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Best Buy API Aims To Expand Store's Reach Online
surely_you_cant_be_serious writes "Best Buy has opened up proprietary product catalog data in its online store through an open API. Through the Remix API, Best Buy can track how many people are using its information, while users can check to see where a certain product is available without visiting Best Buy's site.
Web developers and bloggers can also sign up to become an official Best Buy affiliate. If approved, they can get a small percentage of a sale if someone makes a Best Buy purchase through their site."
Sounds kinda like what Amazon did several years ago, so you can link to a specific product on Amazon, and get a cut.
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Damn, I never thought a big box retailer with brick and mortars would ever get it.
I really am torn about this. On the one hand it is cool technology and it prevents me from having to actually go into a Best Buy and talk to one of the khakis pants army of morons who work there. On the other hand this means more revenue for Best Buy and that means they will expand and build more stores which will then cause me to vomit upon sight of said stores... I'm torn; really I am!
Useless web tools + ridiculously overpriced hardware = win win for the consumer!
The one they'd show customers in store when they were doing a bait and switch? The one the CT attorney general was investigating?
Just curious.
The one where they show you the item is NOT on sale when you try to buy it at the online sale price?
Fell for that twice until I read about it here.
notice the referrer id in the affiliate link (using commission junction, a spammers haven) instead of a direct link,
way to go with the quality articles Slashdot
That's one way to change the character of online comments. Watch for all the Best Buy Sucks comments to change to Best Buy fanboi-ism type of comments.
When people are paid to do it, and when they can do so anonymously, they can say just about anything!
Back in early 2007 when the Wii was out of stock absolutely everywhere, I setup a cron job to repeatedly check the product pages of the Wii console on Best Buy and other sites and email me when it said they were in stock. It worked surprisingly well and I got a Wii at retail price within about a week or so (with a well timed email and quick checkout) from Best Buy.
This is a really good move on Best Buy's part as it will only increase people buying their items.
It's better to vote for what you want and not get it than to vote for what you don't want and get it.
- E. Debs
Vis-à-vis Wal-Mart, Best Buy can't really compete on price, but its value-added service offerings -- professional home installation of flat-screen TVs, for instance -- can be a significant differentiator, especially considering the coming digital TV transition.
Well OK, but will these services be available for linking/displaying/reviews through this API? Will anyone actually link directly to these services, even if they are available?
I'm sure there will be a hard upsell attempt once the customer clicks to buy the actual product, but how will they translate this services "advantage" into inducing people to link Best Buy products instead of the same product through, say, Amazon?
When I went in to Best Buy to look at plasma TV's (nothing on the web beats a real-world viewing of a potential purchase), the salespeople were pitching all kinds of installation, delivery, warranties, and even an in-room color setting tuning. Amazon, where I eventually bought the TV from, had a handful of additional services, but got the purchase because they were $400 cheaper.
How will directly linking to a virtual pitch of the same "differentiators" change decisions like mine?
Hard work has a future payoff. Laziness pays off now.
Speaking of bestbuysucks.com/org/net/tv/co.uk/etc, has anyone heard of the disposition of those illegal detentions and arrests they made when people wouldn't show a receipt for their own purchased items?
I remember a couple posted on slashdot a few years ago, and one was particularly egregious.
The functionality of the API I think will determine it's usefulness. If all the thing does is give you a 400x400 ad for a BestBuy product, this thing will be worthless and BB will quickly learn that. If however, they offer a really flexible system which can deliver what a blogger wants, in the way that he wants, then this thing could offer a great integration point for BestBuy. Non-invasiveness is the key... as always.
notice the referrer id in the affiliate link (using commission junction, a spammers haven) instead of a direct link,
way to go with the quality articles Slashdot
That's not a referrer id that will get anyone paid, except for Best Buy. The "refid" in the URL is just so that you're shown the Best Buy Program's info instead of a generic CJ one.
Of course this is fact instead of hyperbole, so, proof [that you didn't provide] provided:
https://signup.cj.com/member/brandedPublisherSignUp.do?air_refmerchantid=2045991&h=488
https://signup.cj.com/member/brandedPublisherSignUp.do?h=488
Cool, now we shall get a whole new wave of DriveBuy Download commission stealing crapware for Windoze.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
I *think* the especially egregious example was a Circuit City in Ohio.
...Best Buy is trying to hide their price data from 3rd party web search applications.
Have gnu, will travel.
It's funny you should mention that. They just recently revamped and modernized their security system. Now if you don't show your receipt because the line is too long, now everyone, not just their security guards, are allowed to tackle you against your car and detain you on their behalf.
The mother of all Big Box Stores Wal-Mart used to have a modem connected network using MS-DOS software to track purchases and inventory control with its vendors. It was the big technical advantage that Wal-Mart had that nobody else has.
Companies like Circuit City that lack such technology lose sales to Best Buy and Wal-Mart and Amazon.com that do have such technology.
It is really basic Statistics using standard deviations to predict trends in inventory to let you know when the item is due to be shipped and in stock. It is called Forecasting, and it is used to pick stocks as well for some financial companies.
Most people think learning Business Statistics or even Elementary Statistics in college is useless, well here is Statistics being used and as a black box behind the open API inviting anyone to write their own program to interface with it.
Now that this technology is being made popular and public, expect other Big Box Stores to open up their API to their technology that does the same thing.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
If you compare the TOS of the Best Buy service with the Amazon service, you'll see that you have a lot more freedom with what you can use the Best Buy data for. The Amazon API is actually pretty restrictive in use although ironically richer in ability (from what I can see so far).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
If you are made to WAIT or WORK just to PAY somebody for something, I'd say that somebody does not deserve your business. Move on. It will be better for Capitalism and free market competition in the end. The big business and corporations of this country have trained people to believe they actually have to suffer to give their hard earned money to a buy crap. In a real competitive market, if you walk in a restaurant and there is a line, you just go next door or down the street and the second place would be just as good and have a table ready. If that is not the case the so-called free market you think we have is really just an illusion put in place by poeple who benefit from less competition. If conditioning and mass delusion were not powerful forces, 90% desktop PC's would not be running Windows, and the so-called credit crisis would be recognized the fraud that it is. If I spend 1 minute on Best Buy or Amazon and cannot find what I want at the price I want, I just go somewhere else. Your time is worth more $$$ than messing around with 3rd party APIs for free unless they are giving you a cut.
This opens up interesting possibilities. Does monoprice.com and/or newegg.com have a similar API? I'd love to see a page listing the prices at BestBuy.com compared to equivalent items at online retailers.
Best Buy would NOT want to see their cable prices compared to monoprice.
They'd like the sales taxes for your regional affiliate/salesstaff.
Wow, I suggested this on my blog 9 days ago (citing Best Buy by name), and they did it! Congrats Best Buy! You made me look like a smart little bot.
From my blog post:
and
Here's my blog post.
and my twitter link. Follow me!
Does this mean froogle.google.com will finally be able to index Best Buy's catalog?