Dell Inks Deal to Sell Through Best Buy

Dell said it would ship XPS and Inspiron notebooks and desktops through Best Buy, which operates 900 store locations in the U.S. Dell already sells through the retail channel in Wal-Mart and Sam's Club, in addition to shipping to several retailers in Europe. Specific Dell models at Best Buy will include the Dell XPS M1330 in white, the Inspiron 1521 in blue and black, and the Inspiron 1420 in black, the company said.

Dell systems will appear on Best Buy Shelves in the next few weeks, Dell said.

The Round Rock, Texas-based PC maker will expand its lineup in the coming months, it said.

The announcement comes one day after Dell announced its formal reseller program, PartnerDirect, and said it would open up its product line and managed services offerings to the solution provider channel. It also comes a week after Dell posted its most recent quarterly earnings, in which the company said its consumer business had been under pressure and shrinking.

id
unit-1659132512259
type
Sponsored post

By expanding the company's retail footprint -- which a year ago didn't even exist -- Dell executives have said they hope they both grow market share and reduce operating expenses. At least one rival, Lenovo, has seen its market share in North America grow measurably in the past year since it entered brick-and-mortar retail that predecessor company, IBM, had previously shunned.

J.P. Gownder, a principal analyst at Forrester Research, Cambridge, Mass., said there remained some slight potential for overlap between Best Buy and Dell's commerical reseller channel in the SOHO and small and midsized business space. But, he said, he did not believe that would be a significant overlap.

"I don't see it as being that much of a problem," Gownder said. "Lots and lots of different technologies are sold at Best Buy, PCs to networking equipment. When you have a more advanced need that includes server, you really are going to go to a VAR at that point."

Gownder said he also believes Dell could likely have a much more high profile on Best Buy shelves than Lenovo.

"They are going to have a much more preferential placement in Best Buy than Lenovo was able to engineer," Gownder said. "Dell is the only player who wasn't selling at Best Buy who could legitimately come in and claim reasonable shelf space right off the bat."

On Wednesday, Dell executives unveiled their new channel program for solution providers and, among other things, promised that registered and certified Dell partners would receive "best pricing" sourcing opportunities via the company's partner portal.

"The Best Buy announcement is for consumer products only and will be differentiated," Greg Davis, vice president and general manager for Dell's Americas channels group, told Channelweb. "Our partner base orders business products from us and yes we are committed to providing best price to our partners."

This story has been updated.