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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."
Damn, I never thought a big box retailer with brick and mortars would ever get it.
I hope it doesn't suck like Amazon's did. Shortly after it came out you couldn't search line for products without finding hundreds of spammed sites all selling exactly the same thing at exactly the same price. For a while finding a non-Amazon affiliate was impossible. I assume it didn't pan out or Google found a way to remove that lame home made stores, but I don't want to see that again with Best Buy.
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.
If you don't live on the west coast/near Fry's :)
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.
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.
Affiliate programs like the one Best Buy is making are used by more than just Amazon. Most, if not all, major online retailers have one.
Be surprised what big box stores can push out of the market.