Could Best Buy be the new one-stop shop for all your mobile service needs? That seems to be goal of the electronics retailer as it continues the expansion of its store-within-a-store concept by adding dedicated Verizon and AT&T showcases in its U.S. stores.
Re/Code reports that Best Buy struck deals with both Verizon and AT&T to open hundreds of “experience stores” similar to those already in play with other tech companies like Samsung, Apple and Microsoft.
By the end of the month, Best Buy will be home to 100 Verizon experience stores. The company is expected to expand the showcases to nearly 250 locations by the end of the year.
Likewise, the retailer plans to open AT&T showcases in 250 stores by the end of 2015, with many of those experience stores located in the same Best Buys as the Verizon stores, Re/Code reports.
While AT&T plans to offer its wireless products and services through the showcases, RCR Wireless News reports the deal also includes the sale of home automation and security products from its Digital Life platform.
One day, the company says the stores-within-a-store could conduct sales of its newly acquired DirecTV services.
The new experience stores – which will range from 90 to 180 square feet in size – will be staffed by Best Buy employees trained on each carrier’s products and services.
While Best Buy declined to comment on the financial structure of the deals, the company says that for now it will keep control of the sales and continue to operate its own category sections for phones, computers, and televisions.
The deals with AT&T and Verizon come just a week after Best Buy announced it had reached a similar deal with Macy’s. Under that arrangement, the electronics retailer will test licensed consumer electronics departments in 10 Macy’s stores.
Verizon, AT&T Get Own Spaces Inside 250 Best Buy Stores [Re/Code]
Verizon and AT&T join Sprint on retail expansion, score deals with Best Buy [RCR Wireless News]
by Ashlee Kieler via Consumerist
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