Best Buy aims to ‘take a significant share’ in UK

Speaking at the Retail Week Conference on Thursday, Best Buy vice chairman and chief executive Brad Anderson said: “With the investment we are making we are hoping to take a significant share.” He declined to provide target figures.

In the US, Best Buy commands a market share percentage in the low 20s, said Anderson. In Canada it is in the mid 30s.

Best Buy International chief executive Bob Willett said that while market share is “important”, share of household wallet was the priority for the retailer when it arrives in the UK.

“What is more important is maximum share of wallet in certain households. Market share is not the be all and end all,” said Willett.

Anderson said that retailers must be sure to get their proposition right, after making reference to the collapse of US rival Circuit City earlier in the year.

“We have to get it right and stay there,” said Anderson.

Anderson would not be drawn on how Best Buy – as part of its joint retail venture with Carphone Warehouse – would structure its pricing in the UK.

“We will have a fundamentally different value proposition we are offering the customer, because we are totally directed at the connected world,” he said.

He added that Best Buy could “co-exist” with its UK competitors – such as DSGi’s PC World and Currys and Kesa’s Comet - because of it’s different proposition, including its focus on tracking consumers’ lifestyle choices.

In 18 months, Willett said that Best Buy would launch a comprehensive multichannel facility in an unspecified geographical region, which will be able to track customers’ transaction history with the retailer and tailor products to their lifestyles. Customers will be able to contact Best Buy 24 hours a day.

At the conference yesterday, Willett confirmed that Best Buy’s much anticipated arrival in the UK would be delayed to spring 2010, as the retailer finds “incredible value in waiting”.