PC industry is booming while the small PC retailers are shrinking.

There were more PC's sold in 2009 than all the years from 2000 to 2005 put together, but the majority of small PC retailers are going out of business instead of expanding.
A PC is made of several components that cost money to purchase. The components are assembled and then sold to the retailer with a very slim margin of profit. The retail store adds another margin of profit and resells the PC to the consumer.

THE PROFIT STOPS HERE and the hectic after-sales-service begins, particularly the hardware warranty. The warranty is meant for hardware components, but the end user does not know how to differentiate between hardware problems and software problems. Therefore the warranty becomes open ended and, in terms of customer satisfaction, covers the hardware, software and whatever problems the end user is having.

If there is no PC sound then the end user assumes that there is a hardware problem and calls the retailer for help. The retailer understands that it is a software problem but the end user does not have the technical know how to comprehend what the retailer is talking about, and wrongly assumes that the retailer is not honoring the hardware warranty. The end user either insists on the retailer to fix the problem under warranty, or takes the PC somewhere else to be fixed. This is where the end user will often wrongly be told that it is a hardware problem and the hardware should be replaced.

The small PC retail industry shrunk due to consumers preferring to buy their PC's from large retail chains and not from small retail shops. This shift was caused by consumers' Post Purchase Behaviour, a major factor in consumers' Purchase Decision Process.

The problem facing the small PC retail industry is a result of several years of negative factors that affected consumers' Post Purchase Behaviour and drove them away from small PC retailers.

What are these negative factors and how can we bring back the consumer to buy your product and at what cost?