Brazier blasts online strategies

Research company Dataquest has criticised PC and peripherals vendors for their muddled channel strategies over using the internet to fulfil its e-commerce potential.

The Gartner Group-owned market research outfit was particularly critical of Compaq's US operation, as well as similar approaches to Web-based commerce taken by Apple and printer vendor Lexmark, both in the US and UK.

Speaking at the Dataquest Predicts The PC Industry 97 conference last week, Steve Brazier, Dataquest associate director for the distribution channel, worldwide computer systems and peripherals group, claimed that the scramble by vendors to establish their brands within Web-based commerce had become another source of channel conflict.

He singled out Apple for special criticism when he referred to the press release issued by the company on 11 November, the day after it announced plans to sell direct over the internet.

'Apple booked over $500,000 of orders during its first 12 hours of operation,' he said, paraphrasing the release. 'In other words, $500,000 of business was stolen from the remaining loyal resellers.'

Brazier warned that indirect vendors must exercise caution with their e-commerce strategies, adding that they should put lead-generation mechanisms in place for the reseller channel, as Hewlett Packard has done in the US. 'Web commerce does not mean that you have to sell direct. You can be a great direct sales vendor, you can be a great indirect sales vendor, but you can't be both,' he said.

However, he was confident that selling over the Web was an option that was increasingly being considered by vendors, both direct and indirect.

He added that half of Europe's dealers have Websites and that half of these will soon have e-commerce. 'Dell's primary success with the Web has been with corporate accounts. In the wake of this, Dataquest has predicted that the system will be standard practice in the major corporates within three years.'

Brazier also predicted that software and low-cost items would be the first products to be sold over the Web on any large scale.