Best Buy

Staples and RadioShack have removed Amazon.com's temporary storage lockers from their brick-and-mortar stores, Bloomberg reported Wednesday. The stores added the lockers last year but have decided that housing a competitor's storage units wasn't a good idea. The lockers allowed Amazon customers to have their purchases delivered to a secure location that they could visit at their convenience. The units are meant to give Amazon an opportunity to compete with brands like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, which offer in-store pick up for their online customers. 

I came across an interesting report last week from marketing communications firm JWT called Retail Rebooted. The report focuses on key trends taking place within the retail industry today. I was most interested in the report’s "20-Plus Things to Watch in Retail" section, which offers a relatively quick rundown of developments in retail, from innovative business models to shifting consumer behaviors to the latest technology launches. In today’s blog post (part one of a two-part series), I’ll recap 10 of these 20-plus things, such as 3-D printing, alternative brand currencies, and click-and-collect shopping.

Best Buy is back in the news again. Apparently it's updating its website to get on par with Amazon.com and other competitors selling consumer electronics and appliances. While the company acknowledges it will take some time to get there, it has bigger issues in the terrestrial world. The company has a LOT of stores that have fallen into irrelevancy. New CEO Herbert Joly has taken some steps to undo damage done over the past seven years, but there's a lot more work to be done. If the chain can't return its stores to relevancy, it's in serious trouble. 

shopkick, the iOS and Android app that lets users search for products, find out where they're sold, and then automatically get checked in at retail locations for discounts to buy them in-store, is making another move that widens its remit beyond simply driving more bricks-and-mortar business. The startup is launching in-app purchases, starting with 30 major stores that were already a part of shopkick's product aggregation platform, including Target, Macy's, Best Buy, Old Navy and Anthropologie.

In advance of next Thursday's Retail Marketing Virtual Conference & Expo, I took the opportunity to interview one of the show's speakers, Richard Sexton, the founder and president of Carolina Rustica, an omnichannel retailer of high-end furniture and lighting. (Richard is also a member of Retail Online Integration's Editorial Advisory Board.) Richard will be hosting the "Showrooming: Your Secret Weapon for In-Store Sales" session. Here's a sneak peek into some of the issues that Richard will be addressing during the half-hour session:

Watch out, department stores: Amazon.com's gunning for your beauty business … and that's not all. The online giant could redefine the prestige cosmetics industry by offering big discounts on upscale brands like Chanel and Clinique to a mass audience for the first time. It's no secret that Amazon has a habit of shaking up entire product sectors. Its pioneering Kindle e-reader forever changed the book-selling business (and helped put Borders out of business), while its low-price model has forced consumer electronics retailer Best Buy, for one, to reinvent its store concept.

David Strasser, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott, looks at Best Buy's strategy of a store-within-a-store for individual companies and products and how it's changing the landscape of its retail stores. Strasser speaks on Bloomberg Television's "Bloomberg Surveillance."

Picture this anxiety-provoking scenario: you're at an all-day conference, sweating bullets as you prep for a presentation in an hour's time. But you packed in haste and left your laptop charger at home. Your battery capacity is perilously close to zero. You don't have time to dash to Best Buy and you wouldn't dare ask a fellow presenter for a favor lest you show your hand. eBay knows its customers (including you, the disheveled executive) and has been quietly working on a solution for this thoroughly modern conundrum. The eBay Now app allows

Best Buy is leaving the European market. The company is selling its stake in a joint European venture with U.K.-based consumer electronics retailer Carphone Warehouse Group for cash and stock worth about $775 million (USD). Best Buy will also pay Carphone 29 million pounds (about $45 million) related to existing agreements that will be terminated when the deal closes. The U.S. retailer also said that it will incur an approximately $200 million asset impairment charge related to the stake sale.

We've all felt that twinge of uncertainty when making a purchase online. It's cheaper, but we worry that by buying sight unseen, we won't receive exactly what we anticipated. That's why more shoppers, especially during the holiday season, are "showrooming." Showroomers experiment with products in-store then buy them online later for less money. The trend is hitting big retailers like Best Buy and Wal-Mart, as consumers use the brick-and-mortar stores to test-drive devices like smartphones and e-readers before buying from retailers like Amazon.com, where products are cheaper on average.