[Catalog Age] Look out, Staples. Beware, CDW. Minneapolis-based Best Buy, the $25.4 billion consumer electronics retailer, is going after the business market.
As part of a multichannel push into the b-to-b marketplace, Best Buy earlier this month mailed 400,000 copies of a 52-page catalog titled Best Buy for Business. Targeting home offices and businesses with fewer than 10 employees, the catalog sells computer hardware, software, and peripherals. In October the company plans to mail a second catalog for larger businesses. The catalog will sell computers, cables, and accessories as well as a smattering of consumer electronics. To help in its efforts in bagging big businesses, Best Buy is setting up a call center for inbound and outbound calls.
According to Omer Artun, director of business-to-business marketing for Best Buy, the company’s push into b-to-b includes retrofitting some “pilot” stores with Best Buy business centers to enable business customers to order merchandise, pick it up, or return it. Best Buy's decision to pursue businesses was fueled by its acquisition of network and computer services firm The Geek Squad, a 24-hour computer support desk, in the third quarter of 2003.
The catalogs were mailed into the areas of the pilot stores, such as Chicago and Washington, DC, Artun says, although he wouldn’t disclose how many of the names were rented. Apart from merchandise, Artun promises the catalogs will also have some “relevant and actionable” editorial how-to content, such as “VoIP Do I Need It?” and the pros and cons of licensing software. The company has also set its sights on the government and education markets.
