Electronics retailer Best Buy is adding musical instruments, toys, and licensed sports collectibles to its online offerings by launching its new marketplace in the US on Tuesday. Offering items from third-party sellers will more than double the number of products available.
In covering the news, Retail TouchPoints noted that Best Buy had previously launched a marketplace in 2011, but said it closed it in 2016 after gaining minimal traction and causing confusion among shoppers, “particularly because 70% of the third-party inventory overlapped with the retailer’s first-party merchandise.”
The publication noted that Best Buy’s CEO had told Wall Street investors of its plans at the end of last year. Store employees (known as “Blue Shirts) discussed the plans on Reddit in a post in January. Some said the first iteration of the Best Buy Marketplace had caused problems for store staff:
- iceman464: “It was bad before I can only assume it will be bad again. Ppl will be mad at us like it’s us who sold it. And they will be even madder when they learn they can’t return it in store and it isn’t covered with total or anything.”
- SaxySam9: “Thankful I don’t work customer service anymore. I don’t think I could handle dealing with people being pissed about buying something 3rd party and blaming us.”
With the current iteration 9 years later, Best Buy will accept Marketplace returns in-store and will expect its employees to engage with customers interested in purchasing accessories (for example) from the Marketplace as Best Buy Chief Marketplace and eCommerce Officer Frank Bedo explained in a Q&A feature on the retailer’s corporate website.
- “For almost all marketplace items, you can return them to your local Best Buy store, just like you would with any other purchase.”
- “Our Blue Shirts are ready to support your full shopping journey, even beyond what’s physically in the store. If you’re picking up a new laptop or appliance, they can help you explore accessories, furniture or other Marketplace items that complete your setup. They can help you build out a cart right there with you.”
Best Buy Marketplace is powered by Mirakl, and “Customers can now explore and shop from hundreds of new brands and added categories like seasonal decor, automotive tech, office and home, and movies and music.”
It’s also entering into a deal with Fanatics to offer officially licensed sports merchandise. “Shoppers will be able to rep their teams with a vast assortment of accessories including phone cases, mini football helmets and more.”
Sellers can find a link to apply to sell on this page of the BestBuy.com website.
I can’t say this sounds positive from any perspective. Often the requirements to sell on these retailer-owned marketplaces are even _more_ onerous than eBay’s (and likely Amazon but I’ve been out of that a long time). I had looked into NewEgg and Walmart specifically at times when I was tired of eBay. Even if the fees hadn’t been a full 10 points higher, having to run an 800 number and staff it 24/7 was a non-starter for me as a sole proprietor.
From the other side, it sounds desperate on the part of the retailer. With toys, they all have a real problem getting product onto shelves or listed one. Oh they have the inventory, it’s just not offered. So stuff sits in a warehouse until they dump it somewhere like Ollies or BigLots. What I’ve seen specifically with Walmart is that they let scalpers buy up the initial inventory at MSRP and use Walmart as a drop shipper for 3X MSRP for months. Walmart loves this, because they get not only their margin on the first sale, but 30% of 3X MSRP when the reseller resells. Small wonder they’re not interested in effective distribution to a wider customer base. But I’ll tell you, it’s turning toy buyers off, stuff’s not moving at 3X anymore, and resellers are returning more unsold stock that’s old enough Walmart has an even harder time coping with it.