"DELL doesn't mess around"-Daily Tish Upside.com---Online every time->
vinny:
check this out,here you find a bit more details about the online store and what is in store.
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Dell Mercenaries
March 03, 1999
Dell doesn't mess around.
There will be no dancing pigs in sombreros at Dell's big announcement Wednesday. No aging football heroes looking to pick up a few bucks in public-appearance fees. Heck, there may not even be free Gigabuys.com mousepads awaiting each press-conference participant as they head out the door.
This is business, not pleasure.
Dell is announcing a new peripherals Web store Wednesday. Despite the Gigabuys.com name, the site is pure Dell. Dell sells computers online and feels it should also sell peripherals. Why let that money get away, when Dell's already such a huge bundler of PCs and Hewlett-Packard printers offline? Troops, attack!
"The Internet is Michael [Dell]'s thing. Michael doesn't get into detailed stuff. He's got an experienced senior staff. But on the Internet, he gets into incredible detail. I get a dozen e-mails a week," says Richard Owen, vice president of Dell Online Worldwide.
What Michael wants, he gets.
And Dell wanted to make inroads into the consumer market. Dell is a powerhouse among corporate buyers. You want tens, hundreds or even thousands of machines? Dell is the place. Online, Dell sells 70 percent of its machines to corporate buyers; offline the number jumps up to 80 percent. As consumers move online, Dell wants them.
And so Owen got Gigabuys.com marching. Owen says the site is named after the sales held by Dell's lone factory outlet, which hangs a "Gigabuys" banner outside the building on I-35 back in Texas. Built in less than three months, it continues Dell's uncompromising assault on the Internet market.
According to Owen, Dell's online group made quick work of the job. "We don't have to sit around and wonder, 'Oh, what kind of software should we use?'" Owen says. Instead, the online group came in and calculatingly built a whole new site that will be tied into and heavily cross-promoted in the Dell.com online store. "It costs as much to integrate an existing site as it does to build one from scratch," Owen says. "We're not investing in a site. I can't imagine what the attraction of that is to customers."
Temper, temper.
page 2: Michael Gets
Forget about ponderous meetings, flighty designers or potential acquistions (although Owen admits there are some "nose-ring types" in the online group). Owen had two teams, one straining to get the site done, the other applying brain power to what Gigabuys.com should look like in a year. Wednesday you'll find products and tie-ins to Dell.com. Who knows what the Dell army can capture in the next nine months?
Additionally, Dell is looking forward to serving its customers in between PC purchases. It will no longer be like a dentist who doesn't get consulted until gums are bleeding and teeth are abscessing. Now users will visit Dell for smaller purchases, not just for customer service or when their machines are so slow and tottering they need to put them down.
Rest in peace.
"This is not earth-shattering in the paradigm of selling software. … This is Dell's repetitive execution in high gear," Owen glows. "We don't have to think about business models. We're not worrying about channel conflicts, how does this put us in direct competition with vendors." And Dell's not trying to create what Owen calls the "negative-margin" businesses that are leading the e-commerce charge today.
Dell's selling peripherals, just like it sells computers. No prime-time ads hyping Gigabuys.com's unveiling. Nothing but pure Dell determination. "Sometimes you feel like the last rational personal in an irrational world," says Owen.
At ease.
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