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Saturday - July 1, 2000
Online PC Sales Increasing
Rapidly
The number of PCs U.S. consumers purchase online will
increase rapidly over the next five years. According to IDC,
in 1999, just 8% of all PCs sold to U.S. consumers - or fewer
than 1.4 million - were sold via the Internet. In 2004, close
to 40% of all consumer PC sales in the United States, or
almost 9.3 million PCs, will be made online.
"Given the current penetration
of PCs in the home and the rapid rise in the percentage
of homes accessing the Internet, a greater number of customers
will utilize the Web as a commerce tool when shopping for
a new PC," said Keith Waryas, research manager for
IDC's Consumer eCommerce: Computing program. IDC estimates
50% of U.S. homes owned at least one PC in 1999, and almost
36% have Internet access.
According to IDC, targeted marketing
efforts, convenience, growing comfort with ecommerce, and
price will all help to drive consumer PC sales over the
Internet. "The ability to search hundreds of merchants
to find the best price of new PCs will be a major advantage
for Internet sales and should encourage Internet users
to buy their next PC online," Waryas said.
While the opportunity to sell
PCs online to U.S. consumers is huge, vendors will need
help from the channel to capitalize on this opportunity
and will not be able to rely strictly on direct sales.
"Internet channel partners
will be the primary route for consumer Internet purchases," Waryas
said. "By focusing on retail these companies will
be much better suited than manufacturers to handle one-off
sales and shipping. In addition, etailers have the ability
to easily and economically sell consumers complete computer
systems, which can create a larger absolute profit than
computer-only sales."
Online computer sellers who
think they can compete on price alone against traditional
brick-and-mortar retailers will be in for a rude awakening.
Traditional retailers offer consumers nondollar value,
which will keep them competitive for years to come. This
value includes increased confidence in their purchase and
easily accessible service.
"Ultimately, the amount
of total retail that moves online will be determined by
how much brick-and-mortar service can be brought to customers
electronically," Waryas said. "As a result, during
the next few years, etailers will transition their current
two-dimensional process - price and specs - to a more interactive
buying experience. Expect to see things like click-through
surveys that access the customers' computing needs and
then recommend a system."
According to IDC, the most successful
computer sellers will be those that offer a combination
of online and brick-and-mortar sales. "If thoroughly
integrated, click and mortar will be a very successful
combination in the consumer PC ecommerce sector," Waryas
predicted.
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