Category: Best Buy

Ethical Considerations for Marketing

Ethics is about putting principles into action. Consistency between what we say we value and what our actions say we value is a matter of integrity. At Best Buy, we demonstrate our ethics by living our values. This means that we live our values every day in our interactions with one another, customers, vendors, business partners, competitors and in the communities in which we work, live and play. It also means that our business decisions consider not only the financial risk or reward, but just as important, the impact on people, communities, and the environment.

It is also about self-restraint:

• Not doing what you have the power to do. An act isn’t proper simply because it is permissible or you can get away with it.
• Not doing what you have the right to do. There is a big difference between what you have the right to do and what is right to do.
• Not doing what you want to do. In the well-worn turn of phrase, an ethical person often chooses to do more than the law requires and less than the law allows.

Social responsibility

Best Buy is committed to making a meaningful and lasting impact on the quality of life in the countries and communities in which we operate. We strive to be a valued and trusted member in each area while upholding the laws and practicing ethical behavior in all our business dealings.

Charitable Contributions

One distinguished element of our charitable contribution program is the Company’s annual giving goal of 1.5 percent of pre-tax earnings, which it contributes through both the Best Buy Children’s Foundation (BBCF) and direct corporate or retail sector contributions to non-profit organizations.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Programs

Best Buy Canada boosts customer experience ratings by building stronger relationships. Best Buy Canada is Canada’s largest and most successful consumer electronics retailer, helping Canadians equip their homes with the latest technology and entertainment solutions. It’s the country’s most popular multichannel retailer with more than 280 million visits in-store and online each year. More than 80% of customer visits are digital.

Sales force has been key to enabling this relationship-driven approach. As Greg Irvine, Senior Product Owner at Best Buy Canada, said: “With Sales force, we can serve our customers before and after a transaction, allowing us to put the customer at the center of our business, creating a connected, higher valued experience across customer touch points.

Green approach

As a global retailer of consumer electronics, and the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S., Best Buy has an obligation to help our fellow employees and our customers, make safe and smart decisions when disposing of the devices they use in their daily lives and reduce our environmental impact.

Examples of environmentally conscious behavior include:

• Properly disposing of hazardous material, such as unused paint and printer cartridges
• Recycling old or obsolete mobile phones and consumer electronics
• Including an environmental screen in our audits of third-party manufacturing facilities
• Participating in and supporting community environmental initiatives
• Creatively minimizing and recycling packaging
• Helping employees and customers make safe and smart decisions
• Reducing our Company environmental impact

SWOT analysis

THE STRENGTHS OF BEST BUY

Good reputation with customers, especially women, who make most of the consumer electronics purchases in the United States.

• A proven ability to retain customer loyalty.
• Strong marketing expertise in the electronics sector.
• Large footprint in the United States with 1,731 stores.

WEAKNESSES OF BEST BUY

• Heavy dependence on brick-and-mortar locations at a time when e-commerce is growing at a rate of 15.4% annually.
• Limited profit margin of 1.92% on July 31, 2105.
• Limited amount of cash; Best Buy reported a free cash flow of $149 million on July 31, 2015.

Pure Competition

Its operation is through two business segments: International and domestic. The domestic segment covers operations within the districts, territories and states of the United States, where its operation is under a variety of brand names such as Best Buy, Pacific Sales, Geek Squad, Best Buy Mobile, Napster, and Magnolia Audio Video. The international segment includes the operations that are outside the United States such as those in Mexico, China, Canada, Turkey and Europe. Products are also marketed under such brand names as Best Buy, Five Star, Magnolia Audio Video, The Phone House, Audio visions, Future Shop, The Car phone Warehouse, Geek Squad, Napster, Best Buy Mobile and Pacific Sales.

Competitors

1. Walmart
2. Target Corporation
3. Costco
4. Staples
5. K Mart
6. Office Depot
7. Sears

E- commerce

In recent years, the company has put a much heavier focus on its e Commerce platform and the digital experience it presents to its customers.

This renewed focus on e Commerce was simply driven by customer demand and an increasing need for digital shopping options that is expected around the world by today’s consumer. Keeping up with customer demand in an increasingly digital world is a difficult task, and having the proper tools to prop up your business is vital. For Best Buy Canada, some of the tools it needed came from Salesforce.com Inc. and those tools helped it create a seamless digital platform. Its platform’s biggest advantage came in helping build an integrated support staff, all the way from online chats to in-home consultants.

References

1. Corporate.bestbuy.com
2. Course hero
3. Itbusniness.ca

Best Buy has undergone several years of experience solving challenging problems and has learned to master their own craft. That is why their innovativeness is not about what they know but about exploration, pushing boundaries, and ventures into uncharted areas where there are no dedicated experts. Best Buy embraces technology in everything they do. They have developed all their expertise in full support of tech to deliver a richer customer experience. Since its inception, they think like agile innovators and tech experts because innovation is everything they do, not just technology. Besides, they are not afraid of new challenges, thanks to the culture instilled by their CEO Barry (Sozzi, 2020). Through this paper, I will assess the innovativeness of Best Buy and also provide relevant examples in each case.

Best Buy has launched a new concept in most of their stores. This concept is on integrating online and in-store shopping. It is also coupled with by flexibility focused features such as raised access flooring. These concepts are channeled towards the improvement of shopping experiences as part of their nation-wide strategy to realize the ways consumers purchase electronics and appliances. An example is in Montreal, where there has been complete renovation to provide a more immersive experience to consumers. This unique concept is based on feedback from customers, vendors, and employees. Shoppers can reserve products online and quickly pick up their purchases from any best buy store minutes later (Munarriz, 2020). Alternatively, Best Buy allows consumers to arrange their collection at a later date if the item is not in stock or have it shipped to them from another location. Therefore, this offers an excellent opportunity to build their distribution very close to where their customers are.

For the past five years, Best Buy has been on the verge of losing grounds to other electronic retails like Amazon as customers gravitated towards low prices and convenience e-commerce offered. However, years later, Best Buy is no longer surviving. Instead, it is thriving, with its domestic revenue growing to 21 percent in the last financial year. This was made possible by leveraging the power and convenience of its brick and motor locations. Best Buy has teamed up with Google Canada, a tech giant, to offer a unique new store shopping experience. Google Canada has set up small google stores in most of the best buy locations, which provides a place for consumers to view and demo Google’s brilliant domestic tech products such as Chromecast Ultra and Pixel (Munarriz, 2020). Consumers can now participate in weekly workshops designed to train them and empowering them to get the most out of their new brand technology. They are also able to try out these products before making purchases.

Best Buy has achieved great success by providing more in-depth information to its customers and enhancing their communication to creating a symbiotic relationship between innovators. This has allowed them to offer fantastic in-store experiences with the very latest technology while empowering its creators to get their inventions into consumers’ hands (Mottl, 2017). By assessing its innovativeness, one gets to understand why Best Buy develops teams, work directly with clients, and empower designs based on what they have learned. They also partner with favorite local merchants to provide the same convenient delivery on a great selection of prepared products and outstanding services. Their goal is to continue the innovational tactic of refining Best Buy and to bring their services to more cities over time.

Introduction

Best Buy Co. Inc. originally known as Sound of Music in 1966 began the journey in the retail business of audio components and later expanded into retailing video products. As videocassette recorders became popular, thanks to the company, they decided to change the name to Best Buy. The company believed that they could help popularize technology by enriching the lives of the Early Adopters so they could stay connected and, “make life fun and easy” (Wheelen et al, 2018). Headquartered out of Richfield, Minnesota, the company expanded into 1,100 stores in the United States and had over 150,000 employees. Other than the United States, Best Buy operates in other parts of the world such as Canada, Mexico, China and Turkey.

As Best Buy became popular, they wanted their customers to rely on them for technological questions. They branched out into a variety of subsidiaries which included Geek Squad, Magnolia Audio Video and Pacific Sales. Best Buy anticipated that their customers would be technology challenged and wanted them to realize the different benefits that technology had to offer. This idea created several other ideas for Best Buy to continue support beyond the stores. They took advantage of the dot com and increased their tools to support customers from purchasing a computer to helping them with IT questions.

As any company wants, they plan to grow and increase their earnings. They accomplished this by monitoring their business model to make sure that they were satisfying their clients needs and making sure they had all the right tools to effectively handle any situation they may arise. For their customers to be satisfied, they employed highly skilled employees that were educated in the technology world. As strategic as Best Buy already was, the strategically managed to move from a discounted, low price retailer into, “a service-oriented firm that relied on a differentiation strategy” by scanning their environment to understand the current trends in technology. (Wheelen et al, 2018).

Problem Statement

Best Buy was currently facing a decline in their profit due to the economic downturn. Wheelen et al state, “to be successful over time, an organization needs to be in tune with its external environment” (pg. 94, 2018). Just as the economy was facing a down-turn, the economic forces cause consumers to have less disposable income.

Another problem facing Best Buy was the pricing and debt management which they were not competitive on price structure. Not only did they have cost incurred due to training employees, but they also completed an acquisition of Napster which increased their debt.

As the ever-popular dot com era came, the internet grew and obtaining electronics came easier and the barriers for access were available. Before the era, the industry was mostly brick and mortar companies which included high debt for small competing companies until the internet opened for all businesses.

Strategy

Best Buy worked through the economic downturn by offering customers low interest financing which became very successful for them. They were able to offer the low-interest due to the private-labeled credit card companies. Their strategy worked as they focused on their customers by allowing the, “private-label cards to carry higher interest rates and lower credit lines. The Best Buy deal will add another premier retail franchise and high-quality card portfolio” (Douglas, 2013).

In 2008, Best Buy snagged Napster and plans to use this to get a leg-up on their competitors. In addition to their own capabilities with technology, Best Buy will design this image to, “use both Napster’s technological capabilities and its subscriber base to reach consumers looking to explore digital music and other forms of entertainment ‘beyond music subscriptions’ (Skillings, 2008).

As the internet grew, so did competition but that only meant it was easier for Best Buy to publish their inventory for the world to see. This allowed Best Buy to reduce capital requirements and gain valuable market share. They were able to increase their advertising which allowed customers to venture into a business, such as Best Buy, and get to interact with the product.

Analyses of Competitors

Comparing the Financial performance of the company with its competitors, the Best Buy was below average in terms of revenue. In the case study of Best Buy, revenue increased due to the recent acquisition, but net income and operating margins were declining due to the pricing pressure. As the economy began to decrease, the costs of items were forced to decrease as well causing margins to decline which affected the net income and operating margins negatively.

SWOT Analysis

Strength of Marketing

With so many domestic and internal brands and stores, Best Buy prides itself on customer centricity which allowed each customer to be catered to according to their needs and behaviors. Their marketing goals, according to Wheelen et al, were four times as great than their competitors:

• To market various products based on the customer-centricity operating model
• To address the needs of customer lifestyle groups
• To be at the forefront of technological advances
• To meet customer needs with end-to-end solutions.

Weakness of Popularity

Although many people know the brand Best Buy in America, the popularity of it outside the United States boarder are slim. The brand should be able to advertise outside of the U.S. to overcome the boundaries it has. In addition, the durability and warranties/service plan due to the Florida case that was filed stating, “fraudulent business practices” doesn’t give consumers high expectations when purchasing from the company (Bhasin, 2018). In addition, Best Buy violated the Price Match policy by telling their employees to not price match and they will be given a bonus to who complied. Price Matching is what lures customers in and makes them shop around. Eliminating this opportunity gives their competitors more room to gamble and lowers the popularity of Best Buy.

Opportunities for Customer Lifestyles

Best Buy has many opportunities available to them due to the products they make available to their customers. Each product compliments one another and is strategically transitioned to a more customer-operating model.

• Best Buy – unlimited supply of electronics, home office entertainment, appliances, etc.
• Best Buy Mobile – variety of mobile phone selection
• Geek Squad – IT support for business and residential including instore and online
• Magnolia Audio Video – premier sound and audio products
• Napster – digital music
• Pacific Sales – home improvement products such as appliances
• Speakeasy – broadband, voice, data and IT services to small businesses

Threats Online Market

Best Buy has many competitors looking to be number one in the digital world. As many companies move away from the brick-and-mortar industry, they have taken advantage of the less expensive business of online selling. Many businesses deliver online media platforms such as Amazon, Apple and Netflix for entertainment. In addition, online shopping allows the consumers to purchase at a cheaper price and gives more opportunity to purchase cheaper than in a store. Many well-known companies such as Walmart and Target are pushing online sales and making their entire inventory online not to mention the sale of third-party inventory.

Analysis of Best Buy’s Financials

Although Best Buy’s recent revenue growth was encouraged by the acquisition of Napster, their net income and operating margins were decreased likely due to increased costs and pricing issues caused by economic downturn. As margins began to fall, it caused the net income to fall as well. In 2009 during the first quarter, the operating margin was between 2-4%. By the third quarter, the operating margin was just above 2%. The net income was around $200 million in the first quarter and had dropped significantly.

Recommendations

Best Buy holds a good reputation with their customers regarding support for their electronics. They should focus on providing more online retail due to the growing popularity of the online marketplace. In addition, adding a variety of electronics to consumers such as Apple is a good idea for them to take advantage of the opportunity while adding a better price match to compete with Amazon. According to Verdon, Best Buy will continue to dominate as long as they continue to service their customers regarding home installation, “…teach them how to use it and make a house call when they can’t figure out the remote, you have a customer for life” (2019). Verdon believes in this because as technology increases, so will the number of users. Technology is confusing as it is, and it can overwhelm anyone. While you can teach someone how to use the technology, it is also important for Best Buy to be able to visit and make house calls because Best Buy wants the technology to continue to work after the purchase.

References

1. Douglas, D. (2013). Capital One Sells Best Buy Credit Card Portfolio to Citi Group. Retrieved on April 3, 2020 from https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/capital-one-sells-best-buy-credit-card-portfolio-to-citigroup/2013/02/19/9b4ba18a-7ab6-11e2-a044-676856536b40_story.html
2. Bhasin, H. (2018). SWOT Analysis of Best Buy. Retrieved on April 3, 2020 from https://www.marketing91.com/swot-analysis-of-best-buy/
3. Skillings, J. (2008). Best Buy nabs Napster for $121 million. Retrieved on April 3, 2020 from https://www.cnet.com/news/best-buy-nabs-napster-for-121-million/
4. Verdon, J. (2019). Six Reasons Why Best Buy Will Continue to Dominate. Retrieved on April 3, 2020 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/joanverdon/2019/09/26/a-better-best-buy-six-reasons-to-bet-on-it/#2efdd81c72ea
5. Wheelen, T. L., Hunger, J. D., Hoffman, A. N., & Bamford, C. E. (2018). Strategic Management and Business Policy Globalization, Innovation, and Sustainability. (15th ed.). Harlow, England: Pearson.

Electronic giant Best Buy needs no introduction. When it comes to the consumer electronics retail market, Best Buy is a leading force known internationally. Although their efforts to penetrate foreign markets has proven unsuccessful, Best Buy is still a leading competitor in the consumer electronics industry. Today’s volatile and highly competitive market has proven challenging for Best Buy to keep up with the Amazons and Walmarts of the world. In this report, our team will demonstrate why, unless extreme changes are implemented, Best Buy will meet the same fate as Circuit City.

Best Buy is a well-known multinational retailer of electronic devices and appliances. It was founded in 1969 and was originally named Sound of Music. Sound of Music was founded by Richard Schulze and a partner and Minnesota. In 1971, Richard bought his partner’s shares and began to expand his company. In 1983, the name of the company was changed to Best Buy. Best Buy reported approximately $50 billion in revenues in 2013. At the time there were over 140,000 employees, over 1400 stores in the US and over 1 billion online shoppers and 600 million visitors at its US stores annually.

After the resignation of former CEO Brian Dunn in 2012, Best Buy’s upper management brought in Hubert Joly. His appointment as CEO of a retail giant Best Buy was met with a lot of skepticism, mainly because Joly was an outsider. His previous work experience was focused in the hospitality industry, as he was the CEO of Carlson. Joly’s initial diagnosis was spot on: If Best Buy wanted to survive, he needed to shake things up. A mere two months into his newfound position, Joly initiated “The Renew Blue” plan. This groundbreaking strategy consisted of a “five-point” plan, which included “reinvigorating and rejuvenating” the customer experience. As a former Best Buy consumer, I can attest to the fact that this establishment’s customer service is mediocre at best. A simple Yelp search reveals a common theme of discontent when it comes to the in-store experience: The lack of customer service.

Joly wanted to focus on people, so he rolled up his sleeves and worked on the sales floor for an entire week. This experience not only gave him insight into his consumer base, it also gave him a glimpse from an employee’s point of view. It was then that Joly decided that Best Buy employees needed to be groomed, so he invested heavily into regular training programs. Showrooming is a practice where customers come into the store to test products and end up making their purchase online with a competitor. Joly used the “showrooming” practice to his advantage- by instituting a price matching system. Additionally, he welcomed the “Stores-in-Stores” concept, which is Business model that allows the two sides to share the risks and rewards of getting closer to the customer. By doing so, Joly was able to transfer the cost of “Showrooming” to the manufacturer. Another area of contention was the awful online sales. He therefore implemented the use of stores as both warehouses and pick-up places to speed up delivery for on-line shoppers. Despite the naysayers, the “Joly effect” proved to be successful after sales soared and stock prices rocketed.

As we were going through the case, we looked into strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats to Best Buy as an electronic retailer. Somer strengths were that they are a well – known brand that has a variety of products for different customer needs. They initiated their technical support program called Geek Squad in 2002 and they provide services such as financing, and in-home technical services. Some of our weaknesses are that they have slow sales, Overall decline in market shares and fewer stores relative to competitors like Walmart etc. Due to the shorter product life cycles, that increase their employee training costs. Their biggest weakness is their bad customer service, their customer satisfaction scores are low and even though Best Buy have a big focus on customer services is not reflected by customer experience in-store.

Many industry professionals argue that price is the key to retaining consumers. In our opinion, a combination of price and customer service is imperative in the success of a business such as Best Buy. No matter the efficacy of the customer service, if consumers can obtain the same goods at a lower price-point they will always gravitate towards the lesser of the two. Just like showrooming, consumers will come into your institution, take advantage of the great customer service, but they will end up making their final sale with a competitor who offers the same good at a lower price point.

Best Buy’s strategic IQ received a failing grade in opinion, because after Joly’s departure it seems like the company has fallen back to being complacent. Employees walk the sales floors unmotivated and distracted. They no longer adapt “customer is always right mantra” as numerous complaints are regarding obtaining a refund.

In conducting our research on Best Buy we realized there were similarities with some of the cases we’ve been studying throughout the semester. In the cases we’ve looked at we’ve seen common themes such as standing out from the competition, restructuring of a business through company merging and diversifying. In the singer case the company had a servicing aspect of the company where you could get at home servicing for any machine you purchased. This was a first in this field and made them stand out from their competitors. Best buy is similar in that they also have a repairing/ troubleshooting service when you purchase items from Best buy through geek squad. This helped Best Buy stand out from Circuit City and other large retailers. IBM expanded their business through acquiring and merging with an overseas operation to increase the companies presence. Best Buy did a similar thing but with geek squad where it merged the company with its’ retail stores to offer repair and troubleshooting shooting service to their business model which expanded its’ reach. Another similarity we observed was with the Onassis case. Onassis became very successful through diversifying his business going from tobacco to shipping tycoon and then to owning an airline. Best Buy doesn’t just sell TVs but many other different types of technologies from phones to appliances to instruments and many other items which has allowed bestbuy to stay competitive and around for as long as it has.

“Best Buy has gotten much better,” people say. But in today’s market where consumers are faced with endless options- Amazon, Walmart, Alibaba, Costco; “getting better” is just not good enough when it comes to customer retention. In conclusion, we truly believe that Best Buy’s days are numbered. Keeping up with price wars is no easy task, especially since Best Buy locations occupy large real estate and require salespeople to keep the store running. Best Buy may have won the battle against Circuit City, but it is now a prime target. Just as Aristotle Onassis was once a world renowned shipping tycoon, today his businesses are merely mentioned in passing. Based on our research and analysis of Best Buy from the case study as well as from our own research, we would not invest in Best Buy in the future.

Electronics and technology will always be on the top of the markets. Today every person in the United States uses an electronic for nearly every aspect of their lives from vehicles that take us to our desired destinations at high speeds to a tiny supercomputer in our pockets. Strip us of our technological advances and many of us would literally not be able to survive. Due to this understanding, electronic products will be purchased constantly for centuries to come. Because of this truth, if Best Buy stays the largest brick-and-mortar electronics sales company they will be in a good place for many years to come.

Best Buy, as a company, has seen a fair share of success and struggle from the being the top specialty retailer in the United States electronic retail industry to having a failed launch in Canada costing the company millions upon millions in assets that would cripple many other companies. Many reasons to Best Buy’s success, I believe, is due to their set-in-stone values, code of ethics, and environmental statements. Essentially Best Buy makes sure everyone knows exactly what their guiding principles and policies are. A few things I want to analyze here is their internal employee affairs, external suppliers and distributors, social standings, and global presence compared to their domestic affairs.

Best Buy doesn’t have a designated mission statement which is normally a red flag for employee guidance, but what they do have in replacement is, what they call, their Core Values. These Core Values are as follows:

• Unleash the Power of Our People
• Learn from Challenge and Change
• Show Respect, Humility, and Integrity
• Have Fun While Being the Best

What one may notice is that these values seem almost vague. Unleashing the power of our people is essentially referring to Best Buy’s training and development. New employees are first required to complete computer training labs that teach them first about Best Buy’s core values mentioned above, their store-wide polices, Best Buy credit card, and so forth. Then employees are taught about their specific department and their specialties. For instance, someone being hired in the computer section will receive heavy amounts of training on computer products, accessories, and specific policies for warranties and insurance. Once done with labs new hires will shadow a veteran employee of the same department to learn the product and sales culture. This method has proven substantially useful for employees. They must also report before each shift to their assigned supervisor their sales numbers and discuss any improvements or fall backs in order to help the employee stay on top of their game. I believe that last sentence to also include the second value “Learn from Challenge and Change.” Show respect, humility, and integrity is just a reminder to employees that this is a retail and customer service is top priority. Lastly, have fun while being the best has to do with Best Buy’s reward systems and employee team building strategies. To start things off, employees receive a discount where they pay cost plus 10%. Employees are also rewarded for their accomplishments with Best Buy credits that can be used to purchase products, special discounts, and even all expenses paid vacations! These alone are enough to convince anyone to follow the first three values. Then Best Buy as a corporation encourages employees to build relationships by setting up activity committees. These committees plan birthday parties, marketing events, store contests, movie/game nights, etc. These methods help employees feel like being apart of a family while also being good salesman.

Best Buy also strives to better their carbon emissions in order to positively affect climate change. In fact, according to the CDP, Best Buy has achieved their “A” list tier for climate change.6 This has a lot to do with their “Best Buy Carbon and Energy Statement” that was established in 2014. From 2014 to 2017 Best Buy was able to reduce their carbon emissions by 26% according to a post by the Chief Sustainability Officer, Laura Bishop. She goes on to mention that they plan to reduce emissions by 45% by 2020 with operational reductions and renewable sources.2 Best Buy has made these claims and previous achievements by converting their Geek squad vehicles to Toyota’s Prius c hybrids thus significantly impacting the use of gas and becoming more energy efficient. This company has even gone so far as to sign the American Business Act Pledge on Climate Change4 with pledges to reduce their carbon emissions by 45% as mentioned earlier, provide more energy-efficient products for customers to help minimize their carbon footprints, and to collaborate with their partners in ways to collectively reduce carbon use and maximize sustainable electronics. This commitment, alongside the other 81 companies, is documented in the White House’s website as will be seen on the reference page. Their commitment to better carbon and energy levels is a large reason Best Buy has been so successful over the years as stakeholders see the progress this giant business is making to help better the environment. Even customers can appreciate the work Best Buy puts forth as product that helps customers be more proactive in their energy consumption and carbon footprint, and customers are even encouraged to recycle old electronics with Best Buy rather than simply tossing them in the garbage.

Another statement put out by Best Buy that holds them to a higher standard is their Human Rights Corporate Statement which Best Buy claims to have aligned with the United Nation’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGP) according to Hamlin Metzger on Best Buy’s personal blogsite. The UNGP is considered the global staple of how businesses should treat employees, customers, and stakeholders. Best Buy’s Human Rights Corporate Statement reads as follows:

• “Respecting the rights of workers in the supply chain and leveraging industry partners, through the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition, in order to improve working conditions and environmental practices in the global electronics supply chain. The Best Buy Supplier Code of Conduct and Conflict Minerals Statement detail expectations for the Exclusive Brands supply chain.
• Respecting the rights of Best Buy employees and striving for a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace free of harassment and discrimination. The Best Buy Code of Ethics embeds these commitments and provides a mechanism for employees to voice concerns.
• Respecting the rights of our customers, including their right to privacy. The Best Buy Valuable Information Protection program and Privacy Policy explain how we strive to ensure that our customers’ personal information is secure.
• Seeking to advance right in the communities where we operate by building stronger communities through sharing our knowledge of technology. Programs such as Geek Squad Academy and Best Buy Teen Tech Centers help under-served teens build their technology skills, inspiring their education and career choices.
• Respecting the rights of workers in the consumer electronics recycling value chain through adherence to policies and standards for safe and responsible recycling.”

Each statement made in Best Buy’s Human Rights Corporate Statement is backed by another statement already mentioned on Best Buy’s corporate website. The Best Buy Supplier Code of Conduct and Conflict Minerals Statement clearly states their attention to ethical working conditions. As stated in this specific statement on page two “Before working with new suppliers, we provide an in-depth training on our code and program and conduct a third-party audit of their facilities, which includes environmental and human rights screening criteria.” These criteria and more are detailed farther in this document.1 As can see, though, through all 140+ factories that Best Buy relies on for supplies and product must adhere to certain standards in order to uphold responsible human rights practices for employees and customers.

Best Buy’s involvement in the community is what I believe has given them such success. Back in 2012 Hubert Joly took over Best Buy as the CEO in a time where Best Buy was on some rocky roads. Amazon was taking over with their online shopping experience as products were popular, reasonably priced, and shipped directly to the customer’s home in as little as two days. Amazon, along with growing online shopping companies, significantly helped to bankrupt Circuit City which was, at the time, very much similar to Best Buy but with a different color scheme. Best Buy had change something up or else they would also be next. One thing that Best Buy would be able to provide that Amazon couldn’t was a personal customer experience. Joly decided to switch things from sales oriented to being, as they say, “customer obsessed.” This included implementing Best Buy’s Teen Tech Centers which helped teens better understand technology and encourage them to use their creativity to come up with the next great technological advancement. Best Buy’s In-Home Advisor service that allows Best Buy employees to help customers in their purchase of technology and its application for free by employees even going to customer homes to give their suggestions. Another community driven idea was to help the elderly by providing product that allowed seniors to feel at ease knowing that their health could be constantly monitored without someone having to physically be there to take care of them. Best Buy also regularly gets involved in local festivals by bringing up-and-coming products to demonstrate and communicate product advancements that may not be widely known yet. These changes along with Best Buy improving their online presence, marketing strategies, supplier and customer relations, and giving customers more reason to try out new product rather than blindly paying hundreds to thousands on product are what, not only put Best Buy back on the map, but put them on top of their market map allowing them to compete head to head with companies such as Amazon.

To wrap things up, Best Buy covers their ethical tracks on all fields and keeps a tight grip on their internal and external affairs. One thing one will notice, though, customers can tell Best Buy employees follow the corporate lifestyle that they try so desperately to instill into their employees. I say this because the employees are knowledgeable in the plenty of product carried in the stores (Unleash the Power of Our People) allowing them to correctly advise customers. If an employee does not know something, they will call over someone who may be more knowledgeable in a specific topic or product type and will actively attempt to better understand the scenario for later instances (Learn from Challenge and Change). Also, from my experiences shopping and dealing with customer service and the employees in general I felt like my concerns were truly listened to. As if Best Buy employees were just good friends who knew more about technology than me and was happy to share their knowledge with me (Show Respect, Humility, and Integrity). And, Lastly, as a previous employee of this company I can vouch for the last core value of having fun while being the best. I say this because my coworkers, supervisors, and myself acted like family competing to help customers. We were knowledgeable and eager to share it with others. Saving money for customers and seeing a smile or hearing a customer’s excitement after a sale was our biggest goal at the end of the day. We experienced tough sales and even tougher customers, but the appreciative customers who learned how to improve their lives with our product is what kept us loving our job and ultimately having fun while being the very best.

Best Buy not only holds internal employees at a higher standard, but they hold everyone to said higher standards. From their famous comprehensive e-waste recycling service to help customers to monitoring all 140+ manufacturers and suppliers to ensure they also uphold the ethical standards set by the company as a whole. Best Buy is no longer driven by money. Best Buy is driven by the people. By improving lives, the environment, employee well-being, and other countries Best Buy is looking to change the game. Other companies are following suit by improving customer experiences with better customer support programs, community improvement initiatives, and more because, as Joly has figured out, the company image and reputation is the biggest determination of success. If the people do not approve of certain practices or there is nothing to be proud of then customers generally will take their money elsewhere. We live in an age where we can get almost everything we want/need from multiple different venues, so companies have to impress us now whether it be with exceptional customer service, extra low prices, countless acts of charity, or whatever it takes for a company to stand out in a saturated market.

References

1. Best Buy Human Rights Corporate Statement, Best Buy, 10 Dec. 2015, corporate.bestbuy.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/BBY-Human-Rights-Dec-2015.pdf.
2. Bishop, Laura. “Our Renewed Commitment to Act on Climate Change.” Best Buy Corporate News and Information, Best Buy, 19 Oct. 2015, corporate.bestbuy.com/our-renewed-commitment-to-act-on-climate-change/.
3. Cameron, Nadia. “How Best Buy Shifted from Being Retail-Led to Customer Relationship Driven.” CMO Australia, 27 Mar. 2019, www.cmo.com.au/article/659314/how-best-buy-shifted-from-being-retail-led-customer-relationship-driven/.
4. “FACT SHEET: White House Announces Commitments to the American Business Act on Climate Pledge.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, 19 Oct. 2015, obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/10/19/fact-sheet-white-house-announces-commitments-american-business-act.
5. Metzger, Hamlin. “Doing Business, The Right Way: Best Buy Works for Human Rights.” Best Buy Corporate News and Information, Best Buy, 10 Dec. 2015, corporate.bestbuy.com/doing-business-the-right-way-best-buy-works-for-human-rights/.
6. “The A List 2018.” CDP, 2018, www.cdp.net/en/scores#ce18792fcd0fe57536a0355d66e874d4.
7. Wahba, Phil. “Best Buy Will Get Its First-Ever Female CEO in June.” Fortune, 15 Apr. 2019, fortune.com/2019/04/15/best-buy-ceo-corie-barry/.