Best Buy to give online price-matching
updated 11:56 am EDT, Fri October 12, 2012
Looks to combat showrooming this holiday season
Best Buy will provide online price-matching this holiday season in an effort to reverse a trend in which customers come into the store to check out items only to leave and buy them online at a lower price. Spokespersons from the retailer have spoken with The Wall Street Journal, saying that the price matching plan represents an opportunity for Best Buy to increase its close rate, or the percentage of people walking into the store and leaving with a purchase. The retailer is said to still be working out some aspects of its price-matching program.
Currently, Best Buy's close rate is around 40 percent, according to the retailer's own figures. The percentage of Best Buy visitors that only come into the store to try out products before purchasing them online, though, is estimated to be in the mid teens, up about three percentage points in the past two years.
Best Buy's proposed Internet price-matching program is said to still be in development. The retailer may exclude some products from any price-matching, as some online retailers are able to secure deep discounts on devices to the extent that Best Buy would not be able to match them.
