ePath in MarketingMag.ca
It’s tough for any Canadian eTailer to compete with Amazon on price and delivery. So successful businesses need to develop a value-added online business strategy, such as the BestBuy.ca clicks-and-bricks model featured in Marketing Magazine.
Highlights:
- “Best Buy is moving from defense to offence,” said Axel Kuhn, principal and co-founder of Toronto-based ePath, an e-commerce consulting firm. “I think they’ve one-upped Amazon in a very big way. They’re offering the convenience of a true online/offline bricks-and-clicks environment, which Amazon of course doesn’t have,” he said. “Time and time again, people like to have the in-store experience alternative, people they can talk to, goods they can touch. And Best Buy has that in spades.”
- Kuhn said as long as Best Buy grows smartly with complementary products, “this could be very successful. Making a massive technology investment is always a risk,” said Kuhn. “But my sense is that they’ve got a fairly focused eCommerce strategy and I’m sure they’re mitigating the risks… Things change on a dime online, but I give them full kudos for taking an offensive strategy and not being typically Canadian, which is to plug holes in a leaking ship.”