Dell to Go the Retail Way!

PC giant Dell, known to rely on direct online sales since 1990, is reportedly now looking at going the retail way...

It started, possibly, with Dell PCs going on sale in Wal-Mart stores in the US and Puerto Rico. And now the company is planning on putting its PCs on retail in Asia (India, China, and Japan), and Australia.
There is a feeling within industry that this paradigm shift in thinking might have been influenced by Michael Dell's return to the company early this year. Also that in trying to gain back some of the ground lost to Hewlett Packard (HP) globally, retail sales might be a huge bet.

And in terms of PC retail, India is a potentially huge market for the nearly $56 billion PC major.

While there is no specific comment from Dell India in the matter, the buzz in the market is that Dell India is already talking to retail partners in the region.

Besides, the company is now targeting sectors, including banking, finance, and insurance, having already forayed into the government and education verticals a couple of months ago.

Rajan Anandan, vice president and general manager of Dell India, said this is a great opportunity for Dell as they have worldwide experience in these segments, and should be able to offer meaningful services to their clients.

In a separate announcement, Dell said it will start commercial production of PCs at its Sriperumbudur (near Chennai) plant in the second half of this year. So far, the company has been importing PCs from its overseas facilities in Malaysia and China to cater to the domestic PC market.

While it takes about a fortnight to ship PCs into the country, Dell now expects to reduce the time for delivering PCs to customers by about 50 percent, apart from saving on air freight charges and import duties.

Source : http://www.techtree.com/India/News/Dell_to_Go_the_Retail_Way/551-81755-615.html

Regards,
Kumar Thirumal.