Dell, the quintessential online PC retailer, may expect a lift from its Cyber Monday sales, but Black Friday in non-virtual stores was a bust, according to analysts
Thomas Weisel Partners carried out a survey of 35 PC experts at Best Buy stores across the US over the weekend and concluded that “Dell remains a weak competitor in the retail channel.”
HP products were preferred over Dell ones by a ratio of five-to-one, with respondents reporting better price and quality from Dell’s bigger rival.
The analysts point out that HP has a long relationship with Best Buy, while Dell has only been in its stores for 11 months, but it says there was a strong preference for other brands over Dell as well.
Dell, which is offering its Inspiron Mini 9 netbook for $299 in a Cyber Monday sale, is suffering from an image problem in retail stores, according to Thomas Weisel, with respondents reporting high rates of customer returns.
The analysts found the opposite was the case for Apple, despite Bart Simpson decrying Steve Jobs and Apple stores in Sunday night’s The Simpsons episode.
Talking to 47 Apple stores, 35 Best Buy ones and two Wal-Mart ones, they concluded “Apple continues to gain market share in PCs, smartphones and MP3 players, despite the challenge of higher price points in difficult economic times.”
Their checks suggested iPod demand was strong and Mac sales were in line with expectations, with the new $999 MacBook a best-seller, according to nearly half of those surveyed. Two-thirds of Apple stores were as busy or busier than a year earlier, compared to Best Buy stores reporting business flat or down on a year ago.
Meanwhile, comScore reported on Sunday that Black Friday online spending was up 1 per cent year-on-year at $534m, while Nielsen Online reported today that traffic to more than 120 representative online stores was up 10 per cent on Friday to 31.7m unique visitors, compared to 28.8m in 2007.
