By Billy MacInnes
There are signs of a shift in the buying patterns for business notebooks, with an increasing number of SMEs choosing to purchase their machines from retail outlets. However, vendors have been quick to reassure resellers they are not under threat.
The trend is doubly interesting because of the large growth in notebook sales in recent years compared to desktops, which most vendors expect to continue.
Fujitsu-Siemens Ireland channel sales director Liam Halpin confirmed there had been a shift. He said owner/managers of SME and SoHo businesses looking for laptops for normal business use found it easy to “go into retail, see the product and purchase it there”.
Another feature was people buying high-end corporate notebooks on a one-off basis. “They like to see what they are getting, get a sense of the weight and feel, and if it’s a purchase of one unit it’s likely they will buy it where they see it in very much the same way as when a one-off company car is being bought.”
Halpin said one retail partner doing very well at selling business notebooks was The Laptop Shop in Dublin, which began trading a year ago.
Laptop Shop managing director Robert Brennan said: “We started with a strategy of selling business notebooks to try and differentiate ourselves from other retailers. We have a narrower focus, so all our (salesmen) should know (all about) laptops.”
Another company which has noticed a growth in retail notebook sales to business is Cantec. Managing director Maurice Muldoon said a growing percentage of business people who would not consider buying desktops from retail outlets felt comfortable about buying laptops in that way.
“We get a lot of people who have just started a job and been sent down by their employer to buy a notebook and bring back an invoice,” he told Irish Computer. The demand for professional notebooks had become so pronounced that Cantec had started to carry a range of business notebooks.
As for the implications for traditional dealers, Halpin argued neither of the scenarios he had outlined presented any problems for them.
In terms of SME customers, “the cost of sale associated with selling one or two laptops to a customer with a low overall IT spend and limited scope for value added services means it’s probably not a profitable market segment for (dealers) to be concentrating on”.
As for corporate customers buying a single notebook, it was highly likely that if they decided to standardise on the notebook they would approach a reseller for the business.
Halpin claimed it was useful to have business products “in an environment where customers can experience the product in advance of purchasing.” He added: “To encourage this we offer some of our retail partners extra sales and marketing support for carrying the business range”.
The Laptop Shop’s Brennan believed most resellers wouldn’t be interested in some of the business that his shop took on where it was selling only one or two notebooks at a time.
Marcus McKenna, head of volume sales channel at HP Ireland, said it had separate and distinct channels for commercial and retail desktops and notebooks. There was some convergence in smart devices but the vast “majority of our overall business still flows along the traditional lines”.
HP had allowed commercial and retail channels in some EMEA countries to offer business and consumer desktops and notebooks “to meet the needs of SMB/Soho customers whose personal and business requirements are better served in this way.”
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