07/02/2007
Resellers missing out on profits by not selling notebook peripherals
Kensington, the computer accessories company, is calling on resellers to increase their profits margins by making the most of laptop sales – a market where profit margins have been eroded in recent years due to the availability of ever-cheaper notebook PCs.
Resellers are losing out by not offering notebook accessories to buyers, which can provide the reseller with a much larger profit margin.
“In general, resellers make only single digit margins when selling a laptop,” said George Foot, sales director at Kensington UK. “To quantify that – if you sell a laptop for £650, that’s less than £20 profit per laptop. However, laptop companions such as mice, locks, docks and cases can quadruple profit margins on every item sold.”
“It’s often too easy for resellers to sell a single laptop, or bulk load of laptops, and leave it at that. However, offering advice at the point of purchase will enable the reseller to make the most of the sale. They should be asking questions to help the customer realise the advantage of owning a security lock, carry case or ?mobile mouse.”
“For example, asking a customer how they plan to carry their laptop around will open them up to the idea of purchasing a laptop case. A laptop case priced at £25 will yield a profit of £10 for the reseller,” continued Foot.
“Less than 10 per cent of laptops in the UK are sold with a lock – each making a profit margin of £10 approximately. However, this means that resellers are missing a trick on the remaining 90 per cent of laptop sales. Resellers need to be aware that they can easily double their profitability by selling laptop add-ons and can begin to make higher margins again in a challenging sector,” Foot concluded.
Notes to editors
About Kensington
Kensington is a leading provider of desktop and mobile device accessories, trusted by IT, educators, business and home office professionals around the world for more than 35 years. Kensington products empower people to dynamically interact with content, creating a better working experience for productive performance. In both office and mobile environments, Kensington’s extensive portfolio of award-winning products provides trusted security, desktop productivity innovations, and ergonomic well-being. Our core competencies in engineering, industrial design, product quality and responsive customer support make Kensington The Professionals’ Choice™.
Headquartered in San Mateo, California, Kensington operates as the technology division of ACCO Brands (NYSE: ACCO), one of the world’s largest designers, marketers and manufacturers of branded business, academic and consumer products, sold in more than 100 countries across the globe.
Kensington is the inventor and worldwide leader in laptop security locks, the acknowledged leader of Trackball innovation and offers a broad range of premium-branded desktop productivity solutions.