Gateway has decided that it will halt the sales of computers through its web site, and will concentrate instead on selling PCs via third party stores and other online retailers. This is the direct opposite of what Dell is doing at the moment, with most of its sales happening through online orders, while their foray into brick and mortar stores have been less than encouraging to say the least. Never mind about Dell – we’ll look at Gateway for the moment. Gateway will be cutting direct online sales to consumers so that costs can be further reduced and its business model can be aligned with parent company Acer. I suppose this comes as no surprise, as it is always better to remove an ailing part of the business instead of hoping that one day, a spectacular turnaround will happen.

This change has resulted in some staff cuts, although they aren’t exactly on a large scale basis. According to Lisa Emard, a Gateway spokeswoman, “These reductions have been happening in small waves as the company has methodically evaluated each department and function.” Starting from today onwards, there won’t be any direct sales on Gateway’s site, so you’ll have to actually spend more time and money (for gas, parking, etc) whenever you want to purchase a Gateway product. How do you see this move affecting the company’s bottomline? Will it actually hand over more business to Dell, or will Gateway’s loyal customers continue to see it through the dark times? I personally think that an online presence is important especially in today’s economic climate where everyone wants to save as much as possible.

Of course, the indirect model has worked extremely well for Acer this far, so this might, on the flipside, help boost Gateway sales. Since my crystal ball isn’t working true to form, I would say it is anybody’s guess on how this move will turn out.

Source: PC World