Lenovo Aims to Be a Best Buy for SMBs

Lenovo is setting up shop with Best Buy. The PC maker has struck a deal to allow Best Buy For Business, which are business-oriented annexes inside 135 Best Buy stores, to offer customers the ability to order from its entire Lenovo U.S. PC product line. Lenovo is aiming to continue expanding its scope with small […]

Written By: John G. Spooner
Apr 11, 2006
Channel Insider content and product recommendations are editorially independent. We may make money when you click on links to our partners. Learn More

Lenovo is setting up shop with Best Buy.

The PC maker has struck a deal to allow Best Buy For Business, which are business-oriented annexes inside 135 Best Buy stores, to offer customers the ability to order from its entire Lenovo U.S. PC product line.

Lenovo is aiming to continue expanding its scope with small and midsize business customers by reaching them in person. The SMB is a market the company has been pursuing since purchasing IBM’s PC business nearly a year ago. Lenovo has had a minimal presence in retail, mainly selling direct and through distributors such as CDW.

Click here to read more about the IBM-Lenovo deal.

“This is basically Lenovo’s next play for reaching the small business customer,” a Lenovo spokesperson said. But “this isn’t a big retail play for Lenovo; it’s a new route for SMB customers.”

Best Buy For Business Stores won’t stock any inventory of the Lenovo machines, she said. However, Best Buy customers will be able to order from Lenovo’s catalog of ThinkPad notebooks, ThinkCenter desktops, as well as its recently-announced Lenovo 3000 computer line, which specifically targets smaller businesses, and peripherals such as displays for those machines.

Best Buy will also sell the machines via the Web and telephone.

The deal is Lenovo’s second major retail outing. On Nov. 6, 2005, Office Depot began stocking and selling two ThinkPad models at its stores.

The Office Depot alliance was also designed to target small business customers, but is different from the Best Buy arrangement in that Office Depot keeps some inventory on hand. The space has long been a target of PC makers, due to it sheer size.

Check out eWEEK.com’s for the latest news in desktop and notebook computing.

Recommended for you...

Brivo Launching New Solution to Boost Security Suite

Brivo and Envoy partner to unify access control & visitor management, delivering scalable, compliant, and secure workplace experiences.

Jordan Smith
Aug 13, 2025
GitHub CEO Steps Down as Microsoft Tightens AI Integration

GitHub CEO Thomas Dohmke to step down in 2025 as Microsoft moves platform into CoreAI, deepening its role in the company’s AI development strategy.

Allison Francis
Aug 13, 2025
Backblaze CEO on GTM Strategy & AI Demand on M&E Datasets

Backblaze CEO on record growth, AI and M&E wins, and how new products and partnerships are driving enterprise cloud storage adoption.

Jordan Smith
Aug 13, 2025
MetTel to Modernize Communication Lines for VA

MetTel secures a $54M contract to modernize 15,000 VA phone lines across 1,875 locations using its POTS Transformation solution, enhancing reliability and performance.

Jordan Smith
Aug 8, 2025
Channel Insider Logo

Channel Insider combines news and technology recommendations to keep channel partners, value-added resellers, IT solution providers, MSPs, and SaaS providers informed on the changing IT landscape. These resources provide product comparisons, in-depth analysis of vendors, and interviews with subject matter experts to provide vendors with critical information for their operations.

Property of TechnologyAdvice. © 2025 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.