Dell steps up retail push

 

Gallery

By Reuters

Posted on 5 Jul 2007 at 15:16

Dell is moving further away from its renowned direct sales model by selling its laptops and desktops at Asian retail chains and stores.

The company broke from its 23-year-old practice of direct sales to customers via the internet or phone last month, and started selling low-priced PCs at Wal-Mart Stores in the US. It raises the possibility that the company might soon start selling via retail stores in Europe.

Paul-Henri Ferrand, who heads Dell's operations in the Asia Pacific, excluding Japan, China and South Korea, said the company was in talks with retail chains and specialised stores across Asia but gave no names.

"Asia is a diverse region so the indirect (retail) approach in the region will come sooner in some countries and later in others," Ferrand claims.

"What we want to make sure is that we customise our approach by country and target via these (retail) channels the customers that we want to go after," he said adding that different chains and stores would be used for selling low- and high-priced computers in different Asian countries.

Dell lost the number one PC market share spot to HP recently as the latter cut prices and boosted sales of consumer PCs.

About 85 percent of Dell's $57 billion of total revenue in the last financial year came from sales to large corporates and government enterprises.

Ferrand says while Asia's revenue contribution to the company was at around 13 percent, growth in both sales and product shipment from the region was higher than industry averages. "Our business is growing even faster in some of the emerging markets like Pakistan, Philippines and Indonesia," he said.