Dell Computer Corp and Amazon.com Inc, two of the brightest stars in the web commerce firmament, are linking their commerce web sites to guide purchasing customers to co-branded sites that take them to the other partner’s online store. Dell says Amazon is the first company Dell has linked to on its site, and Dell is the first computer company to which Amazon has linked. Neither side would divulge any terms, or the structure of the deal.
Both firms have put links at the checkout stage of their web sites which they think will secure them customers that are willing to go through the buying process. The integration is not all that tight, as there will be no one-click service enabling customers to enter their credit card details just once and buy from both sites. The two companies have quickly realized that they can’t secure high enough margins selling their core products alone and need to expand into more general retail.
Amazon sell books, video, CDs and is the largest minority investor in Drugstore.com Inc, peddler of prescription and non- prescription drugs and health and beauty products. Similarly, Dell last week announced Gigabuys.com, which will eventually offer up to 30,000 computer-related products, in addition to its range of PCs, servers and workstations. Dell currently sells $14m each day through its web site.
