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Best Buy’s virtual store pilot earns high customer satisfaction scores

December 5, 2022Written by Patricia Vekich Waldron

Photo: Best Buy

Best Buy has implemented and expanded its use of digital clienteling to serve more than a quarter million customers since announcing its virtual store pilot in 2021. Customer satisfaction has increased 20 percent as a result of the company taking its famous in-store service online. “We know that shopping for technology can sometimes get complicated and this new virtual store experience gives customers a way to easily connect with another human to get advice and recommendations while they shop,” Damien Harmon, Best Buy’s executive vice president of omnichannel, told the Star Tribune. Given that Best Buy’s online sales this fiscal year are on track to generate five times the digital sales pre-pandemic, it’s the perfect time to digitalize, scale and operationalize critical shopping services such as clienteling that spur sales and loyalty. The pilot is located in a warehouse near headquarters. It has been transformed into a 40,000 square foot QVC-like studio space filled with products from ten categories — from treadmills to cameras — and staffed with 120 employees who are ready (and able) to answer questions, demonstrate products or provide advice. Customers initiate connections with virtual store experts through the website or app and can interact via text, chat, phone calls, live-streaming or screen sharing. Best Buy has some 200 additional remote team members from across the enterprise available to provide expertise for the virtual store, as well as a small, select group of vendors who give product demonstrations and advice. Additional virtual showcases have been staged in physical stores to promote special categories: home theater and appliance center. The virtual store multi-tasks as a remote training facility for Best Buy employees, as well. The virtual store represents just one of the initiatives underway designed to change the shopping experience at Best Buy. The retailer recently opened a new digital-first, 5,000-square-foot small box store concept that features a curated selection of “best-on-category products” in a select set of categories. This initiative is a great use of resources — space, people, partners, processes, data and technology — that seamlessly connects shoppers with the assistance they need pre-, during and post-sale, regardless of location or touchpoint type. I think it will keep Best Buy’s online sales soaring.

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