Best Buy mimicking Apple stores in retail makeover
In an effort to turn around its declining sales, Best Buy is testing new, smaller stores that borrow numerous elements from Apple's highly successful retail chain.
Best Buy has one prototype store in Richfield, Minn., which has a "Solution Central" table staffed by its Geek Squad employees that looks akin to Apple's Genius Bars according to The Wall Street Journal. The test store also offers customers the ability to pay for products at several locations rather than in checkout lines, much like Apple does.
Best Buy is attempting to shake things up after its stock has fallen 33 percent over the last two years, and sales at its stores have declined nearly 2 percent in each of the last two years.
The retailer's interim chief executive, Mike Mikan, has called the experimental, Apple-like store "Best Buy 2.0." The new focus is on ensuring customers can speak with employees who assist them, rather than displaying as many gadgets as possible.
The goal is that improved service can give the retailer an advantage over online electronics sellers like Amazon, which typically feature lower prices. Best Buy and other retailers are attempting to curb a trend known as "showrooming," where customers will visit a brick-and-mortar location to check out a product in person, but ultimately make their final purchase on the Internet.
Best Buy's new "Solution Central" has been compared to Apple's Genius Bars. Photo via The Wall Street Journal.
The company announced in March that it plans to close 50 stores and cut $800 million in costs as low margins on mobile computing devices have negatively affected its bottom line. After the closings, Best Buy will still have about 1,050 stores left in the U.S., and 60 of those are scheduled to be converted to the new "2.0" look with 20 percent less floor space.
The retailer is also planning to have 40 percent of its current workers undergo extensive training in September. New hires at Best Buy will also receive 80 hours of training in an effort to improve service.
Though Apple operates its own retail stores, Best Buy is an important partner for the iPhone maker. One recent survey found that Best Buy sells nearly as many iPhones in America as Apple does through its own direct sales.
Many Best Buy stores also feature dedicated Apple sections that feature products like the iPad, Macs and the Apple TV. That "store within a store" concept is found at over 600 Best Buy locations in America.
Best Buy has one prototype store in Richfield, Minn., which has a "Solution Central" table staffed by its Geek Squad employees that looks akin to Apple's Genius Bars according to The Wall Street Journal. The test store also offers customers the ability to pay for products at several locations rather than in checkout lines, much like Apple does.
Best Buy is attempting to shake things up after its stock has fallen 33 percent over the last two years, and sales at its stores have declined nearly 2 percent in each of the last two years.
The retailer's interim chief executive, Mike Mikan, has called the experimental, Apple-like store "Best Buy 2.0." The new focus is on ensuring customers can speak with employees who assist them, rather than displaying as many gadgets as possible.
The goal is that improved service can give the retailer an advantage over online electronics sellers like Amazon, which typically feature lower prices. Best Buy and other retailers are attempting to curb a trend known as "showrooming," where customers will visit a brick-and-mortar location to check out a product in person, but ultimately make their final purchase on the Internet.
Best Buy's new "Solution Central" has been compared to Apple's Genius Bars. Photo via The Wall Street Journal.
The company announced in March that it plans to close 50 stores and cut $800 million in costs as low margins on mobile computing devices have negatively affected its bottom line. After the closings, Best Buy will still have about 1,050 stores left in the U.S., and 60 of those are scheduled to be converted to the new "2.0" look with 20 percent less floor space.
The retailer is also planning to have 40 percent of its current workers undergo extensive training in September. New hires at Best Buy will also receive 80 hours of training in an effort to improve service.
Though Apple operates its own retail stores, Best Buy is an important partner for the iPhone maker. One recent survey found that Best Buy sells nearly as many iPhones in America as Apple does through its own direct sales.
Many Best Buy stores also feature dedicated Apple sections that feature products like the iPad, Macs and the Apple TV. That "store within a store" concept is found at over 600 Best Buy locations in America.
Comments
Perhaps their employees should spend less time snooping for porn on customers' hard drives and peddling various protection plans, and focus more on quality customer service and support.
It's getting pretty insane how massive a divide there is now between the looks of Apple and a lot of other businesses. Apple looks current while other companies look straight out of 20 years ago.
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…is mimicking. Beyond the fact that it's a bar (1) and there are screens behind it (2). They certainly won't be mimicking any other aspects of what make Apple the leader in customer service.
The biggest problem with Best Buy is that they have so many products on display but most of them don't work. Most phones are fake cases, many laptops are locked behind the cages. TV's with remotes hidden away. Microwaves with no power.
It's funny that many Apple haters complains about Apple products are only skin deep, yet rest of the industry don't let consumers tryout their products before they buy.
Now how about using your Market power to get crapware off of your PCs, rather than charging users via Geek Squad to delete the crapware.
Consumer friendly service, who would of thought that idea might be important one day? /s
Alright, so who *isn't* desperately trying to follow Apple's every move?
Every damn time. It takes Apple to light the way forward.
Please. I had professional 'connections' to those who made the stores over nearly a decade ago. Because Best Buy only cared about saving a penny here, a penny there, the stores became the convoluted messes they are now.
Nothing will save Best Buy from eventual doom.
Lose the ties
That prototype store looks like it's located in Utah, and staffed by elders.
Quote:
Originally Posted by winstein2010
The biggest problem with Best Buy is that they have so many products on display but most of them don't work. Most phones are fake cases, many laptops are locked behind the cages. TV's with remotes hidden away. Microwaves with no power.
It's funny that many Apple haters complains about Apple products are only skin deep, yet rest of the industry don't let consumers tryout their products before they buy.
You hit the nail on the head. Best Buy and others know full well that most people wouldn't buy the Apple knock off phones if they had the opportunity to try them out first. A few months ago I was at the Best Buy looking at the Android hero phone of the month and of course it was just a non-working display model and they had no working models to show.
Best Buy should mimic Amazon's internet business. It is easy to order online. Repackaging and returning an item online is more time consuming. Knowing that an item can be returned to a physical store would be Best Buy's advantage.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
I'm sorry, you said mimicking, so I'm confused how this…
…is mimicking. Beyond the fact that it's a bar (1) and there are screens behind it (2). They certainly won't be mimicking any other aspects of what make Apple the leader in customer service.
Yeah, they may be trying to mimick. But they have failed and really, that is the only picture you have to prove your point, AI?
It's a pharmacy. Everything is over the counter, and you have to pay the staff to let you consult you on your products before you can touch it.
Tech products really need to be sold by the manufacturers unless they can sell themselves. Companies spend good money on R&D to make their best products only to be screwed up by the folks at FS or BB. What a shame. How many times have you gone in to check out products after a bit of on-line research, only to be told to just get "the big one" or the "expensive one"? Not that the sales staff are the only culprits here, I hate the fact that the manufacturers circumvent their stupidity by flooding the market with 94 different kinds of modems or cameras, simulating "choice" but really making themselves look like they really didn't do proper market research.
Ah yes, and then there's my point. The shopping industry and experience needs to change because the on-line/in-store experience is still rather fragmented. Only then will I actually enjoy pulling out my wallet and hitting the stores.
BestBuy have started a car rental service? And yeah, sure, it can be compared to the Apple Genius Bar... it has a counter, right? So yeah, quite similar.
Quote:
Originally Posted by AppleInsider
The goal is that improved service can give the retailer an advantage over online electronics sellers like Amazon, which typically feature lower prices. Best Buy and other retailers are attempting to curb a trend known as "showrooming," where customers will visit a brick-and-mortar location to check out a product in person, but ultimately make their final purchase on the Internet.
Consumers don't often buy TVs or home appliances over the Internet. About the only product I have purchased at Best Buy is a TV. Smaller less fragile consumer electronics are better suited for online sales. I am surprised how many iPhones they sell, at least according to the article. I would have thought more phones would be purchased at the phone stores than BB.
Quote:
Originally Posted by elmsley
Tech products really need to be sold by the manufacturers unless they can sell themselves.
Or in the case of Apple where both is true.
Quote:
Originally Posted by markbyrn
You hit the nail on the head. Best Buy and others know full well that most people wouldn't buy the Apple knock off phones if they had the opportunity to try them out first. A few months ago I was at the Best Buy looking at the Android hero phone of the month and of course it was just a non-working display model and they had no working models to show.
I'm sorry, but you just can't make "a silk purse out of a sows ear"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15616445
Mark
Quote:
Originally Posted by city
Best Buy should mimic Amazon's internet business. It is easy to order online. Repackaging and returning an item online is more time consuming. Knowing that an item can be returned to a physical store would be Best Buy's advantage.
Interesting that you bring up Amazon. There has been some analyst-babble about Amazon acquiring Best Buy, since Best Buy is becoming a mere showroom
for people to check out items before ordering from Amazon.
Upon leaving, I commented that it felt like I had just visited a Radio Shack.
I really wasn't gonna purchase anything, and the employees really didn't care I was there.
Too much inventory of crap that no one care about (CD's / DVD's / toys / refrigerators) and all the non-Apple displays were dirty or non-functional.
No soul. No direction.