Best Buy To Lay Off Hundreds of Workers, Focus on Digital Sales — Retail Bum

Electronics retailer Best Buy is eliminating hundreds of U.S. store workers in an effort to cut costs and make a push for building its eCommerce business.

While physical stores continue to play a crucial role in the company’s business, with 40% of online orders picked up in-store, a third of the company’s sales are now conducted online, up from 19% the year before. With this shift, the company has also seen increased orders made via phone, chat, or virtually — all signs indicative of a shift in consumers’ ordering and payment preferences.

Most of the impacted employees are those involved in selling products such as computers and smartphones, according to the Wall Street Journal.

“As we shared last month, we’re evolving our stores and the experiences we offer to better reflect the changes in customer shopping behavior, as well as how we organize our teams,” the company said.

Best Buy’s decision to cut jobs comes at a time when retailers across the board are witnessing softer demand for discretionary products as consumers prioritize necessities and spend more on services.

The retailer currently employs more than 90,000 employees in the U.S. and Canada, with 58% of those employees engaged in full-time roles, 32% involved in part-time, and 10% working seasonal jobs.

Photo credit: Best Buy

Originally published at https://retailbum.com on April 17, 2023.