Thinking Out of the Big Box
At the recent ERI eXchange conference in Boston, Best Buy International CEO Bob Willett spoke about the Minneapolis retailer’s “customer-centric transformation.”
Best Buy looked at strategic issues like what the brand stood for, and the best way to develop a results-driven organization. Considering its growth — from a $5 billion business in 1995 to $36 billion this year — the company is moving in the right direction.
The electronics space is a challenging one, Willett said, when you consider that a PC’s shelf life is seven weeks before it’s out of date, and that the best-selling camera is also a phone.
Today, he noted, consumers take the convenience of multichannel for granted — and expect the best from every point of contact.
As such, it’s a little crazy that brick-and-mortar retailers want consumers to spend thousands on high-ticket items, and then expect them to wait in long checkout lines.
The solution? Simple. Eliminate the checkout.
It may sound strange, but according to Willett it’s becoming more of a possibility thanks to the potential use of radio-frequency identification technology in products.
On an even more positive note, he doesn’t envision dropping the checkout line as a quick way to cut back on personnel. Rather, he suggested, take the clerks away from the checkout and put them into customer service positions elsewhere in the store.
“There’s an enormous opportunity here to help the consumer,” he said.
The change would be difficult at first. And the retailer that takes the lead in trying it would have to do an excellent job of explaining why it’d be a benefit to shoppers.
“But the first one to do it well will be a champion of the consumer,” Willett concluded.
How about you? What are you doing to be a hero to your customers? How are you thinking about breaking out of your box — big, virtual, mail or otherwise?
Competition today is everywhere. Companies you never thought would be after your customers are now moving into new territories, looking for ever-bigger market share. As Willett put it, “Everyone is getting in everyone [else’s] back yard.”
Here at Direct, we broke out of our box earlier this year with the most extensive redesign in the magazine’s history. Going forward, we’ll continue to shape our focus to better serve readers.
What in your organization could be changed, modified or even eliminated to make your customers’ experience a more satisfying one, no matter what your channel? Let me know at [email protected].
