Intel's monthly Net sales hit $1 billion
The chipmaker is booking $1 billion a month in sales from its Web site, almost 40 percent of the company's total sales.
That represents a significant increase from the $830 million a month in online sales that the leading chipmaker expected in the fourth quarter, as reported earlier. Based on the $7.1 billion in first-quarter revenues Intel reported yesterday, online sales could account for 42 percent of total sales this year.
"We have created a sales force that essentially never sleeps," senior vice president Sean Maloney said in a keynote speech at the Internet World industry conference here. "That has given fundamental benefits to our customers and allowed us to do work on our supply chain."
The $1 billion monthly rate results from an intense effort last year that involved some 500 Intel employees, Maloney said. Today, all of Intel's multibillion-dollar sales in Taiwan, a manufacturing hotbed for the PC industry, are handled over the Internet, he added.
In January 1998, Intel had no online sales. Now, it has "more e-commerce dollars than any manufacturer in the world," Maloney said.
That's a claim that networking giant Cisco Systems and PC powerhouse Dell Computer, two pioneers in selling online to businesses, might dispute.
Dell says it does more than $10 million a day in sales over the Internet, roughly $300 million a month. That's 20 percent of total revenues, and Dell aims to sell half of its PCs via the Internet by 2000.
According to Mary Thurber, head of Cisco investor relations, 73 percent of the company's sales are done through its Web site. In the most recent quarter, Cisco reported sales of $2.83 billion.