Lenovo retail site breeds confusion amongst consumers

[pkiff]

I wonder sometimes why Lenovo's website works so poorly as a front-end retail store.

I get that Lenovo is generally geared more towards corporate sales rather than individual consumers. But some of their product lines - the Legion gaming systems, the Anniversary edition laptops, some of the mid-low end tablets, and some of their high-end X machines - are definitely intended for individual purchase by end-consumers rather than for mass bulk sales. And yet, I sometimes find it painful to find specific items on their site, and I am confounded by the lack of basic information on others.

For example, today I was looking at backpacks, and I discovered that they have two 15.6" laptop backpacks that are basically identical:

• Lenovo 15.6” Laptop Everyday Backpack B510
  Retail: USD $30 - on sale for USD $19
  https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessor ... gx40q75214
  and
• Lenovo 15.6" Laptop Backpack B515 (Black)
  Retail: USD $35 - on sale for USD $14
  https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/p/accessor ... gx40q75215

From the model numbers, one would guess that the B515 is simply a newer version of the B510. The prices are different, though the B515 is currently cheaper. But if you look at the "Overview" and "Key Details" and even the "Tech Specs" they appear identical. Is there a difference? There is a 100g difference in weight, but is that even true, or is that just a mistake on their site? Who knows. Why doesn't their website identify any differences or explain why they have a new version? Any normal retail site would explain what the difference is between two different models of the same item, especially if they are priced differently.

This example is a follow up to an earlier post I shared last month of two different version of their "Slim 170-watt adapters - Legion vs Mobile - Identical?":

Lenovo seems to offer two different "slim" 170-watt power adapters for new machines. The pages on them show different prices and different lists of compatible models, but to me they look identical:

• Lenovo Legion Slim 170W AC Adapter(UL)
  https://smartfind.lenovo.com/accessorie ... GX20Z46288
• ThinkPad Mobile Workstation Slim 170W AC Adapter (Slim-tip) - US/Can
  https://smartfind.lenovo.com/accessorie ... 4X20S56697

I'm looking to pick up an extra adapter or two for my X1E Gen 4 (with RTX 3050Ti). Are these adapters interchangeable, and the pricing/compatibility list is just the result of some weird Lenovo rebranding/pricing quirk?

And don't get me started on the now entirely bewildering array of different models and naming conventions they use for their various laptops, which leads to different models in two different lines being almost identical (my X1 Extreme gen 4 is almost identical to the high end P1 of the same era).

I don't have much of a point here, I'm just marvelling at what seems to me to be basic failures in the Lenovo website in terms of online retail.

I don't understand how this all works out as effective marketing strategy. To me it seems like it inevitably breeds confusion amongst all buyers and dilutes the recognition and brand loyalty of Thinkpads. Yet they still sell laptops hand over fist. So maybe none of it makes any difference.

Phil.