Why having lots of people in your store doesn’t automatically transfer to sales
An Analyst Walked Into Best Buy, And Discovered Firsthand How Amazon Is Destroying It
We visited several retail stores including Best Buy , Target, Wal-mart, Staples, and Toys R Us, used the Amazon Price Check app, and had conversations with several sales reps about the impact of the Internet, and Amazon in particular, on their respective businesses. The main takeaways are: 1) for the majority of the products we price-checked, Amazon’s price was lower; 2) the sales reps, especially at Best Buy, stated that everyone is using their smart-phone and the Price Check app to comparison shop; 3) Best Buy’s sales reps were less enthused about the ability of their firm to survive the impact from Amazon; 4) Target and Wal-mart sales reps did not view Amazon as a material threat; 5) Best Buy was the only store willing to match Amazon’s price, if asked; and 6) electronics and toys were the two categories, where 100% of the time, Amazon had the product and the price was lower.Simon Owens is an assistant managing editor at U.S. News & World Report. Follow him on Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. Email him at sowens@usnews.com
