Dell Starts PC Retail Sales in India With Croma

Dell Starts PC Retail Sales in India With Croma

Dell Inc., the world's second- largest maker of personal computers, plans to sell PCs through retail outlets in India for the first time after forging a partnership with Tata Group's Croma chain of stores.

Dell's laptop and desktop computers will initially be available at some Croma stores in Mumbai next month, the Round Rock, Texas-based company said in an e-mailed statement today.

Consumers will however not be able to walk in and pick up a Dell laptop or desktop, a company spokeswoman said on Tuesday.

Instead, the customer will get to "touch and feel" the Dell computers at Croma, compare them with products from other brands, and then place an order for a customized product. "This is what customers wanted from us," she added.

After the order is placed at a Croma store, Dell will deliver the products to consumers at their homes within a week, the spokeswoman said.

The agreement builds on Chief Executive Officer Michael Dell's campaign to challenge Hewlett-Packard Co. in stores, abandoning a practice of only taking orders via the phone or Internet. Dell, which plans to generate half its sales overseas by 2009, began selling products through Wal-Mart Stores Inc. in June and has since reached agreements in Japan, Europe and China.

Dell's India revenue jumped 60 percent to $700 million last year, outpacing growth in the U.S., Rajan Anandan, vice president of Dell India, said yesterday. Sales in the country may climb to almost $1 billion in the year ending Feb. 1, helping Asian growth offset the effects of an expected slowdown in the U.S., Steve Felice, the company's Asia president, said in February.

The company will start selling low-cost models in India starting next month, Anandan said yesterday, without providing details.

Higher salaries in India, the world's second-fastest growing major economy, are boosting PC purchases. Human resources consultant Hewitt Associates Inc. forecast wages in India will rise 15 percent this year, the most worldwide.

The Croma chain of consumer-electronics stores, owned and operated by a division of Tata Sons Ltd., has 17 outlets in six cities, according to its Web site. The Tata Group includes India's largest computer-services provider and the nation's biggest truckmaker.

This is really great.

I can now view the new latitude series of Dell notebooks. Not physically seeing and checking the notebooks has turned me off from buying a DELL! This should give me a chance now.

You can visit your newrest Chroma Store and check them out.

You can find your nearest Chroma store at Croma | The Electronics Megastore | Stores | Location of our Stores

Thanks Raj. I have also heard that Chroma offers some of the best deals on monitors, etc. I have heard that they sell most of their products at extremely low low prices when compared to the regular retail shops.

Good for all of us.