Best Buy, the US consumer electronics retailer, plans to open hundreds more of its new small mobile stores, as it pursues a larger share of the booming demand for smartphones and other handheld devices.
Brian Dunn, chief executive, told the Financial Times that the retailer expects eventually to have “a number somewhere between here and 1,000” of Best Buy Mobile stores in shopping malls across the US, on top of the 77 it has already opened. It will add this year another 75-100 of the 1,500 sq ft locations.
Mr Dunn, a company veteran who became CEO last year, said the small mall-based stores were bringing in new customers, in spite of being located within two miles of larger Best Buy stand-alone stores.
“Typically this consumer is female . . . a mom with a couple of kids. These are incremental connections we are making,” he said.
Mr Dunn said last summer that Best Buy could eventually take 15 per cent of the total US market for mobile phones, up from around 4 per cent currently. It has doubled its marketshare from just under 2 per cent since it launched its mobile initiative in 2008, with support from its UK ally Carphone Warehouse.
The store drive reflects the extent to which mobile technology has become a vital battlefield for US electronics retailers. Best Buy is taking aim at both Walmart and Radio Shack, estimated to have around one-third and a quarter of the market respectively.
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