Harwin Report: Insights from Connector Buyers & Specifiers

Harwin shares key findings from its exclusive 2025 survey of connector specifiers and buyers from across the United States. The work is an important first step in understanding who is buying connectors and how manufacturers can better serve them.

Harwin’s Vice President of Marketing Peter Schneid joined the company—and the connector industry—four years ago. Coming from a digital user experience and operational background, he was motivated to learn how customers access the information they need. He looked at many websites, both inside and outside the industry, and at previous research on the broader electronics industry. “One of the things that struck me is that in the connector industry, everybody knows their products and the market incredibly well, but, compared to other industries, we are still a little bit behind the curve on digital tools for engineers in the field,” he said, suggesting that navigating geographies and vertical markets in a more nuanced way could be beneficial. “We noticed that we tend to apply a one-size fits all model and everything is around the product. That should maybe take up a small percentage of the conversation; the majority of the conversation should always go back to your potential customers and your existing customers. How can we learn from them to do better?”

With the help of external consultants, Schneid and his team developed surveys to gather their own source data. “We made a cognizant choice to ask generic questions around how the U.S. market is interacting with vendors like ourselves. What are the issues customers face in terms of dealing with connector manufacturers? Who do they know, and what are the technical attributes that are really important to them? What are their pain points?” said Schneid. The result is the report, Connecting with North America – 2025 Connector Specifier and Buyer Survey, which Schneid is presenting at the EDS Leadership Summit taking place now through May 23, 2025, in Las Vegas.

Who are the respondents?

The responses came closely split between engineers and buyers, plus a small percentage of CTOs. Somewhat surprisingly, about 60% of respondents identified connector selection and design-in as their primary focus. “Often, it seems the connector part of the design is not on the forefront of the customer’s mind, but it is an integral part. To see this response was quite positive to me,” said Schneid. Another positive was seeing that a significant number of respondents bought connectors within the last one to three months, while 90% had purchased connectors within the last six months.

The top applications for their connector purchases are industrial & energy/utilities, telecom/data networking, and automotive/EV, followed by space, aerospace, transportation, medical, and drones/uncrewed vehicles.

High reliability is a key factor in connector choice

Respondents were asked about connector requirements. “Under power and current, mixed layouts and custom ranges accounted for more than half the responses. In terms of data, high speed may not actually be as important as people think. Or maybe it is that everything is just always getting faster, and even if it’s not high speed, it’s still pretty fast,” said Schneid.

Other connector technology was also ranked. “The real focus is on high reliability and power, and then it cascades down. This means that we can lean in even more in high reliability.” Acknowledging that this represents a snapshot in time, he added, “I’m curious then to see, when we do this, again in 12 or 24 months, how other technologies, such as floating and RF, for example, develop over time.”

Areas of concern for product and supplier choices

Respondents were asked to rate multiple selection criteria from one to five. The greatest concerns were performance, reliability, and operating lifetimes. “Areas like the size and weight, and sustainability were not rated as high. Again, I would suspect that some of those, over time will become more important,” said Schneid.

When selecting a vendor, the most important criteria identified were the availability of complimentary products, rapid sampling, and cable assembly design.

Information sources and tools

Respondents were next asked about online tools and where they go for information when making buying decisions.

“The main thing that we landed on when we built the survey was whether people are already using AI and very advanced digital tools like digital twins? Not surprising, it’s quite low still, but it’s probably also higher than we expected, with 17.5% saying yes, they’re using these tools already,” Schneid said. People responded that they would use AI to help with selecting connectors, with assisting PCB designs, and accelerating qualification, which are already in certain tools that are emerging in the market. “This will only increase over time obviously. If we can provide those tools early on, and make them intuitive and easy to adopt, I think we’ll be really in good shape to make sure that people like to work with us.”

When it comes to how people source information, the main answer is still supplier and distributor websites. The sales and product teams also are important. The report also breaks out this information by engineers versus buyers. The results were similar, with a few notable exceptions: Engineers ranked webinars higher than buyers, and buyers ranked industry specific online communities/platforms higher than engineers.

Engineer challenges

More than 50% of respondents said that their job is becoming more challenging. Only 27% suggest their role will become easier. The underlying data from comments or direct text responses revealed differing thoughts on the impact of AI and other technologies. Within that 27% segment, many felt that AI, as well as becoming more automated and digitized, will contribute to making their job easier. Those experiencing a more challenging environment expressed that with AI they are working on more projects and their projects are more complex.

Other key takeaways from that section concern supply chain issues and a clear demand for better technical support and digital design resources put onto the supplier. “The engineers just don’t have the time day in, day out, to specify everything from scratch themselves and verify and check, double check, triple check that the drawing is right. They need a guarantee that what the supplier is giving them is accurate,” said Scheid. “We are in a time where design complexity, supply constraints, and rising expectations are converging onto engineers that are asked to do much more with tools that are slightly behind the curve still. Suppliers and manufacturers have to step up their game. I think we have a long way to go as an industry to make sure that we deliver the same level of experience that a business to consumer website provides to an individual.”

Harwin’s survey was completed during April 2025 by a broad cross-section of connector buyers and engineers based in the United States. “Over 300 people shared what they think. But that’s really just the first step, because now, with that data, we can actually go to market and tailor our response. That’s the much more interesting piece,” Schneid said.

Download the full report here.

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