News

Best Buy announces plans to double web sales

April 14, 2011

Best Buy Co. Inc. has announced plans to double its annual web sales to $4 billion within five years. Those plans include opening more stores selling mobile phones and service plans and reducing bricks-and-mortar store square footage, according to InternetRetailer.com.

The multichannel strategy is based on what the company learned about the way shoppers want to interact with the company, said Shari Ballard, Best Buy executive vice president.

“There’s a new definition of convenience: the ability to interact with a company on your terms,” Ballard said.

The recently released year ended Feb. 26 sales results show that while overall sales were flat, web sales grew. Web sales this year are already up 14 percent over the same time last year.

The 2012 projections from Best Buy’s year-end earnings filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission show total revenue of $51 billion to $52.5 billion, an increase of 1% to 4%.

New strategies include:

• Expanding Best Buy’s online presence in the United States, with a goal of doubling the current $2 billion online business within five years.

• Increasing Best Buy Mobile to an estimated total of 600 to 800 stand-alone stores in the U.S. within five years.

• Investing in Five-Star, the company’s Chinese brand. The company believes it can more than double its revenues in China to $4 billion in that time.

• Improving store productivity. The plan includes a 10 percent reduction in square-footage over the next three to five years, resulting in expected annual savings of $70 million to $80 million.