Uh-oh. Even though Big Blue squeaked out a profit last quarter and beat Wall Street’s expectations, the retailer is planning its biggest layoff since July 2012. About 2,000 managers will lose their job, but no store closures are planned. According to the New York Post, the exact number of cuts have not been determined yet but it could reach 2,000 managers The company announced its 2014… Read More
Have you been in a Best Buy recently? The stores are starting to look more like exhibition halls than a warehouse retailer. And that’s by design. Stores within stores. Nearly every Best Buy store now has space dedicated to Samsung products and about half of the stores have space for Windows products. The company details the store-within-a-store concept in its 2014 fourth-quarter results.… Read More
It’s Thanksgiving in the States and tomorrow is the biggest shopping day of the year. In fact stores will be open tonight so you can elbow your way into a scrum of bargain hunters and frotteurists. I’m here to tell you it’s a sucker’s game, at least when it comes to consumer electronics and computer hardware.
Samsung will reportedly be launching Samsung Stores in select Best Buy locations ahead of the Galaxy S4′s U.S. launch, a new report from Geek.com claims. The new sections, which will occupy spots close to the mobile department, will feature Samsung branding throughout and highlight a number of Samsung products, not just the upcoming Galaxy S4, though that flagship device will be the core focus.
The report from Geek.com says that at first the Samsung Stores will only be appearing at certain high-traffic locations, with training to begin for employees in the mobile departments at those stores soon. The store-within-a-store concept will roll out to other Best Buys following the launch later this year, with the ultimate goal of puting one in every U.S. location. We’ve reached to both Best Buy and Samsung for comment, but have yet to hear back at publication time.
Of course, there’s a good precedent for this sort of thing at Best Buy specifically, and it was set by a company that Samsung is generally keen to emulate: Apple. Apple’s dedicated mini-stores in Best Buy locations are unique in that they replicate almost exactly the in-store displays of Apple products in the company’s own standalone retail stores. It sounds like Samsung’s new in-store locations will resemble the Apple versions in both form and function, with the main intent being to have staff and space to properly demonstrate Samsung’s devices separate from those made by other OEMs.
If these Samsung Stores become a reality, it’s likely going to have the most effect on its fellow Android smartphone manufacturers, rather than Apple, however. Samsung is already setting itself apart from the competition in terms of market reach and global sales, but distinguishing itself on the physical retail floor will institutionalize a choice between Samsung and ‘all the rest’ for in-store shoppers.
Samsung is getting bolder in its marketing efforts, as was painfully apparent from its lavish, confusing Broadway spectacle earlier this month. If it wants to stand out, physically separating itself inside of Best Buy locations is another very good way to do so.
Leap Motion, makers of the innovative Leap Motion controller for PCs, today announced that at launch, it will sell its device exclusively through Best Buy’s physical and online stores in the U.S., as the only other sales channel for the device besides its own website. Leap Motion will also be available soon for pre-order from Best Buy beginning in February, and will come to Europe and other world markets through other partners not yet announced.
I spoke with Leap Motion President and COO Andy Miller about the arrangement, and asked him why Best Buy represented a good fit for the hardware startup. Miller said that Best Buy had been very excited at the prospect of selling Leap’s controller, which can track a computer user’s movements with a high degree of accuracy and no lag time.
“They had been following our progress, and they invited us up to Minneapolis and they got their hands on the Leap Motion, and they decided that this was for them,” he said. “They’re a pretty forward-thinking company and we love the way they can tell the story. It’s really about partnering with someone who has the training to show off to potential customers what we can do.”
Miller added that for Best Buy, the value is in helping the company to show its consumers that it is still on the cutting edge, and capable of bringing them the latest in consumer interaction design. Leap Motion will be working with Best Buy to craft in-store end cap displays, which will feature the controller and games and apps selected by both the retailer and the hardware maker specifically to show off the device’s capabilities. The fact that this deal makes for a great software showcase was also at the forefront of Leap’s decision-making in going with Best Buy as a launch partner.
“It’s not just a startup with a website where we’ve been fortunate to have a lot of interest; now, people will be able to see the apps they build for the Leap platform in stores all across the U.S.,” he said. “There’s going to be a huge audience for developers here. Developers have a choice about where they spend their time and money, and we’re trying to make a strong case for why they should do it at Leap.”
Another launch-time move from Leap is its recently announced partnership with Asus to ship the controller with new PCs in 2013. That, too, is a way for the company to prove to potential developers that far from being vaporware or a niche product, this is intended as a mass market device, and will have all the distribution efforts that kind of project implies. The Best Buy partnership is also a key ingredient for getting Leap Motion somewhere where users can actually try before they buy, which is absolutely crucial for this kind of device coming new to market without the power of a big brand like Microsoft or Sony.
The Best Buy arrangement is a limited time exclusive, and Miller said Leap fully intends to offer the controller through other retailers as well in the future. Pre-orders for those who signed up via Leap’s website are expected to ship out sometime later this quarter.
By raise of hands, who goes to Best Buy to try something they intend to buy on Amazon or Newegg? Everyone? In what could be the retailer’s smartest move in years, Best Buy intends to match the prices of online retailers including Amazon this holiday season.
The word comes from the WSJ which reports Best Buy is attempting to increase store’s close rate by preventing showrooming. The retailer states that about 40% of store visitors leave without making a purchase. No doubt a good chunk of those consumers are using Best Buy as a showroom for an Internet retailer who sells a particular item at a lower cost.
Details about the new price matching policy are still light. Best Buy has yet to make this plan official or release the fine print — there is no doubt plenty of exclusions. Since this report just broke, the policy is likely not yet rolled out to the stores either.
But here’s a novel idea: Instead of driving customers to online retailers to find a better deal, Best Buy should lower its prices to make itself more competitive.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
