adding 90 more locations during the holiday
period. It says its goal is to have all 340 stores
ship more than 70% of its ship-from-store units
during the holiday quarter. It’s also testing
new store formats as it transforms locations to
fulfillment hubs.
For example, in four Minneapolis locations, Best
Buy reduced its square footage for shopping to
15,000 square feet from an average of 27,000.
The product assortment on the sales floor
will still include the primary categories these
locations featured before the remodel, but
instead the focus will be on the most popular
items, the retailer said. The remodels will result
in increased space for staging product for
in-store pickup and to help ship-from-store
transactions, as well as provide the ability to
stage inventory for items that may not be on the
sales floor.
Best Buy reported fiscal third-quarter profit of
$391 million, or $1.48 per share, compared with
$293 million, or $1.10 per share, in the year-ago
period. Earnings, adjusted for restructuring costs
and amortization costs, were $2.06 per share.
The results exceeded Wall Street expectations.
The average estimate of 11 analysts surveyed by
Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of
$1.76 per share.
The consumer electronics retailer posted
revenue of $11.85 billion in the period, also
beating Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed
by Zacks expected $11.02 billion.
Shares have increased 39% since the beginning
of the year, while the S&P 500 index has
increased 11%. The stock has increased 69% in
the last 12 months.