I have been wrong before and I am sure to be wrong again and again, but I think Dell is about to be taught a lesson in China.
Besides competing with Lenovo, Dell needs to figure out how to sell its product over the Internet to a nation where few people have credit cards.
What's more, it has been my experience that the Chinese want to handle whatever it is they are going to buy. Take it out of the box, try it out and then buy an unopened one if they like it.
Dell does not do things that way...yet.
China's pc market is second in the world, surpassing Japan a couple of years back. But it is growing (what's new?) at an annual rate of about 25%. And Dell wants in on the action.
Dell reported that their sales jumped 40% last year and revenue rose 29% from last year.
Dell built a second factory in Xiamen, China earlier this year. Dell is hoping like Dell that their 9.3% market share (behind Lenovo's 31.3% and Founder Technology Group's 12.7%) will grow.
The factory in Xiamen will also make PCs for South Korea, Japan and Hong Kong.
Dell has increased its sales team to have a presence in more than 200 Chinese cities.
About 1/5th of Dell's revenues come from sales to individuals except in China where sales to individuals is less than 10 percent.
Lenovo provides shops where Chinese customers can touch the machine they are interested in. Dell does not. It's not the Dell style...yet.
If Dell wants to compete in China, they might need to rethink their strategy so that the Chinese can somehow handle the product before they buy it. It's in the Chinese blood to do so.
What do you think?
go to 老毕看中国
if that is really so common in china than dell is going to have to do something to keep up. you have to change you selling stratagy to succeed in the market, or you get forgotten.
Posted by: james roper | July 11, 2006 8:54 AM | Permalink to Comment