Azar Emerging Channels
Azar Emerging Channels
Azar Emerging Channels
Executive Summary
Internet access in 2007 1 billion people worldwide with 845 million regular
users.
FY12 potential marketplace of $96 billion.
BBY organic growth projections for BestBuy.com of $5 billion by 2013 from
$1.4 billion.
New Growth of $5 billion generated by Emerging Customer Channels &
White Label. This white paper strategy and investment brief will capture
Emerging Customer Channels as defined below:
o Mobile Channel Accessibility Play
o Participation in direct and indirect communities
o Web Services, and
o General new business ventures/models
The goal of this white paper is to outline the Emerging Customer Channels strategic
imperatives that are required to realize the Enterprise Growth Goal of $6 billion in New
Business Model Growth by FY13. Bestbuy.com plans to capture 10% of the projected $96
Billion online marketplace in two ways: 1) $5B Best Buy.com and 2) $5B through growing and
leveraging White Label Brands, Emerging Customer Channels, Online Community and New
Business models. These Strategic imperatives will contribute to the Enterprise Growth outlined
in the FY-09 Domestic GIG Plan. Further, as social networks and the mobile lifestyle continue
to accelerate and become incorporated in consumer behavior, the online/offline shopping
influence and environment becomes even more critical.
Best Buy must focus on and leverage existing assets to grow and enhance new emerging
customer channels. The company needs to implement strategies that serve customers in the
way the customer elects to be served not on how the Company wishes to serve with existing
channels. Part of the future shopping environment has no hours and no doors - this new
“always on” tipping point environment is part of the future that the Company must pursue.
Best Buy’s heritage was founded in a world class physical store experience. Imagine if Dick
Schulze had chosen to grow Best Buy by opening only one large Best Buy store the size of the
Mall of America and required everyone across the nation to fly to Minnesota to experience the
Best Buy brand; this is essentially what Best Buy’s presence online is today within the “walled
garden” of Bestbuy.com. We need to pursue “virtual densification.” Like our physical-store
approach of “market densification” this strategy fuels growth where the market demand exists.
Conversations are happening online in spaces where Best Buy currently doesn’t exist. The
following graphic captures the essence of online presence needed beyond Bestbuy.com:
Ubiquitous high speed Internet access from home and mobile devices
Improved handheld devices that make mobile Internet access as efficient as the
standard PC, but are everywhere, all the time
Critical mass of consumer participation in online communities
The combination of these three factors is bringing about an evolution in consumer behavior.
Online information is being integrated into offline shopping behavior. Online, consumers are
increasingly referencing peer evaluations, price comparisons, and “online reputation,” prior to
Why invest in Emerging Customer Channels and New Business Models? Best Buy’s leading
market share in the CE industry will be diminished. The Company must stretch the brand
presence into the spaces customers expect to be served “beyond the box” and the “walled
garden” channels in which we currently reside. Failure to understand and capture opportunities
leads to opportunity costs, and risk of erosion of the brand promise. Customers expect Best
Buy to have a presence in emerging channels.
The industry trend of web influenced store sales continues to accelerate according to Forrester
via eMarketer. The following chart shows that the influence of e-commerce sites is expected to
continue to see dramatic growth over the next 5 years.
Another relatively new data point that we have is that in December 80% of visitors to
BestBuy.com indicated that customers had been in a Best Buy retail store in the 30 days
before their site visit. This information is collected form the BestBuy.com Browse Abandonment
survey.
Four areas of investment have been identified which provide unique leverage, opportunities for
rapid growth, potential new revenue streams, asset creation and hedges for the franchise.
Our defined online market space in the categories in which Best Buy participates will be $96
Billion by 2013.
Experientials have the highest mean annual T&E spend ($1,848/year, of which 35% is spent
online.) They account for 29% of total T&E spend, and Best Buy currently only captures
roughly 22%. Despite preferring to purchase in store, Experientials exhibit significant “multi-
channel” behavior. As an example, within 30 days of making their in store purchase 67% of
Best Buy’s Experientials visit BestBuy.com.
Mobile, community, and web services “halo” heavily to Multi-channel Texperts who are even
more knowledgeable about T&E and have a stronger propensity to purchase online. Multi-
Channel Texpert’s T&E spend is $1,748/year (of which 55% is online.) They account for 22% of
total T&E spend, and Best Buy captures a dismal 13% of their in store spend. These target
segments intersect heavily with the Barry and Buzz segments, and is highly relevant to youth
targets.
Brand Positioning
The Best Buy Brand identifies the Experiential Demand Cluster as its core target with Multi-
Channel Texperts as a halo target. Consequently, leveraging Best Buy’s high brand awareness
and affinity initially (especially with Experientials) is recommended. Further, this provides the
Brand a mechanism to credit facilitating a “conversation” between enthusiasts to help them feel
supported (and never leave them hanging.) Online communities may be leveraged on
BestBuy.com as well as other sites on the web where Experientials spend time.
Emerging customer channels presents a unique opportunity to leverage the strength of the
Brand to deliver the Brand promise of trusted perspective for inspired living in spaces the
customers chooses the spend time within and outside of Best Buy’s existing channels.
Overall Investment
Scope & Timeframe FY09 ROI Potential Partners
Definition of Budget Ask (internally or
Proposed externally)
Activity /
Projects
I. New Business Capability Models
I. New Engage with FY09: Partner $2M in Hyper growth Internal:
Business portfolio of new with BBY Capital investment market returns OGs,BBY Capital,
Models – high growth Corporate dollars for Digital Business
“Emerging companies to Development to strategic Group, Corporate
initiative beta ensure detailed investments Development.
Channels
pilots that will analysis done on
Strategic inform future potential plays. External:
Investment capability needs BBY Capital, Yossi
Plays” FY10 & FY11: Vardi, The
Purple Wave Implementing Conversation Group,
Hybrid New Business Fixya, Purple Wave,
Internet/Live Models at scale Fon,
Auction Model, level Sociate
Fixya crowd
External
Sociate, Accenture,
Gartner Group,
Forrester
Develop longer FY09 – March $300k working Mobile Internal:
term strategy for ’09 and garner with Accenture commerce site Best Buy Mobile, BBY
mobile (needs to existing talent consulting with ability to Connect, Marketing,
link in with multi- from Accenture transact via Digital Business
channel strategic savvy in mobile, mobile phone’s Factory, OGs, Best
work) marketing and uniquely Buy Connect, Call
community simplified user Center, TGMS, CEC
interface.
External
Sociate, Accenture,
Gartner Group,
Forrester
Web Services This is comprised FY09; -$500k in new New revenue I Internal:
Projects of: web positions opportunity $77 CEC, BSN, BBTG,
FY10 - other -$350k in Million Accenture, Digital
- Delivery of open projects would be backfill for incremental Business Factory
API’s to unlock kicked off in support team market demand
data, and -$250k Web (source: External
- The set up of a FY11 - TBD consultants Accenture and The Conversation
Blue Shirt -$300k BBY Finance) Group, Hinchcliffe,
Developer Technology Tim O’Reilly, Mashery,
Community (tools, Setup, Sociate, Accenture,
development Monthly fees Affiliate partners,
methods, Other Channel Intelligence
etc). Total: $1.4M
Overall - Program Mgmt Ongoing Years 1 $500k for Enterprise Multi-
Administration - Change Mgmt & -3 FY09 channel program
& Organizational Management,
Management Transformation Change, Education,
activities
of all 3 areas Communications,
- Other
Marketing Yellow
Tag , The
Conversation
Emerging Customer Channels 7 of 35 4/22/2018– M. Azar, B. Hedrington, K. Matheny, S. Mcintyre,
Group, and
ECC/Bestbuy.com/
OG Digital Business
Group Coordination
and new capability
support.
Total: $4.5
Million in
FY09 +/- 10%
= $5 M
approximate
*Note: we will be asking for $5 Million in investment to move forward with the Emerging
Business transformation against a sales goal of $5 billion for Best Buy in a marketplace where
we could go after even more ($96 Billion potential).
Emerging customer channels presents a unique opportunity to leverage the strength of the
Brand to deliver the Brand promise of trusted perspective for inspired Living. Investment in the
following areas as an overall transformative emerging channels program is recommended:
The Mobile Channel provides customers the ability to access Best Buy from anywhere via
a Mobile Phone (see m.bestbuy.com mobile web experience tailored to meet the users’ unique
needs throughout the consumer infinity cycle). Best Buy must prioritize and support Mobile
Channel creation. A long term first and best to market strategy in this emerging channel must
be pursued. Investment now will allow the working prototype beta version of Bestbuy.com to
continue with Enterprise cross functional testing and support from BBY Mobile, Digital
Business Factory, Marketing and Bestbuy.com. The opportunity exists to provide ubiquitous
access to all Best Buy knows via a device that is in the hands of nearly all of our customers.
The mobile phone is becoming increasingly important as a channel for customers to locate,
gather and consume information & content. In technologically advanced geographies, like
South Korea payment via phone is already the norm, in the US, leading online retailers such as
Amazon.com already have this capability.
The following frame depicts why the emerging mobile shopping channel is important to our
customers and to Best Buy:
"Mobile phones are cheaper than PCs, there are three times more of
them, growing at twice the speed, and they increasingly have
Internet access. What is more, the World Bank estimates that more
than two-thirds of the world's population lives within range of a
mobile phone network. Mobile is going to be the next big Internet
phenomenon. It holds the key to greater access for everyone - with
all the benefits that entails." Eric Schmidt, CEO Google
The graphic below shows the phased approach taken to garner the first to market opportunity
that exists when investing in the mobile customer experience described:
• First to market in bricks retail space with full product catalog and store maps
available to the Mobile.
• Led exploration into new possibilities leveraging the Digital Business Factory
prototyping
– Thick Client for Blackberry
– Thin Client with “Research Briefcase” concept.
Near Term: Increase store conversion, create a tipping point to purchase in the stores by
putting the information from BestBuy.com in the palm of customers and Blue Shirts hands.
Looking towards the future: Mobile provides a platform to supporting and serve our
customers and allowing them to purchase from us in a in a personalized and convenient way.
Target Customer: Experientials are confident T&E aficionados who love browsing, shopping
for, and using technology products and services. They seek “certainty” across the entire T&E
purchase path (dreaming, shopping, exploring and owning). They are energized by the process
of learning/exploring their options to feel confident they have chosen the right products and
ensure that they get the most out of their ownership experience. Consequently, they seek new
and more convenient ways to engage with our brand. Especially during the dreaming,
shopping and exploring phases, customers seek convenient access to detailed product
information as well as unbiased advice (like that provided by ratings and reviews or third
parties.) Lastly, customers seek ways to bridge the gaps they experience as they move
between channels during their research and consideration process (e.g. how do I get more
specs bout the products I saw in store – and how do I even remember which particular model I
was looking at?)
Experientials have the highest mean annual T&E spend ($1,848/year, of which 35% is spent
online.) They account for 29% of total T&E spend, and Best Buy captures roughly 22%
currently. Despite preferring to purchase in store, they exhibit significant “multi-channel”
behavior. As an example, 67% of Best Buy’s Experientials visit bestbuy.com within the 30 days
prior to making a purchase.
Mobile Applications “halo” heavily to Multi-channel Texperts who are even more knowledgeable
about T&E and have a stronger propensity to purchase online. Multi-Channel texpert’s T&E
spend is $1,748/year (of which 55% is online.) They account for 22% of total T&E spend, and
Best Buy captures 13% of their in store spend. These target segments intersect heavily with
our Barry and Buzz customer segments, and is highly relevant to youth targets.
Brand Positioning: The Best Buy Brand identifies the Experiential Demand Cluster as its core
target with Multi-Channel Texperts as a halo target. Consequently, leveraging Best Buy’s high
brand awareness and affinity initially (especially with Experientials) is recommended. This
provides our brand an additional touch point to provide information and a trusted perspective in
a highly convenient way – when and where our customers seek information. By providing this
ultra convenient access to information, mobile applications have high potential to increase
affinity for the Best Buy brand, drive more traffic to the store and drive higher conversion in
store.
Value Proposition:
1. Build out and operational support for beta model of m.bestbuy.com- $200K (equals 2
FTEs)
2. Pilot next version of m.bestbuy.com for full scale- $500K
3. Technology and design services for multi-store test
4. Launch Enterprise support for mobile space requiring cross company horizontal
resources and expertise from Best Buy Mobile, Bestbuy.com, Rapid prototype
environment (Digital Business Factory), and large scale change and communication
support for program $300K
FY’09 Q2
1. Launch developer community
2. Determine measurement, distribution, and economic value capture for Best Buy
Launch enterprise pilot via integration of mobile into Back to School Campaign efforts.
FY’09 Q3
1. Market rollout of M.bestbuy.com within key pilot territories to fully leverage multi-
channel
Emerging Customer Channels 13 of 35 4/22/2018– M. Azar, B. Hedrington, K. Matheny, S. Mcintyre,
2. Launch full campaign for Holiday
FY’09 Q4
1. Full launch of m.bestbuy.com nationwide and integration into nationwide holiday
approach
Create an outlet to allow customer to search for answers, discuss common issues and topics,
post questions to the community, escalate questions to experts, and gain peer status. Various
companies from manufacturers to retailers are successfully using community forums to
strengthen brand loyalty, drive customer support costs down, increase customer and product
knowledge, Identify unmet customer needs and increase traffic to their web sites.
Best Buy expertise combined with unique customer knowledge captures customer experience
share benefit when Best Buy serves the customer in that moment of need.
*Note: Best Buy needs to be Best in Class, but currently behind. Circuit City – Recently
updated with additional Web 2.0 Functionality – Circuit has already evolved from simple
community forums to a multi-faceted social networking site including blogs, profiling, tagging,
etc..
Strategy and Tactics: Deliver “Never Leave You Hanging” Brand Promise by creating a best-
in-class service and support destination within the bestbuy.com ecosystem where customers
can connect with other customers, Best Buy Experts, and external expert content. 1.4M
customers visit the customer care experience on the Bestbuy.com website today. Allowing
customers to engage with experts online is a natural extension of the customer care capability.
Shifting conversations online generate hard and soft benefits. Bestbuy.com addresses the
transaction needs but falls short on delivering service level outputs consistent with the brand
promise of “Support Me” in the online support and service experience.
• Customers are increasingly expecting more community oriented sales, support, and
service options
• Self Serve and peer-to-peer service and support options are limited in BBY.com and
phone channels
• Leading competitors are ahead of BBY.com in community features, offerings, and
expertise
Need For a Cohesive Customer Strategy To Pull Together Pre-Sales Research, Post Sales
Support, and Brand Based Discussions. One Common User Experience With A Single
Integrated Sign In To Get Access To Unique Discussion Topics
Benefits: Direct Communities within BBY.com and Call Center channels represents $7-10m
hard and soft benefit combined. Further, Future Shop has taken a community model of alpha
tech users and turned it into a new business model generating over $1M in incremental
marketing development funds. An outside agency sells the community space on behalf of
future shop. This shifts the funding model a market demand model driven by the desire for
vendors, advertisers to have access to a very targeted community of tech users. Future
provides a very compelling use case for investing in both direct and indirect community space.
The investment is justifiable purely on traditional measures of return: incremental margin, lower
costs. The additional measures of success reflect a much larger opportunity: capturing non-
traditional (read: excessive) returns leveraging the hyper-growth of others’ platforms.
Value Proposition:
Experience the Best Buy brand in places beyond the existing channels of Best Buy. Best Buy
will participate and offer support in communities where customers already spend time. Online
consumer behavior shows a trend in customers engaging in Peer-to-Peer service & support
communities. Support and service communities are proliferating on the internet. Two leading
communities for Best Buy pilots include: Fixya and Get Satisfaction.
Fixya (community based crowd sourced tech support) is a great example of an indirect partner
play but also ties directly to Bestbuy.com customer care and Bestbuy.com to leverage traffic of
the 540M visits to Bestbuy.com per year and the $1.4M customer visits to the customer care
link on Bestbuy.com. This community play will launch on Bestbuy.com and Geeksquad.com
March 30, 2008. Best Buy Canada launch of Fixya crowd sourced tech support currently in
review by the operational support team but plan to launch at a later phase.
Corporate Web presences are rapidly breaking out of their Website "boxes" and
spreading elsewhere.
Web services capabilities permit deployment of widgets and mashups (eg, APIs from
Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and more).
Facebook and MySpace now host corporate presences, featuring high traffic volumes
Hosting communities on your own sites is essential, but expected; showing up
appropriately in others creates opportunities to delight customers and attract potential
customers in unexpected ways.
The costs of participating on third-party sites are much lower than on your own.
Allowing Blueshirts and Geek Squad staff to follow their interests into third-party
communities creates a vast footprint for BBY.
That, in turn, creates a much larger distributed presence for BBY than the company's
own sites could ever generate (touching many people beyond the 540mm visits that
BBY.com now gets, for example).
All these "moments of truth" create opportunities to impress people and attract them to
BBY for transactions.
Nobody else in the retail space has claimed this ground yet; a successful first-mover could
create a systemic advantage that is hard to counter.
These and all other online community opportunities should be evaluated against four criteria:
The problem is that traditional measures of return favor investments that have traditional rates
of growth. They don't measure opportunities lost from the roads not taken. New opportunities
that might lead to hypergrowth should be evaluated differently to enable speed to market.
What is hypergrowth? Look at the growth rates of the most popular services and devices now:
Facebook 50% y/y, iTunes sales, 50% y/y, iPhone (zero to10mm units in under a year).
To participate in this non-linear growth, we should evaluate using the following four criteria:
For each one of these intentions customers have many options of who, where and how to engage.
‘Social Spaces’ are increasingly becoming one of those options
Experientials have the highest mean annual T&E spend ($1,848/year, of which 35% is spent
online.) They account for 29% of total T&E spend, and Best Buy captures roughly 22%
currently. Despite preferring to purchase in store, they exhibit significant “multi-channel”
behavior. As an example, 67% of Best Buy’s Experientials visit bestbuy.com within the 30 days
prior to making a purchase.
Online support communities “halo” heavily to Multi-channel Texperts who are even more
knowledgeable about T&E and have a stronger propensity to purchase online. Multi-Channel
texpert’s T&E spend is $1,748/year (of which 55% is online.) They account for 22% of total
T&E spend, and Best Buy captures 13% of their in store spend. These target segments
intersect heavily with our Ray, Barry and Buzz customer segments.
Brand Positioning
The Best Buy Brand identifies the Experiential Demand Cluster as its core target with Multi-
Channel Texperts as a halo target. Consequently, leveraging Best Buy’s high brand awareness
and affinity initially (especially with Experientials) is recommended. Further, this provides our
Emerging Customer Channels 20 of 35 4/22/2018– M. Azar, B. Hedrington, K. Matheny, S. Mcintyre,
brand a way to get credit for facilitating a “conversation” between enthusiasts to help them feel
supported (and never leave them hanging.) Online communities may be leveraged on
bestbuy.com as well as other sites on the web where Experientials spend time.
Modest investment in indirect online communities could lead to an outsized gain. Pilot efforts
will focus on the following which the priority investment to include investment in the online
services story, support & service online communities. This prioritization and investment will
help shape our future support & service capabilities.
$300K Fixya engagement marketing and online business model exploration given
Future Shop success of generation over $1M in incremental marketing development
funds. Hosting funds required beyond 90 day pilot phase. Currently Fixya bearing 100%
of cost for pilot.
$150K on largest community in leading social network site, includes online engagement
strategy
$200K on support community participation project eg. Get Satisfaction, includes online
engagement strategy
$150K on vertical community participation project
Facebook is a natural place to invest. Note the following figures for US Traffic ONLY:
MySpace
For many, especially the younger generation, Facebook and MySpace are the internet. In
less than 3 years, the two services have gone from a standing start to 80 million and 40
million users respectively. 96% log in once a month; x% log in once a day. Indirect
opportunities provide a way to "ride" the growth that others have created.
Note that Facebook and MySpace are only behind Google, Yahoo and YouTube in US traffic
these days. Of all of these, Facebook is far more amenable to participation by companies
such as Best Buy. If our objective were to promote bands or movies, we would seriously
consider MySpace.
FY’09 Q2
Hosted Best Buy Forums solution deployed by July FY09.
Fixya beta pilot results formalized & decision reached on scale
Fixya investment stake or acquisition decision point June FY’09
FY’09 Q3/ FY’09 Q4
Implementation of enhancements to Best buy forums and scope of next phase
Assessment of MCCP integration and timing for Enterprise community approach.
Best Buy cannot duplicate the reach and power of social networking sites, but we can
participate in this new ecosystem and reach our customers where they are spending their time.
Competitors such as Amazon.com are doing this by creating offerings that have attracted
hundreds of thousands of individual developers to participate in a development community that
provides expanded services to customers and creates value for all parties – Amazon, the
developers and the customers.
These offerings are based on using Web Services to deliver Open APIs and engage directly
with customers, creating not just stronger relationships with customers but entirely new ways to
deliver value. Best Buy needs to move quickly to seize market share in this rapidly-developing
and highly competitive space, and to support our brand image as a leader in technology.
If we can unlock our data from proprietary systems, we will unleash the human ingenuity of our
employees by giving them the ability to re-use and remix the data they need, free of the
boundaries of existing systems, and we will partner with external developer communities to
reach our customers in new ways.
This document summarizes a proposed new capability for Best Buy that is aimed at realizing
this potential. The initiative is led by BestBuy.com and relies on key existing partners and
capabilities for the initial implementation. The foundation for this work is the Digital Growth
Strategies work that has been performed at BestBuy.com in partnership with the Digital Factory
over the past 6 months. The contributions of New Paradigm, Hinchcliffe & Company and The
Conversation Group have been essential in defining opportunities and determining our near-
term strategic approach.
The objectives of this initiative are:
1. Generate revenue from incremental traffic to BestBuy.com
2. Grow the capabilities we are able to deliver to our customers without incurring
significant development cost
3. Support other initiatives (such as m.bestbuy.com and the Digital Factory) and partners
(such as Avenue A) with product information
4. Build business competencies in this new area to guide our efforts
5. Develop a deep understanding of the needs of developer communities and how to
partner with them to serve our customers
6. Support the “Never Leave You Hanging” brand value proposition
7. Support the “infinity loop” model of customer lifecycle
8. Build brand value for the enterprise
Market Opportunity
There are multiple possible models for gauging the opportunities of a Web Service strategy for
Best Buy.
Bringing more people to BestBuy.com through greater exposure, widgets and other
methods (direct revenue)
Bringing more people to Best Buy stores through those same methods (direct revenue)
Increasing the value of our brand through greater online presence and awareness
(indirect)
Deriving revenue from licensing our data or taking revenue share from use of our data
(direct revenue)
Competitors and others in the online space are using Web Services and Open APIs to create
new kinds of value. Amazon has leveraged their base services into a platform, creating a new
ecosystem that drives value creation in multiple places.
By using Web Services to unlock our data, we will unleash human ingenuity and generate
value in multiple dimensions – increases in traffic and orders are only part of the full spectrum
of opportunities.
Target Customer
Experientials (Multi-channel Texperts), reached through Internal Developers, External Affiliate
Partners and Professional Developers.
Experientials are confident T&E aficionados who love browsing, shopping for, and using
technology products and services. They seek “certainty” across the entire T&E purchase path
(dreaming, shopping, exploring and owning). They are energized by the process of
learning/exploring their options to feel confident they have chosen the right products and
ensure that they get the most out of their ownership experience. Consequently, they seek new
and more convenient ways to engage with our brand. Especially during the dreaming,
shopping and exploring phases, customers seek convenient access to detailed product
information as well as unbiased advice The customer requires “always on” access to product
information, offers and content – where and how they want it. Our partners seek access to
accurate and timely data, quick and agile access to “re-mixable” data, and unique classes of
data that increases customer clicks.
Web services “halo” heavily to Multi-channel Texperts who are even more knowledgeable
about T&E and have a stronger propensity to purchase online. Multi-Channel texpert’s T&E
spend is $1,748/year (of which 55% is online.) They account for 22% of total T&E spend, and
Best Buy captures 13% of their in store spend. These target segments intersect heavily with
our Barry and Buzz customer segments, and is highly relevant to youth targets who spend
significant time online.
Brand Positioning
The Best Buy Brand identifies the Experiential Demand Cluster as its core target with Multi-
Channel Texperts as a halo target. Consequently, leveraging Best Buy’s high brand awareness
and affinity initially (especially with Experientials) is recommended. This provides our brand an
additional touch point to provide information and a trusted perspective in a highly convenient
way – when and where our customers seek information.
By unlocking product information from BestBuy.com and allowing individuals and organizations
to make use of it in new and different ways, Web Services/Open APIs have high potential to
increase affinity for the Best Buy brand and drive increased traffic to the store both online and
offline. Web services provide “virtual densification”: more touch points and more traffic that
ultimately delivers greater sales. Increased conversation with strategic partners delivers better
data at partner/affiliate touch points and ultimately delivers better ‘qualified’ customer traffic.
Business Plan
Leadership Team
The leadership team is composed of BestBuy.com executives and key stakeholders:
John Thompson
Michele Azar
Kevin Matheny
Core Team
The core team for the project is dedicated fulltime to working on the Web Services initiative.
These are new positions to be created within the BestBuy.com organization.
Product Manager (TBD)
Content Manager (TBD)
Project Manager (TBD)
Community Manager (TBD)
Support Team
The Support Team is drawn from other teams to leverage existing capabilities. These team
members will spend 10-20 hours per week working with the Core Team. Some funding may be
required to backfill these positions.
BestBuy.com Product Content SME (.5 FTE)
Analytics/Reporting specialist (.5 FTE)
Finance lead (.25 FTE)
Direct Marketing/Affiliate Program lead (.5 FTE)
Field Liaison (.5 FTE)
Contract Services
To jumpstart this project, we propose to engage consultants with significant expertise in this
area.
Business architecture consulting $50-100k
Developer community materials development $25-50k
Technology Support
The Technical Team is intended to report into the business team. This is a departure from our
outsourcing approach, but given the highly technical nature of this space, we feel strongly that
having dedicated resources and a direct reporting relationship will ensure success and speed
to market.
Architect (TBD)
Developer/Documentation Developer (TBD)
Developer/Coder (TBD)
“Developer in Residence” drawn from field staff (rotating monthly assignment)
Technology Strategy/Approach
FY09 plan is to leverage third parties to gain speed to market and learn from previous
experience. We are also looking to BBTG to provide a perspective on FY10+ implementation
strategies
Data Supply (Channel Intelligence) $50k setup, $5k monthly
Web Services Platform (Mashery) $50k setup, $10k monthly
BBTG perspective development for Web Services/Open APIs ($TBD)
Definition: Purple Wave provides a unique opportunity to increase at risk recovery, access
new customers, new categories, and new markets through a hybrid internet live auction model.
After 5 pilots in Kansas, Dallas, and now with Pacific Sales, Best Buy has captured learnings
and greater recovery by utilizing this adaptive new business model and capability. Next steps
include providing Purple Wave $1M in bridge funding serving as their Angel investing prior to
Summer ’08 formal second round.
Fixya provides Best Buy the ability to participate in an existing community online to deliver
crowd sourced tech support, test the “free to fee” online community business model, and
understand what capabilities are required to deliver online support and service long term. Fixya
completed second round funding as of March 18th and secured $6M. Fixya will entertainment
an investment stake with Best Buy if interested. Growth has been explosive based on
customer response. As of Dec ’07, Fixya reported 3.6 Millions unique users per month to 6.5
Million unique users per month as of March ’08.
Fon provides the largest community based WIFI offering in the world. Fon holds dominate
presence outside of the US but expressed a desire to partner with Best Buy for North America
Launch. Currently Fon has completed second round of funding but is in active discussion with
Best Buy to participate in an informal strategic round.
Resource Request and Investment- Potential investment play discussions under way
led by Bestbuy.com & Best Buy Capital. Formal resource needed to support Purple Wave
activity through the Enterprise approach to secondary markets.
Mobile access to key information to provide an in-store tipping point and increase
conversion, drive store traffic and transactions with store locator tools, capture new
transactions outside the store
Benefits Model FY 2009E FY 2010E FY 2011E FY 2012E
Mobile Applications Benefit Summary
For m.bestbuy.com Only
3rd Party Creative Development Cost Reduction $240,000 $240,000 $240,000 $240,000
Expenses
Headcount $ 275,000 $ 275,000 $ 275,000 $ 275,000
Net Benefit Low (-15%) (Annual, Not Discounted) $ (104,366) $ 1,723,265 $ 9,953,733 $ 14,565,763
Net Benefit High (+15%) (Annual, Not Discounted) $ (141,201) $ 2,331,477 $ 13,466,815 $ 19,706,620
Assumptions/Notes:
• All benefits are for m.bestbuy.com and do not include other mobile applications that may be added to the
portfolio during the duration covered by the model
• \Underlying baseline, conversion, AOV, and Margin Rates are based on current DotCom actuals provided by
Best Buy Finance and BestBuy.com Customer Experience Team
• Benefit includes cost reductions related to ‘in-sourcing’ mobile campaign page design from Avenue A