Dell has blamed the failure of its site on the lack of a mature e-commerce marketplace. Dell’s other B2B e-procurement purchasing and information portal PremierDell.com remains open.
Dell spokesman Ken Bissell said the e-marketplace was shut down due to "a limited readiness of customers to make use of an electronic marketplace."
Dell Marketplace had allowed customers to buy Dell personal computers, notebooks, servers and related technology along with other office products from selected suppliers.
Only 3 suppliers signed up to Dell Marketplace to sell their products directly to customers in the 4 months it was open. These were Pitney Bowes, Motorola and 3M.
The e-commerce times reported that, "Rather than generate revenue from selling business products themselves, Dell charged suppliers on the marketplace both a transaction and a hosting fee. The site enabled customers to bundle orders from Dell and its complimentary suppliers into a single purchase." Despite this idea, customers obviously did not see Dell as the place to buy on-line.