The Coexistence of Best Buy in the Era of Amazon

 

Amazon has shattered the brick and mortar stores across sectors. The retail giant for a while was placing a steadfast base in the age of amazon. But in 2012, the CEO of Best Buy resigned from the firm when he admitted of having an improper relation with a female employ. Since then the employee engagement started plummeting. The customers of best buy started drifting to Amazon while they used best but to get the touch and feel experience and looked upon amazon to get the products at a cheaper price. Best buy had to adopt a strategy to survive in the era of emerging e-commerce.

How did they Co-existed with Amazon ?

Customer-centric approach was adopted by best buy for getting the competitive advantage.Treat customer as the king 👑

They were able to do that by identifying the emotional needs of the consumers.

When taken the case of amazon, they offered same quality product in cheaper rate. He identified the weak point in the operation of the stores- the front-line employee.

The employee engagement was descending. The then CEO visited the store himself and worked at the place for about a week and communicated with the front-line workers himself. He found that the information about the inventory was not communicated and updated timely. Resources allotted to employee training. They also came up with a beloved employee discount program. This improved the brand’s perceived image and thus review ratings in the Glassdoor improved.

The new CEO started knew about the showroom model where came in to experience the product and later look at the best price to buy. He knew that the customers turn to amazon for the cheaper price they offer. So he decided to offer the products cheaper for products and practice multi-channel retailing in which the customers can pre book products and can choose to buy it in stores or get it delivered to their homes. Also they rented their floor space to several brands like apple to showcase their product in their space thus way of getting additional revenue.

Best buy had an upper hand when compared to amazon in connecting with the customers and observing them during the purchase in the store.They started an ‘In home advisor’ program where the Best buy sends its consultants to the home of the consumers to know whether they need any product.In home advisors need not track the weekly sales but they were given an yearly salary instead of hourly wage. They were told to be “comfortable to not close a deal at the end of the day “. They were advised to build customer relation for a long term.

Thus Best Buy found a way to coexist without falling prey to retail apocalypse.

Do you think they efficiently used the multichannel retailing?💭