PC World finally hits the mail on the head
The retail giant finally makes a belated stab at selling PCs via its 664 page mail-order catalogue.
It took four phone calls, two faxes, details of a borrowed companyts 664 page mail-order catalogue. VAT number and a two-week wait, but a copy of PC World's mail-order catalogue was finally delivered to PC Dealer.
Designed to go up against the likes of Action Computer Supplies in the aggressive off-the-page business market, PC World's catalogue is a glossy 664 pages, plus indexes. It is factual and detailed, covers a wide range of products and is divided into distinct sections.
Each section begins with an independent overview of the relevant section, along with suggestions on what to look for when buying. The articles are designed to give explanations of industry trends, appealing to educated users.
The sections are mobile computers, PCs and servers, monitors, memory and drives, storage products, digital cameras and scanners, multimedia, page and inkjet printers, faxes/ phones and shredders, software, cables and switches, networking products, modems, consumables and finally furniture - including workstations and chairs.
When combined with stock held at PC World stores, the catalogue claims to give access to around 12,000 different products. Silver and gold prices are available if a user orders more than #100 or #500 of goods.
For large corporates, PC World offers a high-volume purchase agreement - limited to customers spending over #10,000 - which includes personally managed accounts and preferential pricing, as well as project management and quotes, on-site product demos and pre-sales technical consultation.
Customers are offered the choice of either door-to-door delivery or store pick-up from the nearest branch. Orders can be made over the phone, by fax or via email. Users can also lease products through Lombard Business Leasing.
Other services offered include pre-loading of software, installation of cables and networks, and network design. On-site maintenance is provided by Hewlett Packard Support packs, and software and technical training is also available.
Azlan Services provides network maintenance contracts for the catalogue and has 13 pages dedicated to explaining its Lion service programme. This provides various levels of support, which divide roughly into design, installation, management, support, security and expert - for customers needing greater network support.
Training is provided in partnership with Learning Technologies, the authorised trainer for such companies as Lotus, Novell and Microsoft.
Courses start at #220 for a two-day Lotus course. The catalogue also includes over 200 training books covering everything from Windows to artificial intelligence.
Overall, the catalogue looks very similar to others on the market, although its prices are slightly sharper due to Dixons Group's purchasing power.
It seems the retailer has seen the success of other players in mail-order and chosen to follow them slavishly rather than remake the market.
Duncan Wilkes, chief operating officer at Action Computer Supplies, said it was a very professional catalogue that set out to achieve the same as Action' s catalogue.
The mail-order market is already well established, with players like Software Warehouse, Dabs Direct, Action Computer Suppliers and Evesham Micros. How well the new boys of PC World can do remains to be seen.
But for the moment, PC World seems to be playing catch-up with the rest of the industry, protected by its market-dominant margins. If you look at its recent entry into the e-commerce market, it is a clear example of how Dixons follows the crowd, rather than innovating. Its Website is painfully slow and looks rather dated, and it does not provide software downloads - most others do.
The retailer insists that the catalogue is aimed at existing business account holders, but it does raise the possibility that the catalogue could undermine store profits. The costs of producing such a catalogue at quarterly intervals is considerable - even for a company the size of Dixons Group. The other main cost is training the sales staff who man the phone lines so that sufficient information is delivered to secure sales.
A source in the industry said the company had not done enough to make itself different from the competition. He claimed the catalogue and its products are exactly the same as its main competitors. The source also pointed out that the lead time required to print a catalogue of such a size makes it hard for the company to react effectively to market changes.
The success or failure of this project will lie in the service quality given to business accounts. It will be interesting to see if Dixons can provide it.