Best Buy Throwing in the Towel?

The evidence now is clear that the consumer electronics manufacturing and retailing industries are both at a profound strategic crossroads, and weak-kneed responses from top retailers and product brands alike are dramatically reshaping the competitive landscape in potentially destructive ways for tomorrow’s consumers.

In the early-2000s we saw CompUSA and Circuit City go bankrupt and ultimately defunct on the back of tragic customer experience decisions to buckle under rampant flat screen price commoditization pressures. Passivity by lead product vendors was a missed opportunity then and a bigger one now. Thankfully we still had Steve Jobs around to offer an exciting new Apple Store shopping experience that consumers lined up for, even while the same Apple products were available in old school retail locations down the street (sometimes even at a lower price).

So it is disheartening to learn that Best Buy is throwing in the towel and all but abandoning any hope of reinvigorating its core customer experience (see this article in the WSJ on 12 October 2012). Does anyone really believe that Best Buy can out-online Amazon and other stripped-down, low-cost, no-frills, “services are free” and "taxes aren’t paid" online discounters?

The future is cloudier than ever for top branded product manufacturers as well, especially those investing heavily in innovation. When all the so-called “retail showrooms” are closed down or turned into local online shipping warehouses a la Wal-Mart’s lead, where is it that consumers will touch, experience, learn and get excited about new product innovations? Will vendor paid online recommendations and testimonials really do the trick for tomorrow’s shoppers?

Look around investors, where are the new strategic visions worth betting on? And consumers beware, it’s still true that’s there’s no free lunch.