Best Buy IdeaX

[#1]

This is probably a long shot, but here goes:

Best Buy is the leader in consumer electronics but the technologies that Best Buy utilizes in its stores suggest anything but. If Best Buy wants to be the leader in technology and showcasing it to customers you need to commit to it fully by investing in supporting infrastructure:

(1)  Better WiFi bandwidth and infrastructure in-stores. My closest Best Buy is located in a rock quarry. Simply put, cell phone signals don't exist. When employees activate phones, they have to go outside and up the side walk to get reception so you rely heavily on WiFi, which is atrociously slow in this store. Whether it be mobility, home automation, home theater, etc. Everything that is big in technology right now requires significant WiFi to work and as such, Best Buy should provide significant WiFi bandwidth to give its' employees the capabilities to demo these solutions to customers, effectively. 

(2) Update/refresh kiosks and registers. It still amazes me to see these clunky registers all over Best Buy (my local Best Buy store still has beige registers to give you an idea) - meanwhile, I go to the local mall and every other store has eliminated the register space in favor of tablet or phone-based point of sale solutions.  I would love to see Best Buy consider giving each department several tablet-based point of sale units and maybe keep registers up front only for cash-based transactions. This would create a better shopping experience for customers and employees alike and force Best Buy to update their antiquated POS software - if you've ever been in a Best Buy store when a register goes down, I need to say no more, but it takes an embarrassingly long amount of time for the systems to restore and they do go down quite a bit. Yes, this would be a sizable investment, but if help desk tickets went down as low as even 25%, there's a significant ROI on this too. 

[#2]

Some reaons this might not happen (but should)

1 - Revenues have been steadily declining since 2011

2 - Best Buy LOST money in 2012 and 2013 and only became profitable in 2014 by slashing 600 Million dollars in expenses

So, with negative growth, and the quality of the stores heading downhill (closer to Walmart), they'll only spend money if they can justify a quick return.

http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/financials/financials.asp?ticker=BBY

I would be happy to see this place go back to being somewhere I would want to shop.

But, each time I go, I realize I need to give an and just buy online.

[#3]

You aren't the first person to really suggest technology updates in the store not just for their network infrastructure but also for their equipment being used. I agree as well especially with the computers. If you are selling touch screen computers then you should be using a touch screen computer. 

[#4]

Thanks for the suggestions, and I would like to hear what other people think about these? Make sure you vote for an idea if you like it.

[#5]

Simply put fast food places have free in-store wifi step up BB. It can also be a pain when some stores don`t have their entire stock of display tablets/pc`s online which I use for on the fly price matching. The cost issue shouldn`t be much of an issue THINK OUTSIDE OF THE BOX(ancient big box store mentality). I gave you guys the financial solution I think 2-3 yrs ago when costs was associated with tje demise of the game trade in stations. Upgrade your tech by having it partly/mostly subsidized by a sponser(s)/sponsership agreement aka "Best Buy stores Powered by ______". Sony/MS have tablets so they could sponser the game sections, Apple/Samsung have PC`s too not to mention THEY`RE ALREADY PAYING for their own store space!!! Look at the Apple stores layout and copy but let them pay you for the upgrade(s). I`ve said it many times there`s no limit to the # of sponsers you can have so that equals an endless pool of financial resources. When a customer logs into the "free" BB wifi page there`s an paid ad on the log in page and once 30 or 60 minutes runs out they need to login again where a new ad appears.

[#6]

I do have to chime in that instore "open" Wifi is painfully slow since a lot of the demo computers are on it.

But then, any open WiFI network's going to be slow with that many devices connected to it.

Agreed, though, that it's frustating when I'm in store and trying to pull up prices on my phone and have to switch back to 4G.

[#7]

I just wanted to share an experience (and give you more possible insight as to why this slow WiFi may be a bigger issue than you think):

I stopped by one of the stores here in town to checkout the new MacBooks, which the store did not have, but the employee that approached me, began to engage me around what products I had, etc. I mentioned a MacBook Pro and he went right into a spout around Apple TV and started trying to show me various features like streaming music from my computer to the TV and after a noticeable delay it started playing across the room. Then he went into how you can mirror your desktop and once again after a noticeable delay, where the employee was obviously trying to create small talk, it showed up on the TV. i noticed an HBO NOW channel with a "NEW" banner over it and the guy seemed passionate around this device so I asked him about the built-in content.  He rants and raves about Disney, Showtime, A&E, FX and Fox.  He goes to demo the FOX app and is telling me about this TV Show Gotham and after an extreme delay it comes up and it was honestly worse than YouTube 480p quality. After a few seconds it just dropped off and stopped playing. 

I left the store not buying anything but I really felt for the kid because he honestly tried his best given the tools that he was given.  If I didn't know any better, I would have NEVER purchased an Apple TV from what I saw today because streaming seemed to have a painfully noticeable latency and then when it came to playing content it appeared worse than a SD channel on TV. Luckily I already known Apple TVs and know better, but that's something to take into consideration for Best Buy. Something needs to be done differently when it comes to demoing devices in-store. Maybe give each of these little areas like the TV department, the Microsoft department, the Apple department, etc. their own WiFi networks with quality of service bandwidth controls or SOMETHING because the number of devices that rely heavily on WiFi is only increasing. If it's not hardware devices, like media players and wearables, it's home automation or softwares (i.e. running Microsoft Office, Google Docs or Apple's iWork all in the cloud). With the poor infrastructure that Best Buy has in-place today and the increasing reliance on WiFi, it calls Best Buy's logistics and sustainablity into question - after all, it is THE place that pioneered the hands-on test-driving environment of electronics hence the "Ultimate Showroom" campaign that they pushed throughout most of last year. Without the capabiltiy of properly demoing things though, are you really the ultimate showroom or can your employees offer expert advice and service as you now campaign? 

[#8]

These are incredibly strong points. I have felt that BB has become more and more outdated recently. No one is asking for free Wi-Fi for the customers like other retailers provide, but at least update the technology that almost every product in your store relies on.

[#9]

We should already be providing our stores the fastest possible WiFi available in their area, and the real problem is most likely the sheer number devices connected to each store's WiFi.

We did recently upgrade our Point of Sale Systems.