Shaking things up
The arrival of Best Buy is also of profound significance to the UK technology channel, which for years has had to meet the terms demanded by DSG for lack of an alternative.
It has partnered with a lot of third parties, including Virgin Media and Sky for broadband and content, Alienware for gaming PCs and there's a pretty big Apple presence too. All this competition, while bad news for DSG, should be good for suppliers and consumers alike.
Best Buy also looks like it's raising the bar for in-store try-before-you-buy experiences. The Thurrock store has dedicated rooms for home theatre, audio, gaming and 3D TV, while all the kit - including smartphones - is turned-on and fully connected, encouraging customers to explore the capabilities of products before making any decisions.
All this requires significant investment, of course. It looks like there will be a lot more sales assistants per square foot than you're likely to see at its competitors, and they're likely to spend a lot of time advising without any guarantee of a sale. Best Buy is gambling that this approach will ultimately yield significant market share.
You can bet that DSG and other UK retailers will be paying the Best Buy stores a visit as soon as they open. The ball is now in their court and, on first impression, it looks like they will have to raise their game significantly if they're going to fend-off this new threat.
