An Open Letter to Best Buy Executives:
I am writing this note to you as a native Minnesotan, who lives in Chicago but still loves the Vikings, Twins, Gophers etc. A loyal Best Buy customer, who bought my wife a Nikon 5100 DSLR camera from the Geneva IL Best Buy Store this past year for Christmas and an Insignia TV. A technology advocate and a business person who works with companies everyday to try to solve problems.
It saddens me everyday that I continue to hear about the demise of a great Minnesota company that employs so many great people. I still remember going into MusicLand stores to buy music back in the day with my sisters and how much I loved that store. I am tired of hearing about how Best Buy is just becoming Amazon’s showroom or how people are “showrooming” at Best Buy. I can only imagine how tired you and the exec team are of hearing about this concept.
To get right to the point, I think there is a better way forward and I wanted to take a few min to layout a quick vision for your business that I think would strengthen your position going forward. But, it takes a very different view of the customer journey/experience than the team at Best Buy may be used to.
I will do my best to keep it simple for the purposes of this open letter and if you would like me to go into more detail, maybe we can set up a time to talk over the phone or in person next time I am in Minnesota.
The fundamental problem that Best Buy has right now, in my mind, is not price or cost or inventory or layout of stores. The fundamental problem that you have right now is that you have no idea when your customers are actually in your stores, unless they buy something. This one fundamental problem creates a series of subsequent issues for you as a business. But, it also represents your greatest opportunity. Think of the in store experience right now being similar to an e-commerce experience online in 1999 or 2000, before we had tracking tools like Omniture or Google Analytics to know when customers were shopping, what they were shopping for and what they were interested in. That is what it is like today in a retail store. I walk in as a customer and you have no idea that I am there, what I am looking for, what I have looked at before and even if I talk to a store rep, they have no way of noting what I was looking for and capturing it so that if I return, someone can help me again. This needs to change.
If Best Buy could just address this one fundamental challenge, it would lead to a number of opportunities for the business and for an incredibly unique customer experience. For example.....If I know that you are outside my store or just walking into my store, I can greet you by name to create a sense of relationship. If I know that you are walking into my store in Geneva IL, I can offer you proactive generic deals that are available in that specific store. (Think of the digital version of the Sunday Circular Ad) If I know that you are in my store, I can ask you what you are looking for today so I can capture all the data I am now losing as customers walk in and walk out without buying. If I ask you what you are looking for, I can pro-actively push you in the store to the right area to browse on your own. If I know what you are browsing for, I can push you information, reviews and tidbits that might be useful in your shopping experience for that product. If I know that you are looking to buy something today because of the convenience of being in the store with the product there, I can push you proactive offers for different products that might fit your need. If I know you are looking at a certain product and I know what Amazon or Walmart are selling it for (which you do know now), I can make you an instant offer to buy the product for a similar price or even a higher price because of the convenience of being in the store and having the product now. If you are unsure and want to talk to someone, I could page a Blue Shirt and give them all your info so they know what you are looking for and why. If I know you want to buy now, I can push an instant coupon to your device so you don’t have to fiddle around with printing something out. If you don’t end up buying, I know who you are and what you were looking for and can re-market to you over email or text message to come back and buy from us.
You see, I actually think that you could use Amazon’s and Walmart’s perceived strengths with their transparency on price and the power of their customer reviews to create an In-Store experience that is incredibly unique for consumers. And on the flip side, you could use your perceived weaknesses with your network of stores, your convenience, your service and your “showroom” to capture customers where they are, when they are ready to buy.
I believe that not only would this combined concept/experience help you win more customers, but you would have a treasure trove of data that you have never been able to collect before which could lead to better inventory stocking, reduced carrying costs, better pricing power, better buying power from manufacturers and you would not have to stoop to winning on price match guarantees. But this requires a whole different way of shaping the customer experience and journey using digital devices and intelligent software platforms that would be a strategic and transformational shift.
More than anything, I want Best Buy to succeed and to thrive. Not only because of my allegiance to Minnesota and Minnesota companies but because of all the people that depend on Best Buy everyday to offer an alternative to where Amazon is taking consumers. I don’t want to live in a world where Amazon is the only place I can go to buy my wife her next camera. I want to go to the Blue Shirts and know they have my back!
