BestBuy.com has an out-of-stock problem. To fix it, the company is following Macy's, Nordstrom and others in turning to its physical store locations as distribution centers for online orders.
Sharon McCollam, Best Buy's chief financial officer, announced last month that the company would start shipping merchandising from 50 store locations to fill some of the orders place by its customers on BestBuy.com. The plan is to turn every one of Best Buy's stores into a mini DC within a year.
According to a Star Tribune report, somewhere between two and four percent of shoppers on Best Buy's site have failed to make a purchase because the items they chose were listed as out-of-stock. Eighty percent of those items were available in Best Buy stores.
"We've got 1,000 stores sitting with inventory and have just gotten done telling a customer they can't have what they want," Ms. McCollam told attendees at a recent Goldman Sachs dotCommerce conference.
According to the company, 40 percent of orders on the site are picked up in the company's stores, pointing to an even greater opportunity to fulfill orders with store inventory when not available online.
Best Buy's CFO is also looking to sell returned merchandise online rather than sending to third-party resellers. She estimates the chain is losing $400 million a year returning merchandise rather than selling it.
