Smart Home Superstore: Best Buy to Expand Home Automation, Security Offerings
Best Buy plans to expand Smart Home Powered by Vivint home automation and security to 450 stores and add 1,500 dedicated smart home employees.
Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) is doubling down on the smart home market as part of its goal to hit $43 billion in revenue by fiscal year 2021. Could a big box retailer putting this much emphasis on security and home automation potentially hurt professionals?
The company announced during its “Best Buy 2020: Building the New Blue” event it plans to enhance the smart home areas in all of its stores; roll out its Best Buy Smart Home Powered by Vivint home automation and security offering to 450 stores; and add 1,500 dedicated smart home employees.
Best Buy is also launching a new service called Total Tech Support under the Geek Squad brand. This will provide ongoing support for a customer’s tech, no matter where or when they bought it. This offering is available nationwide in Canada and at 200 stores in 10 U.S. cities.
Meanwhile, Best Buy says it is evolving how it sells to focus not on just selling products but solving customers’ underlying needs. The company will seek to accelerate its growth by continuing to improve the customer experience within and across channels, more effectively addressing customer needs in underpenetrated categories and building its in-home channel.
To that end, the company recently expanded its In-Home Advisor program to all major U.S. markets. It now has 300 advisors who are specially trained to provide free in-home consultations to help customers find the right technology solutions.
Lastly, the company plans to pilot a service dubbed Assured Living that uses technology to help adult children remotely check in on the health and safety of their aging parents. Now available in two markets, this pilot aims to create peace of mind for the children while allowing the parents to live and thrive independently.
Best Buy Chairman and CEO Hubert Joly says, “Our Renew Blue transformation was about improving the customer experience and fixing what was broken,” Joly said. “Building on what we have accomplished, we are excited by the opportunities we have in this next chapter to grow the company by helping customers pursue their passions and enrich their lives with the help of technology, which is a much bigger idea and one that is rich with opportunities.”
Best Buy’s goal is to hit enterprise revenue of $43 billion by fiscal year 2021 versus $39.4 billion in fiscal 2017. The company has delivered $1.4 billion in cost savings over the past five years. And, it plans to drive an incremental $600 million in annualized cost savings by the end of fiscal 2021.
Editor’s Note: The following story first ran in Security Sales & Integration’s sister publication CE Pro.
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About the Author
Jason Knott
Jason Knott is Chief Content Officer for Emerald Expositions Connected Brands. Jason has covered low-voltage electronics as an editor since 1990, serving as editor and publisher of Security Sales & Integration. He joined CE Pro in 2000 and serves as Editor-in-Chief of that brand. He served as chairman of the Security Industry Association’s Education Committee from 2000-2004 and sat on the board of that association from 1998-2002. He is also a former board member of the Alarm Industry Research and Educational Foundation. He has been a member of the CEDIA Business Working Group since 2010. Jason graduated from the University of Southern California. Have a suggestion or a topic you want to read more about? Email Jason at [email protected]
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