China Tech News reports:

Ma Chong, general manager of Lenovo Greater China’s Commercial Desktop Computer Marketing Department, says that Lenovo has noticed that online selling is taking a larger proportion of its sales and the company is discussing plans on recruiting some online agents for its PC products.

…Ma discloses to Chinese media that Lenovo is negotiating with Alibaba on a possible cooperation, and once the online selling agent is approved, it can directly sell its products to middle and small enterprises registered with Alibaba.

Over the years there has been a lot of speculation about Chinese consumers and the internet. I recall somewhere that someone posited that Chinese consumers are reluctant to make online sales because of some undefined cultural bias. It would seem that pseudo-anthropology can be chucked out the window.

CNNIC’s internet survey report shows 25.5% of China’s online users (around 45 million people) shopped online by mid-2007. China Economic Net quotes the analyst firm iResearch as expecting fully 55 million online shoppers in 2007. Numbers are always flaky in China, but the trend is unmistakable.

Lenovo, according to the article, didn’t formulate some grand online strategy. They just noticed a trend and appear to be acting on it. And as Cisco has done, they are talking with Alibaba in an effort to reach all the SMBs that list there.

This is an interesting contrast with the world’s leading online PC retailer, Dell. Their VP of marketing and sales (and resident anthropologist) Michael Tatelman was quoted when commenting on their distribution deal with Gome:

The cooperation between Dell and Gome is an extension of Dell’s direct-sales model in China. We found consumers are more willing to touch and feel products before they purchase them…

In an effort to support touchy-feelyness, Dell now has twelve Dell Experience stores across China. It’s too early too tell if they’re helping overall sales, or even generating the ever-elusive buzz.

Whatever happens, the last thing Dell needs is more online competition in China. The uphill battle they’ve been fighting is steep enough as it is.

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