Best Buy's Online Jumps 242% During Stay-at-Home Period
Best Buy posted better-than-expected revenue for the quarter ended Aug. 3, but shares tumbled 4.1% Tuesday to $112.64 on second-half economic and pandemic concerns. Total revenue was $9.9 billion vs. $9.5 billion in Q2 2019; domestic sales were $9.1 billion…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
vs. $8.8 billion, said the company. Comparable domestic sales rose 5% vs. 1.9% a year ago. With stores reopened mid-quarter after COVID-19 lockdowns, e-commerce sales jumped 242% as customers turned to Best Buy.com for computers, tablets and appliances, said CEO Corie Barry on a Tuesday investor call. Online sales growth continued to be robust in Q2 after stores reopened in June, with online revenue growing 180% over the same period last year, Barry said. Domestic online sales have remained strong, up 175% in the first three weeks of August, she said, but supply hasn't kept up with demand: “We don't have as much inventory as we would like to have right now,” Barry said in Q&A. Best Buy is focused on the customer experience before fall handset launches, including 5G, and will make it possible to trade in connected devices online. It expects higher revenue than in Q3 2019, but not at the 20% level seen in the first three weeks of the quarter. Barry noted two-thirds of U.S. children are schooling at home in the fall semester, which drove back-to-school demand for computers, networking gear and webcams. The pandemic forced Best Buy to change its operating model, and customer shopping behavior will be “permanently changed in a way that is even more digital,” Barry said. Customers will be in control of how they want to shop; the company’s workforce will have to evolve to meet their needs, she said. Employees in some 200 stores are now doing same-day deliveries, which meets customer expectations while reducing third-party shipping costs.