DSI's sales are at record levels for the company and the RTO channel it represents.

Photo RTOonline

Tim Moore (Center), DSI Vice President of Specialty Business Sales, talks RTO with Craig Stanley (right), owner of Stanley's Get it Today and Randy Braucher, District Supervisor for Stanley's and President of the Oklahoma rental Dealers Association, at the RentDirect Nationwide Buying Show in Dallas, Texas. See RTO Online's recent interview with Tim Moore at the Premier Rental Purchase convention in San Antonio, Texas.

DSI Systems, distributors of Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Sharp, LG, Pioneer, Direct TV and Sirius Radio to the rent-to-own (RTO) channel, has increased its RTO business 300% in recent months according to Tim Moore, DSI Vice President of Specialty Business Sales. Moore said DSI's sales at the recent RentDirect Nationwide Buying Show were a record for the company and the RTO channel it represents. "It eclipsed anything we've done in the past by 200-300 percent," said Moore.

DSI is the largest ditributor of consumer electronics in the U.S. See RTO Online's recent interview with Tim Moore at the Premier Rental Purchase convention in San Antonio, Texas. Excerpt: We recommend that RTO dealers stay with Top Tier brands. In the rent-to-own business, a company cannot afford for product to go down. You have to have a name brand of good quality. We don't make money when a unit is idle.

Moore credits the huge increase in RTO channel sales in large part to its relationship with RentDirect Nationwide and its growing membership. "Together we've built such a strong program with such a broad number of lines for Nationwide members, it has pushed our sales over the top."

DSI's hottest models at the buying show were the Toshiba 42hl67 and Mitsubishi 65734. Moore said the focus was clearly on screen sizes 42 inch and up. "RTO Dealers focused on Mitsubishi DLP and Toshiba LCD," explained Moore. "Mitsubishi's DLP allows rental dealers to offer their customers much bigger screen sizes for the money."

The 52 inch Sharp LCD models were also a big hit at the show. "We did extremely well with Sharp," Moore said. He added that Rent-to-own dealers will carry some 32-37 inch models to hit a price-point, but the real meat is in 42 inch and up.

DSI had 46 sales people at the RentDirect show this month. Moore said the company's 38 table-tops were backed up for the entire show taking orders.  DSI's retail and rent-to-own orders written at the show were up a combined 60%, but the company's Rent to Own business - up 300% - is growing at 3 times the rate of retail. "It's been phenomenal," said Moore.

DSI has 300 account reps with feet-on-the-street across the country to service RTO and retail dealers one-on-one. Add to that the company's next day delivery policy from any one of DSI's 30 distribution centers, and it becomes clear why the company is growing so rapidly.

With the rent-to-own and leasing business becoming more competitive, rental dealers must find ways to limit idle inventory. "We can be every RTO dealer's warehouse," Moore said. "Call in an order by 2:00pm and it will be in the store by close of business the next day." DSI averages 98% next day delivery on all orders. "We are the largest at what we do, we have the largest in-stock inventory and carry the largest list of brands available," Moore said. "Why tie up money in idle inventory."

What does DSI see as the hot products for 2008? "LCD will continue to be competitively priced. Screen size will be hot - the bigger the size, the hotter it will be." And bigger does not necessarily mean heavier.

Screen thickness will be the hot selling-point by the end of 2008," Moore said. "I've seen some of the technology that's coming and it's amazing. Anytime Rent to Own dealers can get something that they can hang on the wall that weighs less and costs less, it will move." Industry experts say some screens will be 3/4 of an inch thick by late 2008, early 2009. "The LCDs that DSI will have for RTO dealers by the end of the year will literally look like an open window."

For more information contact Tim Moore at 614-871-1456.