14 DAY TRIAL // Dell announced that their notebooks and desktop systems will be available for sale at BestBuy, starting the next few weeks. The company's bestsellers will be distributed at 900 BestBuy locations: the XPS M1330 in white, the Inspiron 1521 in blue and black, the Inspiron 1420 in black, and the all-in-one XPS One desktop. According to Dell, the Inspiron 530, 531, and 531s models will hit the BestBuy shelves in the next months.
Dell has been loyal to direct distribution methods for about 27 years, and this would be the greatest step the company has made in their channel sales program. The company who has sold PCs and peripherals directly to consumers is now going to exhibit their merchandise right next to some other names such as Apple, Hewlett-Packard, Gateway, Acer, and Toshiba.
The company has also attempted distributing their products through the Wal-Mart or Staples store chain, but BestBuy is somehow different from the previous collaborators, since the BestBuy network is the largest electronics consumer retailer to play in the United States market.
"It's a big step for them. It's risky, but it's a gamble they had to make", said Richard Shim, PC market analyst for IDC. Dell have found themselves into a weak marketing position and their supremacy has been heavily challenged by newer, yet more aggressive competitors that have penetrated the US market, such as Acer, Lenovo and Toshiba. HP is making a comeback and there's a tight battle for the market. As the third quarter market reports show, Dell has shipped 27.8 percent of PCs sold in the U.S, while HP only managed to get 24.1 percent.
"It's going to be hard for them to make this change", said Shim. "(Dell is) used to having a very intimate relationship with customers." Part of that relationship is up-selling customers on additional Dell items. "Now it's no longer Dell saying, 'Hey, buy our printer.' Now it's a retail sales guy saying that if you buy a Dell system you can buy any one of these (other) printers."