Best Buy has become one of the few major retailers to have women make up a majority of its c-suite. Do you agree with the premise that having more female leaders can significantly increase profitability for businesses?

Amazon.com made opening up websites to third-party sellers all the rage, with numerous others jumping on the marketplace bandwagon. One of those, Best Buy, yesterday closed the U.S. marketplace it launched in 2011. Which do you think is more likely, retailers opening or closing online marketplaces over the next several years?

Apple Stores surprised many by not holding any Black Friday deals. Instead, the doorbusters for Apple’s lineup of products took place at third-party sellers. Do you agree that Apple Stores are being used more as showrooms at this point?

This week’s challenge will put two spots in competition with a general theme of finding the right gifts for those we care about: Best Buy’s “Win The Holidays” and Walmart’s “The Best Holiday Gifts For Everyone As Sung By Craig Robinson.” Which spot do you think does a better job of connecting with the chain’s core customer base while also reaching out to prospective shoppers?

Competitors from Amazon to Walmart are on notice. Best Buy is serious about growing its business over the upcoming holiday season with free shipping, special early sales events and improved service that others will be hard-pressed to match. Do you expect Best Buy to have a strong holiday selling season based on the package of deals and services it has put together?

With prices coming down to as low as $80 for some models, up to a million drones may be sold this coming holiday season. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an exuberant prediction from a retail merchant, but a warning from the F.A.A. Do you see potential complications around the retail sale of drones?

Consumers visiting appliance websites that have strong content and are easy to navigate are more likely to visit stores and make additional purchases, according to new research by J.D. Power. How do you see the way consumers shop for appliances changing over the next five years?

It seems Best Buy is such a believer in the store-within-a-store strategy that it sought out and reached a deal to open its own branded shops inside of 10 Macy’s locations in time for the Christmas selling season. What will the Best Buy store-within-a-store concept inside of Macy’s mean for the respective chain’s businesses?

There’s nothing like outperforming expectations to make investors happy. That’s the story at Best Buy, which saw its share price jump as much as 17 percent after the company posted a 0.8 percent gain in total sales for the second quarter, buoyed by strong U.S. sales. What do you think are the biggest reasons for Best Buy’s improved performance?

In May 2013, there were seven women in retail named in Forbes’ annual “Most Powerful Women” list. A year later when Forbes updated the list, the names and number of female retail luminaries remained the same. Why do you think there aren’t more women in top leaderships positions within retail?

A RetailWire discussion last October focused on whether retail members of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium were making a mistake by refusing to accept Apple Pay. Many commentators said MCX members were wrong, and now Best Buy, a MCX member, has apparently come to the same conclusion. What do you think the Best Buy announcement means for the MCX consortium and its CurrentC mobile payment system?

Best Buy launched a wedding registry last month with little fanfare. The concept is simple and seems perfect for Millennials and the tech savvy generations that are following them. Instead of gifts such as china, linens or silver, married couples can ask for smartphones, tablets and widescreen televisions, etc. Do you think there is a market for a wedding registry through Best Buy?

Many retailers are now using their stores as fulfillment centers to ship a small portion to upwards of 20 percent of the product they sell online. But there are challenges. Are retailers overestimating the ability of stores to efficiently pick and pack online orders?

Despite last year’s challenges filling last-minute orders, most of the major retailers this season are offering aggressive online cutoff dates for meeting Dec. 24-delivery guarantees. Retailers with brick & mortar stores are competing with cutoff times for Christmas-Eve in-store pickup. Are stores playing with fire offering aggressive cutoff dates?

It may be too soon for Best Buy stakeholders to break out into a chorus of “Happy Days Are Here Again,” but there’s no doubt that Wall Street was both surprised and impressed with the chain’s results during the third quarter. What do you see as the key elements of Best Buy’s turnaround efforts under Hubert Joly?

Target’s “Alice in Marshmallow Land” topped Walmart’s “Gift List” to take week one of the 2014 RetailWire Christmas Commercial Challenge. This week Best Buy faces off with RadioShack. Which is better? You decide.

Potentially joining Target and Best Buy, Walmart is testing the matching of online prices of competitors such as Amazon. What do you see as the pros and cons of Walmart rolling out a national online price-match guarantee? On balance, would this type of program work to Walmart’s benefit?

Following the excitement over the introduction of Apple Pay, the conspicuous absence of Walmart and Best Buy in its launch led to several second-day stories exploring the challenges the new mobile payment system faces. What do you see as speeding or slowing retailer adoption of NRC-supported payments and Apple Pay?

Excessive returners are being banned by some retailers from returns for 90 days to a year. In some cases, a few online retailers are banning these problem customers from shopping at all. Should chronic returners face bans from further returns? What do you think of the purported lifetime bans from shopping for excessive returns from Amazon, HSN and QVC?

Best Buy, nearly written off a few years ago, has more than bounced back. It is aggressively combating “showrooming” and winning. With sales up and its stock rising, Best Buy is well on the road to recovery. What lessons does Best Buy offer for those looking to combat pure play e-tailers?

According to a recent New York Times article, the price of solar panels has dropped some 60 percent over the past three years and the cost of producing solar energy is now as cheap, if not cheaper, than the cost of energy from nuclear power plants. Do you see the residential market for solar power opening up in the next several years?

Best Buy shocked many a retail observer by stabilizing its business over the last year. The second quarter marked the electronic chain’s first quarterly profit in a year. Comparable-store sales increased for the first time in two-and-a-half years during the third quarter. Its stock more than tripled in 2013. What has impressed you so far in Mr. Joly’s turnaround approach at Best Buy?

According to analysis by Profitero, a U.K.-based price intelligence firm, Amazon.com implemented more than 2.5 million price changes every day during the month of November. How much of an advantage does Amazon gain with its continual price adjustments? Where do you the use of robo-pricing going in the future?

Similar to showrooming at physical stores, consumers are shopping at some websites, but then going to other sites to make a purchase at a cheaper price. Will price-match guarantees and other showrooming defense measures eventually arrive online?

Two commercials: Each created with the goal of drumming up consumer excitement and driving traffic and sales. In this second episode of the RetailWire Christmas Commercial Challenge, we offer up new spots from Best Buy and PetSmart for you to critique. What do you think?

Last June Best Buy announced it was overhauling BestBuy.com and integrating it with its Rewards Zone loyalty program. Now the consumer electronics chain’s increased emphasis on its digital business appears to be paying dividends. What is your assessment of the progress Best Buy has made with its e-commerce program this year?

A growing number of retailers are using stores as mini distribution centers to fulfill online orders. In the end, the chains believe they’ll gain a competitive advantage over Amazon.com and others as a result. Do you agree or disagree that ship from store “is the most important thing that will change physical retailers over the next five years?”

According to sources within Best Buy, the retailer has been laying off employees in small numbers over the past couple of months instead of doing it in one large downsizing exercise, with workers referring to the day as “Tornado Tuesdays” or “Termination Tuesdays.” What is your take on what is going on with Best Buy and layoffs at headquarters?

While much of the press attention on Best Buy has been focused on the company’s store-within-a-store and brick and click businesses, very little has been paid to the Geek Squad. Now comes word that Best Buy has hired a former NCR, Lenovo and Dell executive to lead its services unit. Where do you think the Geek Squad has the best opportunity for Best Buy?

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. Why do so many retailers seem to struggle with managing inventory across sales channels?

Best Buy needs fixing and, to its management’s credit, that’s what the company is attempting to do. Two recently reported cases in point: remaking its personal computer department and overhauling bestbuy.com. What do you think of the most recent moves made by Best Buy?

To Robert (Bob) Willett, the retired CIO of Best Buy, true customer-centricity certainly involves technology but also providing store associates with the freedom to reach service excellence. What traits make up a customer-centric retailer?

Samsung is going retail in a big way with the launch of a store-within-a-store concept that will eventually have it operating in 1,400 Best Buy and Best Buy mobile locations. Do you think Samsung will use the Best Buy initiative as a springboard to opening its own retail locations a la The Apple Store?

In case you were wondering, the answer to last month’s RetailWire headline, Are Geeks Out of Place in Target’s CE Departments, was, “Yes.” What do you expect Target to do following the termination of its program with Best Buy’s Geek Squad?

Best Buy announced that the chain’s founder, Richard Schulze, is returning to the company as its chairman emeritus. Joining Mr. Schulze on the board are former Best Buy CEO Brad Anderson and former COO Al Lenzmeier. What will their return mean for Best Buy?

Target’s deal with RadioShack didn’t work out, but early indications are that its test with Best Buy’s Geek Squad last year is working out well enough for both companies to extend the trial. How likely is the Geek Squad experiment in Target to go chain-wide?

It seems over time that successful retailers that go on losing streaks have a lot in common with the blues classic “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out,” with every piece of “bad news” reinforcing the perception of a company in trouble. How much bad news can a retail business take before consumers tune out the positive?

A Best Buy financial report shows that while its physical stores didn’t get a huge boost in states where Amazon has started to add sales tax charges to purchases, its website has seen a pickup in dollar volume. To what do you attribute the gains made by BestBuy.com in states where Amazon.com is now collecting sales tax?

Best Buy, Toys “R” Us and a number of regional supermarket chains have filed complaints in several states against Walmart over the accuracy of its price-comparison ads, as reported by The Wall Street Journal. What are pros and cons of price-comparison ads?

Best Buy in early December removed e-mail support from its website, a move the company said was designed to improve response and to give customers the kind of interactions they seek. Are chat and other emerging technologies for customer service response making e-mail obsolete?

In today’s multi-channel retailing world, there certainly isn’t anything unusual about traditional brick & mortar stores achieving significant growth online. In fact, some are among the biggest e-tailers in the world. Where are the greatest opportunities for brick & click retailers to grow their e-commerce businesses?

Consumers showed no indication that they were letting up on online purchases on Cyber Monday despite having already spent a record $59.1 billion over the four-day Thanksgiving Day weekend. What are your takeaways from the performance of online retail so far this holiday season?

Best Buy shouldn’t fear showrooming; it should embrace it. So says the chain’s new CEO, Hubert Joly. According to an Associated Press report, Mr. Joly said consumers entering Best Buy stores to compare products and pricing represent an opportunity for the chain to grow its sales. How important is it for Best Buy to get showrooming consumers to buy in its stores?

As Superstorm Sandy blew its devastating winds through much of the Eastern U.S., retailers had to deal with it just like everyone else. But few seemed to have anticipated the extent of the disruption. What IT or backend lessons did Sandy provide for retailers?

Back in 2010 when Target launched full-service mobile phone centers operated by RadioShack, the deal was billed as a win-win. Now there appears to be only one winner in the initiative and RadioShack isn’t it. If the RadioShack/Target mobile kiosk deal falls through, do you expect to see Target turn to another partner, perhaps Best Buy?

It’s not that Best Buy has no chance introducing its own tablet. But they better bring their “A game” going against the multitude of formidable competitors that are rolling out new tablets, and employing record setting advertising budgets to drive sales heading into the holidays. Why do you think Best Buy has found it necessary to introduce its own tablet?

A natural tension exists between cooperation and competition, particularly as digital media make large-scale content sharing possible, but not always comfortable, for zero-sum businesses. How will retailer-to-retailer partnerships change the brand landscape?

Best Buy’s decision to test its Geek Squad services at 28 Target stores in the Denver area left some people scratching their heads. Now come reports that the Geek Squad is branching out again, this time on eBay. Are you for or against Best Buy promoting its Geek Squad as a “standalone brand”
?

When the subject of Best Buy’s struggles comes up, the term “Amazon’s showroom” comes up as illustrative of the challenges facing the chain. Now Best Buy announced it has hired Scott Durchslag, former president at Expedia Worldwide, as its president, online and global e-commerce. How do Best Buy’s online, mobile and social efforts compare to other retailers?

This story sounds familiar. Apple launches a new iPhone. People go crazy to get it, and demand outweighs supply. Supply shortages are particularly noticeable in stores and websites of companies not owned by Apple. What is your take on the shortage of iPhone 5 units in stores not operated by Apple?