Critical Analysis: Best Buy: Grasping at Straws
Critical Analysis: Best Buy: Grasping At Straws
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American public company that is a specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19 percent of the market (1). Over the last fifteen years, Best Buy, like many retailers, is “competing with a perfect storm of disruptive technologies (2)”. It is hard to compete with those companies embraced with innovations, such as Apple and Amazon. Best Buy has lost $1.23 billion and 2.4% decreasing of revenue last year. In order to create a delighting customer atmosphere, Best Buy should focus on: engaging in innovations of e-commerce, training employees, and focusing on the target market. Engaging in innovations of e-commerce is the best way to differentiate with the competitors. The remaining advantages of brick-and-mortar have been systematically eroded. On the other hand, e-commerce has been increasingly popular, “through technical and business innovations that include embedded video on their sites, highly credible customer reviews and peer advice, free or subsidized overnight shipping, easy returns and extended warranties, and phone or on-page video chat for customer support”(2). If Best Buy can try to create a cheaper alternative, offering customers a faster, more convenient, and less-expensive online shopping atmosphere, perhaps Best Buy can have a dramatically increase of its online stores revenue. The employee training of Best Buy needs to focus more on the basic knowledge of the products they are selling. Best Buy’s in-store staff training is oriented toward salesmanship. If the goal of a sales person is just to sell the overpriced products instead of providing comprehensive information to customers, it will not get the customers’ interests to buy at the first place. Furthermore, training across various departments can make store employees “an undisputed point of reference” for customers (3). Having high quality employees not only
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American public company that is a specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19 percent of the market (1). Over the last fifteen years, Best Buy, like many retailers, is “competing with a perfect storm of disruptive technologies (2)”. It is hard to compete with those companies embraced with innovations, such as Apple and Amazon. Best Buy has lost $1.23 billion and 2.4% decreasing of revenue last year. In order to create a delighting customer atmosphere, Best Buy should focus on: engaging in innovations of e-commerce, training employees, and focusing on the target market. Engaging in innovations of e-commerce is the best way to differentiate with the competitors. The remaining advantages of brick-and-mortar have been systematically eroded. On the other hand, e-commerce has been increasingly popular, “through technical and business innovations that include embedded video on their sites, highly credible customer reviews and peer advice, free or subsidized overnight shipping, easy returns and extended warranties, and phone or on-page video chat for customer support”(2). If Best Buy can try to create a cheaper alternative, offering customers a faster, more convenient, and less-expensive online shopping atmosphere, perhaps Best Buy can have a dramatically increase of its online stores revenue. The employee training of Best Buy needs to focus more on the basic knowledge of the products they are selling. Best Buy’s in-store staff training is oriented toward salesmanship. If the goal of a sales person is just to sell the overpriced products instead of providing comprehensive information to customers, it will not get the customers’ interests to buy at the first place. Furthermore, training across various departments can make store employees “an undisputed point of reference” for customers (3). Having high quality employees not only