What can customers expect to see in the new Dell stores?
There’ll be a greater customer experience. We plan on showing 30 different product combinations, which will be solution-based, like gaming, home theater, productivity, digital photography, and home office. In a kiosk, you can’t show the full usage of products. For instance, you don’t have the floor space to see a TV screen from a distance. And with home networking, you need space to show how to set up wireless access points. Will the stores show products from the recently acquired game-machine maker Alienware? Only Dell products. Alienware is a separate entity. Can customers expect tech support at these stores? If someone brings in his Dell computer, will he be able to get it fixed? We’re still investigating that option. At the very least, we’ll facilitate getting the customer to (existing) customer-service call centers. What do kiosks and stores offer that Dell’s e-commerce site can’t? There’s a subset of customers who want to touch and feel. Some people can’t visualize a notebook, or
