Best Buy

Last week came news that a bevy of big-name retailers, including Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target, are teaming up to create a company that will give consumers another way to make purchases: with their cellphones. The businesses said that the new company, Merchant Customer Exchange, is developing a mobile application for any smartphone that will integrate a variety of coupons, rebates and loyalty programs.

Best Buy sells consumer electronics and so does Target. That would make the two companies competitors, right? Maybe yes and maybe no, depending on whom you ask and when. It was just over two years ago that Target, among others, was upping its game with the intention of grabbing share of the consumer electronics market. So how is it that we now come across a report by The Denver Post that Target is bringing Geek Squad "agents" into its 28 stores in the Denver market?

As online shopping has surged, traditional retailers have lost millions in sales to so-called showrooming — when shoppers check out products in stores that they then buy from Web sites like Amazon. It has gotten so bad that Best Buy even replaces standard bar codes with special Best Buy-only codes on big ticket items so they cannot be scanned and compared online. Now some big retailers are taking a new approach to the dreaded showrooming by transforming their stores into extensions of their own online operations.

Best Buy Co. appears to be taking a bite out of the Apple Store concept as it begins to implement its turnaround strategy.

One of the biggest threats to brick-and-mortar retailers is "showrooming," a practice whereby consumers walk into a store with a smartphone to look at merchandise and then — after making use of the expertise of the store's associates — ultimately make their purchases online from a competitor at a lower price. Retailers are increasingly battling back against showrooming by mimicking the practice — reverse showrooming, if you will. They're encouraging shoppers to whip out their smartphones right in store aisles, but to buy online from them.

Virgin Mobile, the pay-as-you-go carrier owned by Sprint Nextel, plans to open its first 10 retail stores Friday in Chicago, aiming to profit from the iPhone's expansion into the prepaid wireless market. Virgin Mobile will become the second U.S. prepaid service to offer the Apple device, following the iPhone's debut Friday at Leap Wireless International. The new stores also mark a strategy shift for Virgin, which has previously relied on retailers such as RadioShack and Best Buy to market its service, said Jeff Auman, a vice president at the carrier.

A new survey finds that consumers rate Target, Safeway, Subway, Best Buy, J.C. Penney, Walgreens, Bank of America and Verizon Wireless as being the best retail and restaurant brands when it comes to using social media to communicate with customers.

As it watched its biggest competitor file for bankruptcy and cease operating, Barnes & Noble knew that a change to its business model was necessary for its survival. Specifically, that change meant shifting its focus to becoming a digital book seller. In his keynote address at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition in Chicago yesterday, William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble, detailed how the bookstore chain has used the web to redefine and grow its business.

Better known as an electronics and appliance retailer, Minneapolis-based Best Buy entered kitchenware retailing when it joined forces with Cooking.com to launch the Best Buy Kitchen Shop microsite. The Best Buy Kitchen Shop is operated by the online kitchenware retailer and adds more than 3,000 kitchenware products to the Best Buy site. "We're always looking for ways to enhance our customers’ online shopping experience, and this partnership delivers more ways to shop when and where they want," said Liz Haesler, vice president of Home Business Group for Best Buy. 

Best Buy officials said Monday that former CEO Brian Dunn, who resigned after a company investigation found that he had a personal relationship with a female employee, demonstrated “extremely poor judgment and a lack of professionalism.” However, the probe found no evidence that he improperly used company resources, including the use of aircraft. In related news, Best Buy’s founder Richard Schulze has decided to step down as chairman of the board for the retail chain. The board determined that Schulze “acted inappropriately” when he failed to notify Best Buy’s Audit Committee of the allegations.