Best Buy Co. on Tuesday opened the doors on a small-format store near Charlotte, N.C., that the retailer is calling a "digital-first store" because customers will need smartphones to shop there.
At 5,000 square feet, the store is about one-eighth the size of Best Buy's typical big-box location and will offer a smaller selection of electronic gadgets and gear. It will have large-screen TVs, but it won't offer appliances.
The store, 25 miles southeast of Charlotte in the suburb of Monroe, will offer a shopping experience akin to stores by Apple, Amazon and others.
Items will be displayed on tables, and customers will check out by using a phone to scan a code next to an item. In some cases, that will lead an employee to get the item from a backroom and take it to the counter.
For smaller items, such as charging cables, customers will be able to scan the barcode and check out using the Best Buy app on their phone.
The store also will have in-store pickup, including lockers that will be accessible to customers when the store is closed.
The format is the latest of several that Best Buy is experimenting with as it adapts to new consumer shopping patterns. It also is testing an "experiential" store that has more floor space dedicated to trying out products. And it is testing an outlet store for merchandise that is out of season or returned in an open box.
The Richfield-based retailer is using several cities to test the concepts. It has an outlet store in Eden Prairie, for instance. Charlotte is the only one where all the experimental locations are in one market.
In Monroe, the Best Buy store takes up a small portion of the Monroe Crossing mall, which was built in 1979.
The retailer in 2006 began leasing spaces inside shopping malls for small-format stores that chiefly sold mobile phones and accessories. Known as Best Buy Mobile, that concept had a typical size of 1,400 square feet. The firm was operating about 250 Best Buy Mobile stores when it decided to close them in 2018, citing reduced profitability.
