1. Best Buy is opening its first small-format, digital-first store in the US, as part of a wider strategy to meet changing customer needs. The store in Monroe, North Carolina, features a curation of best-in-category tech products for shoppers to experience and purchase as well as customer service and consultation areas.

• With a sales area of 5,000 square feet, considerably smaller than the typical 35,000 square feet footprint, the store will encourage shoppers to browse, get advice and checkout digitally using their smartphones.
• The assortment covers home theater and audio, computing, headphones, wearables, fitness, cell phones, cameras, smart home, small appliances and more. It excludes major appliances and other larger products (with the exception of large TVs). The large items can be purchased on Best Buy's website and picked up at the Monroe outpost or shopped for at any of Best Buy's traditional stores in the Charlotte area.
• Here are some other features:
• • Just scan it. The majority of products are primarily on display for customers to see, touch and try out.
• When ready to make a purchase, customers can use their phone to scan the QR code on the product and send the order to be picked up at the order pickup counter.  This notifies a Best Buy employee, who will then retrieve the product from the store's backroom and bring it up to the register for the customer to complete the purchase.  (In addition, lockers are available  for 24/store pick-up orders.)
• •Mobile self-checkout.  The store has a collection of grab-and-go items such as charging cables, cell phone cases and gift cards. Using the Best Buy app, customers scan the barcode and use the mobile self-checkout option to make a purchase.
• •Get expert advice. Customers who need advice will also have the option to shop live with an expert from Best Buy's virtual store via call, chat or video chat while in the physical store.
• "For those shoppers who prefer not to use these digital options, our trusted Blue Shirts will still be available to help just like at any other Best Buy store," the company stated.
  • Target is introducing a new large-format store of approximately 150,000 square feet, around 20,000 square feet larger than its average store size. The larger stores will offer Target's broad assortment of merchandise while also providing greater scope to support its same-day fulfillment services, delivering on its stores-as-hubs strategy for digital fulfillment. 

What 2?

Best Buy is also testing a new outlet format, in Pineville, N.C., that is designed to handle more repairs than a traditional store, including everything from a cracked phone screen to a broken washing machine. It also boasts a massive garage that can handle more car tech installations — ranging from new speakers to remote start systems — than most locations.

 

Target

Target unveils a larger format store to support same-day fulfillment, Houston, Texas.

What?

• The extra square footage includes five times more space for backroom fulfillment than its traditional large format stores. This will support Target's online growth, with its stores fulfilling more than 95% of digital orders and same-day services accounting for more than 10% of overall sales.
• More than half of Target's 200 full store remodels and 30 new stores from 2023 will include elements of the new design.

Questions.

1. Do these store concepts make sense to you from an omni-channel retail perspective? Discuss why or why not. 
2. Do you think they offer the right assortment and service elements? Would you offer alternative elements? Discuss all three concepts.
3. Would you recommend a national rollout of these concepts?