Best Buy is reportedly planning to match prices of Internet retailers like Amazon over the holiday season this year, according to the Wall Street Journal. It will also offer free home delivery when stores are out of stock.
The point of this, according to Chief Executive Hubert Joly, is to improve the percentage of people who come into stores and actually leave with purchases, which is at about 40 percent currently. “We have a tremendous opportunity to increase that close rate,” said Matthew Furman, a spokesman for Best Buy.
Best Buy is trying to counteract the trend where people go in the store to browse products and then buy them online for a cheaper price. Although this seems to counteract what Joly said, where “showrooming” by consumers had been blown out of proportion.
Best Buy is still working out the details of its Internet price-matching program and may actually exclude some products. It will be interesting to see if this plan helps improve in store purchase rates.
Source: The Wall Street Journal
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