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Best Buy Is Thriving In the Age of Amazon (defenseone.com)
Best Buy is turning to in-home consultants to help distinguish it from Amazon. The advisors act as "personal chief technology officers," helping people make their homes smart or merely more functional. "Unlike the Geek Squad and blue shirts working in stores, they'll be paid an annual salary instead of an hourly wage," reports Bloomberg. "Their house calls are free and can last as long as 90 minutes. [...] They're supposed to establish long-term relationships with their customers rather than chase one-time transactions." From the report: With more than 1,000 big-box stores in North America and about 125,000 employees, Best Buy was supposed to have succumbed to the inevitable. "Everyone thought we were going to die," says Hubert Joly, who was hired as chief executive officer in August 2012 after profits shrunk about 90 percent in one quarter and his predecessor resigned amid an investigation into his relationship with an employee. Instead, Best Buy has become an improbable survivor led by an unlikely boss.
The in-home advisors went national in September. When one of the trainees at the session in Minneapolis asked Joly how big he hoped the program could become, he said: "I don't have a specific goal. I don't think it would be helpful. McKinsey never had a goal of how many clients. It was how good was the work." Another employee said: "This is why Amazon can't compete with us. They can't dispatch an army of in-home agents." Joly wasn't as sure. "Amazon is an amazing company," he replied. "They kill companies. Maybe they will do this. But we have an incredible opportunity. If someone wants to copy, that's fine." Amazon has started offering free smart-home consultations and installations. It doesn't have a chain of big-box stores in which to meet customers, but that didn't bother investors. Best Buy's stock dropped 6.3 percent when Amazon announced its plans a year ago.
The in-home advisors went national in September. When one of the trainees at the session in Minneapolis asked Joly how big he hoped the program could become, he said: "I don't have a specific goal. I don't think it would be helpful. McKinsey never had a goal of how many clients. It was how good was the work." Another employee said: "This is why Amazon can't compete with us. They can't dispatch an army of in-home agents." Joly wasn't as sure. "Amazon is an amazing company," he replied. "They kill companies. Maybe they will do this. But we have an incredible opportunity. If someone wants to copy, that's fine." Amazon has started offering free smart-home consultations and installations. It doesn't have a chain of big-box stores in which to meet customers, but that didn't bother investors. Best Buy's stock dropped 6.3 percent when Amazon announced its plans a year ago.
Do they have sales targets?
Do they get commission?
Do they do tech work or just sell sell sell?
they started charging me tax. I drive to Best Buy now; what I want is cheaper than online, even with tax.
A lot of people like seeing big ticket items in person before purchasing. Best Buy is the only electronics store in the US (yes Walmart and target sell electronics but itâ(TM)s not the same) and they price match Amazon for any products they carry that are shipped and sold by Amazon. Iâ(TM)m honestly not surprised they are thriving.
1. Survive long enough to be the bought by Amazon before the stock price craters.
2. ?
3. Profit! (Lay off all the employees, and give all the C*O's and board members 8 figure bonuses.)
Amazon can hire local electricians and tech geeks to do this too. Same goes with home depot
Will they be ok with the Door-to-door sales and the FTC’s Cooling-Off Rules or say sorry your are stuck with the Restocking Fees and that 2 year directv contract
We've seen a dramatic shift to the remarkable ease online purchasing has provided customers, yet every volley is instigation for an improved return.
Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.
Ernest Hemingway
and will best buy take the offers made or say the rep give you the wrong price or some like install with stairs is X more on the install date.
Comcast door to door reps have made offers that where not honored.
Would you be ok with learning proper English? Your word salads are difficult to parse.
In the era where "online sales will rule everything!" seems omniscient, I'm very pleased to see SOME level of creative thinking. Rather than just roll over, they're trying something different enough to distinguish themselves. Good on them! I hope it works.
I don't see how Best Buy can compete in sales and esp profit against Amazon with that kind of time per sale stat.
Funny, but I trust Worst Buy as much as I trust Trump...NOT AT ALL!!! Worst Buy's Creep Squad has proved that they cannot be trusted...EVER!
The FBI will love having Best Buy develop "personal relationships" with people in their homes:
https://www.npr.org/sections/t...
Now that he got kicked out of his mom's basement?
Beau, stop working at BB and get a real job dude! Your in-house consultations don't impress me.
for electronics stores. There's a few regionals, but only in the big cities. And somehow they've avoided getting Bain'd like Toys R Us did. So far anyway. If you don't know what Newegg is they're pretty much it for computers and if you want to buy something in town then yeah, they're it.
What do they call this? Survival Bias?
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Now you can have Best Buyers snoop through your computer without the hassle of having to take it to a store. Great for couch-bound millennials...
Those knobgobblers shut down CowBoom in order to flog their store-branded "outlet" which was crap and continues to be crap.
Screw Best Buy
"word salads"? lol i think you mean "word sentences". don't you look like a fool now.
+1. Not everyone can figure out how to hook up a wifi network properly. They are getting easier, but still not there quite yet. That, along with every smart device under the sun and quirks setting them up, means there's a a great opportunity for a service like this.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
This is exactly what I want as a worker. Also what I have.
For many years I owned the companies I worked for. I'm now enjoying a steady, predictable salary, like these employees have. If I wanted unpredictable pay (like commissions), I could make a lot more money working for myself, or working contracts. I also wouldn't like commissions because that puts my own interest (my pay) in direct opposition to the customer's interest in managing the budget. I much prefer to be able to serve the customer the best I can, rather than try to sell them as much as possible in order to pay my rent.
At my job, we also have metrics and goals - I know what's expected of me, and it's agreed to beforehand. My new boss and I didn't get along at first. My first performance review with him wasn't going so well until we started looking at the goals we had agreed to for the quarter and my actual performance. He saw that I got done what my boss had asked me to get done, so his attitude changed (an employee who gets it done is valuable to a boss).
Recently we came up with new metrics and goals for the team, to align with the company's new strategic goals. A co-worker pointed out a possible flaw - sometimes customer needs might not match up with one of our metrics. I pointed out that having goals doesn't mean we have to ignore the customer while chasing the metric with tunnel vision. The metric is ONE way we measure the value we deliver to the customer. It's not the only way. Since our pay is salary, not toed directly to a specific metric, we can serve the customer's needs from day to day, with the metric serving its proper purpose as but one measurement.
So that's exactly the work situation I like. Salaried, steady pay. Defined metrics and goals so I know what is expected of me and the bosses agree (in writing). But the metrics are but one thing we look at in reviews, one part of the story.
Another important thing I do is recognized, but not measured. I really enjoy helping train and equip my teammates to better serve the customer and the team. Today I had two different people asking me for help at the same time. I love it, it improves the efficiency of the team by allowing their work to reflect my experience, and my boss appreciates the value - rather than having a less efficient and effective team because I'm selfishly chasing my own commissions.
Because this article didn't match my observations of closing and aging Best Buy stores all around me, I looked the facts up.
Their profits are roughly the same as they were a decade ago - before inflation adjustment. And they have less stores than they did at their peak. Any retail operation that isn't even maintaining is well on the path to dying.
Perhaps this article announcing their first new store in seven years this past April justifies the "thriving" label.
Given the collapse in other competition such as Circuit City, Radio Shack, Sears, K-Mart, etc, it is apparent that they have succeeded in picking up no customers from competitors when those competitors collapsed.
This is "thriving"? Was this article written by Best Buy's investor relations folks?
I bought a TV from there and they tried to hard sell me on letting someone come over to do a free calibration for the lighting and sound, I had to give them a fake address to get them off my back. I don't need someone clocking my house or trying to steal something while they're there, even hijacking my WiFi info.
I go to best buy to see something in person, have a place to return it to easily if I have a problem, and avoid shipping with heavy items to my house or back to the store if need be. Services like amazon are a real hassle if anything goes wrong and you just can't check it out before you buy it.
from best buy because the thing dies like clockwork every 6 months or so and with the extended warranty they just keep on replacing it. I keep expecting them to send me packing but they never do. Sometimes I have to pay $2 bucks because the cost of the warranty went up and I have to pay the difference.
I do the same with Costco & car batteries. I live the the southwest and they last about 2 years. Costco warranty is 3 years. Haven't bought a car battery in ages.
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these aren't cold calls. these are salespersons from the store, going to the home at the customer's (and in most cases, an existing one with an existing relationship with the store) request. so home solicitation rules that apply to the old encyclopedia and vacuum salesmen of days-past probably do not apply here.
Their floor staff are exceptional. My parents refuse to listen to me, so when a guy comes over and suggests precisely the usb extender I had already selected, then they listen. You can go online and see precisely what's in stock before you go. What's in stock is a $32 'extender, what's not is a $7 extender only available by delivery.
That's usually a way to create an on-call workforce where employees are driven to spend more and more time chasing whatever metric the boss demands.
An employer-provided gig-economy will allow a certain number of consultations, just like health insurance. Or, the customer may not be interested in buying a check-up.
Best Buy used to complain that people used their store as a showroom then went home and ordered from Amazon. That blew my mind. A retailer complaining that people come into the store?
Exactly. If you can get people into the store and still can't close the deal then you are doing something wrong. Could be price, could be service, could be "shopping experience", or something else. But if they are standing in your building and you still cannot sell them the product then you have something wildly wrong with your business model.
Basically I go to a store for just a few reasons.
1) I want to touch and see and/or select the product prior to buying.
2) I want to talk to a product expert face to face. (and they had better actually be an expert)
3) I need something Right Now.
4) Going to the store is more convenient than shopping online (like directly on my commute to/from home)
5) The store offers a fun shopping experience I cannot get online
If you are going to offer a product then you need to either be price competitive or you need to offer more value in other ways. If a company cannot compete on price with Amazon or Walmart (and most cannot) then they need to offer something else extra. Give me a reason to come to your store and buy that isn't just a mediocre price on a product I can get elsewhere.
At least they are trying something, instead of just sitting around expecting everything to just work the old way.
Best Buy has shut down stores, cut thousands of employees, cut services (like Geek Squad) substantially, pulled out of market categories, and much more. Seems their definition of "thriving" isn't what most would define it as. "Holding on" is a bit more like it.
Will they look around your house and report back to the FBI, just like they do when you bring a computer into the store for them to fix?
'They're supposed to establish long-term relationships with their customers rather than chase one-time transactions.'
IOW old people and stupid people who need them every other week.
I placed an online order to pick up at their store nearest to me. I walked in, waited in line, then showed my driver license and credit card to obtain my order, an SSD worth ~$100. I walked with my SSD and receipt in hand to the exit. At the exit, one of the Best Buy goons demanded that I hand over my receipt. I replied politely, "no thank you," and I continued exiting the store. That's when the Best Buy jerk screamed, "SUSPICION OF SHOPLIFTING!!!"
WTF?
I continued walking out of the store. I placed the item in my car. Then I walked back in to confront Best Buy's horribly abusive and lying behavior. Their goons were just as nasty when I confronted them and refused to apologize to me. When I contacted Best Buy's customer "service?" later, they too claimed that calling their customers SUSPECTED SHOPLIFTERS was ok with them!
A few weeks later, I walked in, picked up a few pricey Macbook computers in my hands without setting off the security devices, placed those computers back down safely on the table, and walked out without making a purchase. No one from Best Buy screamed, "SUSPICION OF SHOPLIFTING" then.
Moral of the story: Use Best Buy to look at devices; then place your order online through a different company which will ship the devices to your home. Never, ever actually buy something from Best Buy.
No, he meant "word salads". It's an expression. Google it and learn. Your welcome. Yes, it's yours, if you can get the intelligent humor.