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.
The No. 2 company in the CE Pro 100 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.
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