Business at Best Buy is so obviously bad that the retailer’s top exec is blogging about it.
Best Buy CEO Brian Dunn admitted in a blog post yesterday that it was “fair criticism” that the electronics giant has been slow to react to competition from online merchants like Amazon.
Dunn, who made his apologetic post on his blog “Brian’s Whiteboard” after Best Buy reported a sales decline for December, acknowledged in particular that a well-publicized screw-up last month by the chain’s own Web operation was “our fault.”
The episode, in which BestBuy.com canceled Christmas orders that had been made weeks earlier because of botched inventory management, was “not representative of how we EVER want to treat our customers,” Dunn wrote.
Nevertheless, Dunn rebuffed critics who claim Best Buy will eventually be driven out of business by Amazon and other online merchants.
“This misguided perspective is especially troubling for me, because it blatantly and recklessly ignores overwhelming evidence to the contrary,” Dunn wrote. “Best Buy is a financially strong and profitable company.”
Dunn, who became CEO roughly 19 months ago after more than 25 years at the Richfield, Minn., company, noted that Best Buy’s customer traffic rose last quarter, and cited a recent study by NPD Group that found four out of every five electronics purchases were made in brick-and-mortar stores.
Some critics have argued that Web sites like Amazon increasingly are using Best Buy’s stores as showrooms for iPads, digital cameras and flat-screen TVs, which online merchants can ship to customers at lower prices, as they don’t have to pay rent and remodel stores.
Yesterday, Best Buy said its December sales at stores open at least a year dipped 0.4 percent in the US and 4.3 percent abroad. However, the company left its profit outlook unchanged.
That’s possible evidence that Best Buy’s struggling operations may have found a bottom, according to Credit Suisse analyst Gary Balter.