More details
Here are a few more details: The store openings in the UK will be phased in over five years and could total up to 70. The product focus will be on the three screens - phones, PCs and TVs. Scott Wheway - formerly of Boots and Tesco - was brought in as CEO of Best Buy Europe this summer to ensure coordination of the Best Buy and Carphone warehouse offerings.
Wheyway sits above the UK bosses of Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy. With mobile Internet very much the trending theme in the tech sector these days, his challenge will be to differentiate the Best Buy offering - not only from the rest of the market - but from that of Carphone Warehouse.
The combined operation will have a distinct advantage of having a heritage in both the mobile phone and the PC/CE sectors. That will be a key USP of the operation and Best Buy will be keen to capitalise on that. Our feeling is that we'll see a lot of the Carphone Warehouse offering duplicated in the Best Buy stores, with a key distinction being that the latter will be a lot bigger.
Another way to fully capitalise on on this ‘three screen' approach would be to offer cloud-based services that customers will potentially be able to access through any of these screens. Best Buy in the US is announcing what is essentially a cloud-based movie service today. It will hope offerings like this will demonstrate further differentiation of its offering over the competition.
