RETAIL ADVISORY BOARD
What do schools want from retailers?
The PCR Retail Advisory Board reveals how the back to school market is changing and what schools, parents and pupils are buying. Will there always be a demand for both traditional computers and tablets in the classroom?
“Over 30 per cent of our sales are direct to schools so the ‘back to school’ market is
inconsequential when compared to the large institutional summer refreshes. So many schools are now supplying laptops or tablets – either free to their students or via a ‘One To One’ scheme – that it’s becoming increasingly rare for parents to have to provide a laptop for school. So we see no spike in sales to individuals in September. Desktop PCs are still by far the most common institutional purchases.”
TIM LEROY, Head of Marketing, Novatech
“Utopia sees a good increase in sales during the back to school period. Laptops
are still a fi rm favourite with our customers, but we now offer Apple tablets in-store as demand for these products with school kids is also high. We also offer discounts to parents and teachers. Upselling is very effective during this period, as a high percentage of customers are
www.pcr-online.biz
on the lookout for offi ce software, security software, laptop bags and external storage. We fi nd simple percentage discounts seem to work best, for example 50 per cent off all security software when bundled with a new laptop/desktop/tablet.”
CRAIG HUME,
Director, Utopia Computers “Brigantia
predicts that over the next few years there will continue to be a
demand for laptops and desktops [in schools], although we also feel that there will be a massive growth in demand for other networked devices.
Schools will move toward both local and full cloud solutions, depending on the quality of broadband infrastructure that is available. The educational experience of the next generation of school students will only be limited by a failure of broadband providers, such as BT, to upgrade their entire network. We should consider superfast broadband alongside power, heat and water as being fundamental
requirements for this century and any one of these not being there is a serious infrastructure failure that requires government intervention.”
IAIN SHAW, Divisional Director, Brigantia
“We don’t sell directly to educational establishments but have
defi nitely noticed an increased urgency required for repairing students’ computers and laptops. Whereas, a few years back a parent would be in no hurry getting a machine fi xed, as it was ‘just used by the kids’. These days computers appear to have become as important to children and young adults as they are to businesses. So the turnaround rate in repairs and new machines has had to speed up considerably.”
LORELEI GIBB,
Marketing Director, Dolphin Computer Upgrades
“In the past, back to school has always been laptop-heavy
with less focus on desktop PCs. We all thought desktop PCs would be replaced by all- in-ones – and while sales were encouraging for a while, it’s defi nitely not been the high- fl ying category that everyone expected.
Nowadays, customers look past laptops to tablets, and then back to laptops, because some consumers aren’t ready to completely switch to tablets if they only have enough money for one device. Most customers essentially want the slimmest, lightest, nicest looking device plus portability, with the option of using it to be productive as well as for browsing the internet. However, if it’s a question of tablet versus laptop, then I’m sure Microsoft has a few tricks up its sleeve next quarter to get some growth back, away from Chromebook and Android.”
NAEEM ADAM, Tech Buyer, The Co-op Group
“The school landscape is an ever changing beast. Gone are the days schools
accept secondhand PCs to teach their children with – nowadays parents who work in business are jealous of what their children have access to in schools. With 3D printers getting better every day and tools to teach programming available, it’s the reseller’s job to keep schools informed of what they can use to improve the learning environment. A mix of tools available to teach gives students a far better advantage in future life rather than being restricted to one learning resource. Don’t be fooled by large vendors’ marketing strategies into thinking there is little choice but to follow them – schools themselves decide their purchasing.”
ANDY TRISH,
Director at NCI Technologies and CompTIA member
PCR RETAIL ADVISORY BOARD
PCR asks its Retail Advisory Panel –formed of buyers and experts – about the biggest industry trends and issues each month. To join, email
dominic.sacco@
intentmedia.co.uk
PCR August 2014 | 51
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80