These days, if you are in the market for a new home theater setup or refrigerator and want to ask someone at a Best Buy store for advice, you have to book an appointment.
Best Buy managed to hold on to most of its business at the height of the lockdowns thanks to e-commerce and curbside pickup of online orders. But now as it gingerly reopens its 1,000 U.S. stores, it has turned to appointment-only shopping in blocks of 30 minutes to limit the number of people in stores. Each customer is given a safety briefing by phone beforehand and chaperoned by a Best Buy employee once at the store.
While that might sound a bit high-touch for an electronics retailer and even a bit of a hassle, the complexity and high-ticket prices of much of what Best Buy sells, and the opportunity for upselling, justify the approach, according to the company.
“As customers are coming for this concierge service, they have more time to ask more questions, and our associates are providing more fulsome solutions,” Best Buy CEO Corie Barry recently told reporters.
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Pulled between the need to reopen stores and arrest double-digit percentage sales—while wanting shoppers to feel safe during the pandemic—the idea of appointment-based shopping is catching on with retailers: Williams-Sonoma and West Elm now require appointments, while Chico’s has added it as an option. Tapestry’s Coach and Kate Spade are offering the service at a few of their stores, too.
Sales by appointment is not a new concept. Genius Bar consultations at Apple require a reservation, as does setting up a wedding registry at Macy’s or buying an evening gown at Neiman Marcus. But like many changes resulting from the pandemic, it’s something more retailers are trying out. While the labor-intensive way of selling is unlikely to replace just going to the store, it provides shoppers and stores alike more options.
“The retail that is best suited to appointment shopping is either very complex items that require knowledgeable sales people for input or big-ticket items where customers want to feel more comfortable about what they’re buying,” says Shelley Kohan, a professor at Fashion Institute of Technology in New York.
In the case of Chico’s the approach works, Kohan says, because that retailer’s customers are loyal, skew older, and have typically dealt with the same salesperson for years. It wouldn’t work as well, she notes, at Old Navy with its larger choice and frequent employee turnover. At Chico’s, the store gets in touch with the customer beforehand to discuss what she is looking for, and based on that, the retailer gathers multiple outfits for her to try on, with everything set up in a fitting room for her.
Source: Fortune