Best Buy takes cue from Apple in new retail store design

(Credit: Greg Sandoval/CNET)

The Apple Store has become an academic case on what to try to to right within the retail sector. And it seems Best purchase has taken notice.

The retailer is testing out a brand new prototype that cuts down on floor house and uses a facilitate desk, run by Best Buy's Geek Squad, because the put concentration of the company's layout. The Geek Squad desk permits customers to raise queries and handle problems. per The Wall Street Journal, that took a tour, the desk closely resembles Apple's Genius Bar.

According to the Journal, that is not all Best purchase is mimicking. The prototypes are found out to permit customers to acquire merchandise in an exceedingly host of places throughout the shop, and build product displays slightly less congested and a lot of Apple-like, by using salespeople to share data and ultimately sell merchandise.

On the retail facet, Best purchase plans to shutter fifty of its underperforming U.S. stores, sparking issues that it should be on the decline.Best purchase is in desperate would like of some changes. once Brian Dunn resigned as CEOand founder Richard Schulze left the board, the corporate seems rudderless. there's currently speak of Schulze taking the corporate non-public in an exceedingly leveraged buyout.

Whether a brand new store style can facilitate Best purchase remains to be seen. The company's costs are, in several cases, higher on identical merchandise customers will notice on-line. what is worse for the corporate is that several customers merely attend Best purchase to ascertain a product and then purchase it on-line for a stronger value.

To make its stores a lot of engaging, the Journal says that Best purchase is reducing the number of house dedicated to televisions in its new layout and is increasing house for higher performers, like tablets and smartphones. Overall, Best Buy's prototype store is twenty p.c smaller than the standard locations, per the Journal.

Best purchase is rolling out its new style in sixty of its locations. talking to the Journal, Best purchase's interim CEO Mike Mikan referred to as the new style "Best Buy a pair of.0," adding that it's "catch-up, if you may, however there is rather more to come back."

from C-Net News