The Rise and Fall of a Retail Giant
Abstract
Best Buy, a familiar retailer in the technology world, is struggling to stay on top. Online and mass stores have cornered the market in terms of convenience, customer service and price matching. The recent closing of over two hundred stores alongside falling sales has experts predicting that the giant won’t be in business long. Using a results-only work environment (ROWE), Best Buy has removed the customer from the equation and forced many employees out. A marketing disaster, Best Buy must change its marketing strategy from sales-based to a customer-based to stay afloat.
Best Buy Inc. has built a reputation as a ground-breaking retail giant. It is known as one of the first “big box” stores in
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Paul, MN. The original founders were business partners Richard M. Schulze and Gary Smoliak. Schulze bought out Smoliak, and began building it into a superstore. He then expanded to include VCRs and other home appliances, and in 1985, Best Buy went public. By 1987 it gained a listing on the New York Stock Exchange and revenues reached $239 million from 24 stores. Growth was incessant. At the time, the market was fresh for such a unique store. Its current logo, a yellow sales tag, and its “pick-up and go” style setup was introduced around 1990. (Company History)
Growth
Revenue continued to double throughout the nineties. In 1995, Best Buy’s revenue was $3 billion, but there was no profit. They trained their employees to believe that customers were in charge of sales, not salespeople, and that they were there to assist in purchases, not be pushy. The consumer of the millennium was less needy for assistance in buying electronics; audio, video, and computer systems were commonplace in households of the time. Customers were allowed to help themselves to items on shelves, much like a grocery store setup, and check out when ready. This bolstered customer satisfaction rates. Revenue was above10 Billion in 1999. (Company Histories)
In 2000, the company decided to launch a website, BestBuy.com. There, customers could shop from the privacy of their homes without ever dealing with sales representatives. The site was a
Best Buy is a multinational retailer of consumer electronics, computing and mobile phone products, entertainment products, appliances, and related services. The company operates retail stores and call centers and conducts online retail operations under a variety of brand names such as Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, The Carphone Warehouse, Five Star, Future Shop, Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and The Phone House (Bestbuy.com, 4). The domestic segment consists of all operations within the United States, while the international segment includes all operations in Canada, Europe, Mexico, and China. The Best Buy 's success is contingent on the market 's demand for electronics. The company 's strategy is to provide good customer service combined with lower prices (news.cnet.com). Best Buy 's success is directly related to economic conditions, the cost of goods, and other things like fuel prices. The company 's strategy depends upon the ability to offer customers a broad selection of name-brand products; therefore, leading its success to depend upon satisfactory supplier relationships (Bestbuy.com, 8). Best Buy, as it is included in the retail segment, is a seasonal store. Their stronger quarter is the fourth quarter, which they can contribute to the holiday season for their success.
A man named Richard M. Schulze and his partner started Best Buy in 1966. The original store was called “Sound of Music” which was an electronics store that specialized in stereo systems. In 1967, Sound of Music purchased Bergo Company and Kencraft Hi-Fi and pulled in about $1 million in revenue. In 1969, Schulze took his partners half and decided to become a public company on the NASDAQ exchange. What started as a single store in Saint Paul, Minnesota became a chain of nine stores by 1978. In the 1980’s, Sound of Music was left with seven stores because of unfortunate accidents caused by a tornado. In 1983, Sound of Music was renamed to Best Buy Company. Along side changing the name of the company they also decided to expand on business by selling other at home appliances such as VCRs.
Best Buy started advertising they would match Walmart’s price. At one point, Walmart was running just five percent behind Best Buy and appeared to be hitting their target market as planned. Best Buy had big plans for China and Europe. However, they failed in both markets because the consumers did not like “Big Box” stores. As of 2011, Best Buy closed all their stores in China and merged with Five Star who sells cheaper products`. I believe Best Buy made a good choice due to what their target market desired. China Market Research Group, pointed to a few things: the Chinese won't pay for such expensive products unless they're a brand like Apple; there's too much piracy in the market which reduces demand for electronics products at a fair market price (Groth, 2011). The Europeans and Chinese do not want large, destination
Best Buy is a retail company that was discovered by Richard M. Schulze in 1966 that specializes in all types of electronics. These electronics could be anything from cell- phones to laptops to speakers. When the company first opened in Minnesota, they went by the name of Sound of Music Inc. Back than the store only focused on stereos for the home and car. Around four years after that, Schulze bought out his partner and began to expand the company on his own. Things really started to boom around the 1980’s, and in 1983 the company renamed itself to Best Buy. They than started to focus on other type of equipment other than just audio devices, such as a device that was popular back than but seems primitive now, the VCR. The following year is
Best Buy has been in the consumer electronics business since the 90’s with a history that dates back to the 60’s and they have
Since its start in 1966 Best Buy Co., Inc. has become a leading multi-channel global retailer and developer of technology services and products. The company is headquartered in Richfield, MN and currently has 180,000 employees. Best Buy operates in the U.S., Canada, Mexico,
Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American multinational consumer electronics corporation headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota, a Minneapolis suburb. It operates in United States, Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, and China. The company was founded by Richard M. Schulze and Gary Smoliak in 1966 as an audio specialty store; in 1983, it was renamed and rebranded with more emphasis placed on consumer electronics. Best Buy 's subsidiaries include Cinema Now, Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and Cowboom. Best Buy operates under the Best Buy, Best Buy Mobile, Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, and Pacific Sales brands in the US; the Best Buy, Geek Squad, Cell Shop, Connect Pro, and Future Shop brands in Canada; Best Buy Mobile
Best Buy Company, Inc. is the multinational retailer of consumer electronics in the United States. Together with its subsidiaries, which include Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales and Future Shop, the company has approximately 4,000 stores located in the United States, Canada, Mexico, China, and Turkey.
Best Buy is best known for their network of over 1,400 retail stores in the United States, but they are also one of the largest online sellers of electronics as well. In fact, Best Buy 's growth in 2015 was driven almost entirely by Web sales.
It has a 3rd most visited website in US. Best Buy is a global leader with stores across the globe. Mainly in Canada, Mexico, and China with around 15000 employees and 400 stores worldwide.
Richard M. Schulze and Gary Smoliak founded Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:BBY) in 1966. They are headquartered in Richfield, Minnesota. Originally they began as an audio specialty store and later in 1983 re-branded as a consumer electronic specialty store. After almost 20 years of operations, Sound of Music officially changes its name to Best Buy and launches its first superstore. Best Buy is the leader of its industry accounting for 19% of the market. They have over 1100 locations in the United States and 155,000 employees globally. In 2000, Best Buy launched their online retail store with hopes to expand their customer reach. With an evolving industry, Best Buy needs to develop, integrate, and expand its skills in order to establish a strong competitive advantage.
Best Buy Company Incorporated, better know as Best Buy, is a large US based retailer of consumer electronics and services. Best Buy has a large presence of traditional brick and mortar stores in addition to a large online retail operation on their website. According to Gale Business Insights, Best Buy has recently expanded with new store locations in Europe, Canada, China, and Mexico.
The primary business model of Nordstrom has always been to provide exceptional service, selection, quality, and value. Nordstrom’s exceptional customer service comes primarily as a result of two main components. First, their attention to detail when it comes to customer experience and secondly, the level to which they empower their employees (Khan, 2014). These two factors together create a perfect customer service model that continues to generate stories that turn into legends (Khan, 2014). Rethinking “business as usual” allowed Nordstrom to break away from other department stores (Khan, 2014). For the most part, Nordstrom has
Best Buy was ahead of all the competitors in its industry. With changing consumer buying preferences and new competitors entering the market, the industry is becoming more competitive and the company is facing threats. Consumers are shifting their shopping preferences towards online shopping more and more each day. The company’s direct competitor is online retailer Amazon.com. The number of people visiting the store is decreasing as more people are comparing prices and purchasing online (La Monica, 2014).
Best buy is one of the largest consumer electronics retailers in the world. Despite the long experience and high brand recognition, the company faced a decline in its financial performance. Best Buy used to compete with Circuit City, a consumer electronics company that using a big-box store format from 1984 until 2012. After Circuit City dismissed, Best Buy was competing with Walmart, Amazon.com, Apple and Target. The competition in the industry is very intense due to the limited suppliers and fast updating speed of the electronic products. With the product life cycle has grown increasingly shorter as the more and more advanced technology was invented and the price-matching strategy that commonly used by most of the retailers, a company must