Ukrainians can expect a significant increase in the price of consumer electronics in the spring of 2026. According to market participants, prices for certain categories of gadgets may increase by 30–40%, which will be one of the most significant jumps in recent years.
The key reason is the global shortage of components, which arose against the backdrop of the rapid development of artificial intelligence technologies. According to representatives of large retail chains, the AI industry has sharply increased demand for RAM and storage, which has led to a shortage of DRAM and SSD on the global market.
According to Andriy Kovalenko, commercial director of the COMFY chain, prices for these components increased by 20–30% at the beginning of 2026. The trend was formed at the end of 2025 and, according to forecasts, will continue at least until 2027. Ukrainian consumers will feel the consequences with a delay: retail prices will begin to increase in April-May, when retailers will exhaust stocks of goods purchased under old contracts.
The biggest price increase will affect devices with a high share of components in their cost. This primarily concerns laptops, smartphones, tablets, and personal computers. If earlier the share of chips in budget PCs was 10–15%, now it has increased to about 30%.
According to forecasts, smartphones and tablets may increase in price by 15–20%. Budget laptops by 20–30%, and TVs by 15–18%. At the same time, some categories of equipment may show even higher growth dynamics depending on the configuration and brand.
Retailers do not rule out that manufacturers of budget electronics will start saving on specifications in order to keep the final price down. At the same time, in the premium segment, the increase in cost will be explained by the integration of new functions based on artificial intelligence. Demand for such solutions is already showing rapid growth: sales of the new Samsung Galaxy S26 AI smartphones exceeded the previous series by 128% in the first 12 days.
Additional pressure on the Ukrainian market is also created by internal factors - exchange rate fluctuations, rising logistics costs, and general inflation. This intensifies the effect of global trends and makes technology even less accessible to consumers.
At the same time, the structure of demand is changing. Sales of large household appliances are slowing down, while Ukrainians are more actively buying autonomous solutions - charging stations, powerful power banks, and "smart home" systems with batteries. This indicates that consumers are adapting to new conditions and increasing demand for energy independence.
Thus, the electronics market is entering a reformatting phase, where prices are determined not only by demand, but also by global competition for technological resources.
