Best Buy plans to ramp up online presence as it shrinks square-footage
Best Buy Co. Inc. plans to boost its online presence and open a greater number of small stores in the United States, targeting mobile customers in an effort to win back market share from companies such as Amazon.com Inc. and Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Reuters reported.
Best Buy, the largest U.S. consumer electronics chain, has reported three straight quarters of same-store sales declines and forecast a fall in same-store sales in the current quarter.
“The online channel is our greatest growth opportunity,” CEO Brian Dunn told investors and analysts in a meeting today.
Best Buy said it wants to double its current $2 billion online business within three to five years. Dunn also expressed optimism about potential online taxation reforms that aim at expanding the collection of sales taxes on items bought over the Internet.
Industry experts have urged Best Buy to shrink larger stores as many shoppers increasingly buy electronics online. The company is now aiming for 600 to 800 Best Buy Mobile stand-alone stores in the United States within five years, as it aims to cut “big box” store square footage by 10 percent over the next three to five years.