Inimitable (costly to imitate) - Best Buy has a lot of retail locations in the US which makes it very easy for consumers to get help purchase electronics. Also, because they have so many locations this makes it easy for customers to get help.
Organized to capture value - The service and warranties that Best Buy offers for computers and TVs where customers can bring in products that need to be repaired creates value for the consumer. Where people if their product is broken they can bring it in and get it fixed or if they buy a new product then they could have their files transferred to the new computer. Also, the Geek Squad addition to new TVs and electronics makes in very convenient for the consumer to buy and install new products.
SWOT: The SWOT
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2017). Consumer Electronics industry has grown in recent years due to smartphones leading the way at an average rate of 1.5% per year (Rothaermel 2017). Large retail store presence in the United States with over a 1500 stores (statista.com, 2017) . Strong E-Commerce presence after management change emphasised online sales with increasing offerings by 20,000 more items.
Weaknesses- Running Brick-Mortar stores can be expensive compared to warehousing products for online sales. Dependent on selling products that would not be needed in a down turning economy.
Opportunities- A growing market for smartphones which could mean more business for their Best Buy mobile stores. Increasing their online presence with the growing online shopping trends. Continue to capitalize during the peak sales seasons such as the holidays.
Threats- . They are competing against very large companies such as Apple, Amazon and Walmart that have the power to offer very low prices for electronics. Online shopping is becoming more popular and customers going to the store will not be the norm in the
Substitutes: The threat of substitutes is high. The threat of online apparel stores has the potential of destroying the traditional retail industry business model (Bandt, 2000). The ecommerce platforms allow retailers expand their consumer base across national and global markets with lower capital requirements and improved efficiency.
Amazon make sure that customer service is the best, Customers experience low prices through Amazon, the fastest delivery, having a form of reliable contact. Amazon customer service problems have allowed retailers to sell itme on the website, to make broaden the worlds selections of products. Amazon has a rival EBAY, which also allows merchant to sell and buy through its site, but with eBay there has been complaints with poor service and fraud (Cohen, 2009).
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.
You indicated many great observations about Best Buy. To be honest, I see Best Buy as the first place to go and play with new technology or when I need an advise of "experts" to decide what device to buy, even though I always go online and find information by myself, I just find it helpful. Also, I check prices online and see which entity offers a better one, and if I want to avoid shipping and Best Buy has my final selection, I request a price match. Of course there's a policy, but the good thing about Best buy is their matching price system because attracts more customers, increase traffic, but not sure if this represent a big financial threat.
For Best Buy, it is important to learn more about their customers and serve them
Because Amazon is not competing only with online retailers, they are competing with every store in the mall, bookstores etc. so their rivalry is intense between the existing firms.
Best buy is a company that offers technology, products, and services. It is one of the leading companies in electronic sales. This company has over 1,000 locations worldwide and due to all these stores Best Buy seems to run into some type of conflict throughout the years. The two components of conflict, Task and relationship conflict all had influenced on how Best Buy dealt with the problems they faced as demonstrated throughout the lawsuits, conflicts with rival companies and trouble within the organization. Best buy being such a large organization is usually going to run into some conflicts.
To understand Best Buy’s performance, it is important to use Porter’s Five Forces framework to analyze best buy and other firms in the retail industry; more specifically the consumer electronics retail industry. Barriers to entry/Threat of New Entrants The threat of new entrants in this industry are low, due to the large amount of capital needed for the physical location and costly inventory. In 2012, Best Buy’s financial statements showed that the company spent $766 million updating stores and introducing new technology. This is common for stores in this industry, which will deter new entrants from coming in because they just don’t have the initial capital.
Sears was once a place for appliances. However, Best Buy has stolen the show from one of the oldest stores in America. They have a wide range of consumer electronics and now appliances for the home. Their online store boasts deals you can’t get at the store, and you can even get customer service online too. The “Weekly Ad” section showcases the latest deals of the week. Another online feature worth mentioning is their international shipping. They let their customers shop online and receive their products in various parts of the world.
Their logistics has several problems ranging from their inventory has an excess queue time and the turnover is very low. As for their sales which have been stated previously, has been slowly declining due to online competitors such as Amazon. Best Buy needs to take some sort of measure to differentiate themselves from low priced competitors like Amazon and increase their market share in those markets. The implementation of the “store within a store” for Samsung and Microsoft will need to be strategically placed in the store, maybe some possible rearrangement of the stores layout. If you have ever been in a Wal-Mart, you may have noticed the strategic layout.
This company partners with over 120 factories and some that are located overseas which provide foreign jobs. They work hand and hand with the suppliers on the design, production and testing on all products. They also exceed expectations for a safe and healthy work environment where all workers are treated fairly, respectfully and equally and same to the customers. In my research I also came across that Best Buy also participates in a U.S. and China joint Customs and Border Protection, they are also involved in a program called Custom-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) in which I found very intriguing since you never hear of companies doing this or at least I have not, since I am military and while finding this out they will now have more support from me. I would say Best Buy is an organization that takes its social and ethic responsibilities serious and has surpassed my expectations.
Best Buy’s financial performance and management stability from 2010-2013 had been consistently negative. Although BB was the largest electronics retailer ($50B in annual sales), its stock price had dropped from $45 to $15 per share in 2 years. Earnings per Share fell by more than 200% in 2012 alone. Revenue had been increasing; however, store sales and profitability were trending negatively. Competitively, the landscape was increasingly challenging; margins were slim, Apple’s high end /
According to a fresh research by Connexity states that the percentage of purchases through mobile in this year is expected to increase by 68 percent. This forecast is actually much wider to the expectations of many retailers. On the other hand, it will be partly dominated by the smartphones that will cover up to third of the total online purchases in this year.
As we can see they have poor employees and service, which takes away from the business because people rather not go to a place like that. This becomes a major threat because when you have other stores like Amazon, Wal-Mart, Costco, where there are all the same products sold and maybe even at better prices, people are going to want to go to there. These other major stores definitely attract people because they have low prices and keep up with people’s demands. Wal-Mart is even known to match competitors prices and Amazon usually always offers free shipping and low prices. When you see other stores that do better you go to them. You choose places where you are most
2. Growing mobile advertising industry. Samsung could develop advertising platform for its mobile devices and significantly benefit from this lucrative market.