Best Buy Looks to New Categories to Drive Sales

Atlanta Best Buy Co. is looking to new product categories and business models to help it double annual sales to $80 billion over the next five years, according to a Reuters report.

Mike Vitelli, executive VP for customer operating groups, reported at an Oppenheimer Consumer Growth Conference that while Best Buy will add stores and boost its market share in mainstay categories such as computers and cell phones to drive growth, it plans to move into product areas that are outside traditional consumer electronics.

For example, some Best Buy stores sell an extensive assortment of musical instruments, a stepped-up offering from the basic keyboards and guitars that are available in all stores, Vitelli said.

“We believe that is an example of categories that we can add to the traditional Best Buy box that customers will give us credit for and get us into spaces that we’re not into today,” he said.

Vitelli also said that Pacific Sales Kitchen and Bath Centers, a high-end appliance chain that Best Buy bought about two years ago, was a store model that the retailer plans to expand nationwide beyond its California base.

He also said digital services and international expansion would fuel sales growth. In May, Best Buy agreed to pay $2 billion to create a joint venture with Britain’s Carphone Warehouse Group that is expected to open Best Buy stores in Europe.