its “more like this” panel was empty. Another was out of stock and offered only a back-in-stock signup that was easy to miss. A page that has lost its product should still send the buyer to a successor or a compatible alternative.

Trade, education and business buyers

Hardware also sells to IT departments, schools and resellers. Those buyers want prices without VAT, quotes, purchase orders and account terms. Three of the readable pages I checked showed an ex-VAT price, one through a toggle, and the trade reseller offered quotes by email and phone. That mix is typical of shops that serve both audiences from one catalogue. See B2B ecommerce for how a trade route can sit beside the retail one.

What eight UK product pages offered

In October 2026 I checked eight UK product pages for PC cases and gaming keyboards. They came from specialist component shops, custom PC builders, mass-market resellers and a trade reseller. One returned only a bot challenge, so seven were readable. The check was text-only, so viewers drawn by script would not show, and seven pages is a small sample. The counts below are pages where a feature was seen; on one thin page, colour and specification choice could not be detected.

What the page offeredPages (of 7)
Price shown6
Contact route6
Full dimensions or spec3, plus 2 partial
Finance shown3
Compatibility tool on the product page1
Video (a link only)1
Delivery lead time stated1
Product reviews with a count1
Returns terms stated in full0, plus 1 partial
Selectable colour or specification0

Each case was listed in a single colour, which suggests colours are sold as separate products. Only one page had a compatibility checker of its own, and one more listed configurators and a PC designer in its site menu. The best spec tables gave the clearances a builder needs in millimetres: maximum graphics card length, cooler height and power supply length. Four pages gave no dimensions at all. Visible faults included a pre-ticked add-on beside a total with no value, and stock hidden behind a “check stock” button.

What a PC hardware product page needs

  1. Clearances and physical size as text. For cases, give maximum GPU length, cooler height, PSU length, radiator positions and supported board sizes. For cards and coolers, give the matching length, height and slot width.
  2. Electrical and connection details. Socket, chipset, memory type, rated power draw, the power connectors needed and display outputs, written so they can be compared across parts.
  3. A “works with” panel. Link to compatible boards, coolers or cases you stock, and say plainly what does not fit.
  4. The full manufacturer part number beside the product name, matching the code on the box and in makers’ compatibility lists.
  5. Stock and delivery in plain words, including pre-order dates, allocation limits and what happens if a delivery slips.
  6. Dead-on-arrival, warranty and returns terms together, including how opened or installed parts are treated.
  7. Prices with and without VAT where you sell to businesses, plus a quote route for volume orders.
  8. A successor link on every discontinued or long out-of-stock page.

Platform and operations

Most hardware is simple at the product level. Each colour, capacity and layout is typically its own part with its own barcode, which fits standard products and variants on Shopify or WooCommerce. The complexity sits between products, in which parts work together. Neither platform stores compatibility rules as standard. They usually live in product attributes or a separate data store that a finder or builder reads. The product data guide covers how to structure that.

Other points to settle early:

  • Supplier feeds. Distributor data can mix units and leave fields blank. Clearances need cleaning into one unit before any filter or checker can rely on them.
  • Custom builds. A system builder sells several stocked parts plus labour, testing and a warranty. Stock needs reserving per component, and the order has to reach the workshop as a parts list.
  • Electrical take-back. Selling electrical equipment may bring take-back duties. Check your obligations under the WEEE regulations for components and systems.
  • Speed and search. Three UK hardware product pages in my lab tests had a median lab LCP of 8.4 seconds on a throttled phone. PC hardware website performance explains what that means. Part numbers and filter pages are covered in PC hardware ecommerce SEO.

Where a configurator fits

Hardware suits configuration logic better than most categories, because its rules are real and checkable: sockets, memory types, form factors, clearances and wattage. It can run as a checker on one product page, a step-by-step builder for custom systems, or a visual builder for keyboards and cases. The PC hardware configurator guide covers each option. The PC and gaming hardware demos show image-based examples on illustrative products.

Where to start

List your most-returned products and find out why each one came back. Where the answer is “did not fit” or “wrong connector”, the fix is information on the product page, not a new returns process. Then check that every case, cooler and graphics card page states its clearances in millimetres as text. If you would like help with either, get in touch. I reply within two UK working days.

Sources