When it comes to retail memberships, Amazon is the leader, boasting 97.2 million household Amazon Prime members across the US, nearly three-quarters of the country’s total households, per our forecast. Taking a page from Amazon’s playbook, retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and Target are using their own members-only sales events to build out their retail memberships.

Best Buy gave its sponsored product listings the most prominent visibility compared with other retail sites, according to a Q3 2023 to Q1 2024 study from Crealytics.

Best Buy looks to distinguish itself from the competition: The struggling retailer refreshes its online and offline presences to turn around its two-year slump.

Best Buy goes all-in on AI computers: The retailer has exclusive rights to over 40% of Microsoft Copilot+ models and has trained thousands of workers on the technology.

Earlier this year, Best Buy partnered with CNET to expand advertisers’ reach among high-intent shoppers. This is a part of a larger trend where retail media networks (RMNs) team up with outside partners to expand their ad capabilities.

Best Buy, CNET partner for unique retail media offering: Advertisers will be able to purchase and measure ads across both sites, while CNET content will be featured across Best Buy’s stores, site, and app.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss the most important measurement considerations for marketers, how brands are able to stand out on TikTok, and how to best determine the true impact of media buys. Tune in to the discussion with Senior Director of Podcasts and host Marcus Johnson, Vice President and Principal Analyst Jasmine Enberg, and Aashish Takkala, Product Marketing, Media Measurement at TikTok.

Best Buy, for example, isn’t even waiting until Q4 to launch a Member Exclusive Sale. My Best Buy Plus and My Best Buy Total members will have access to exclusive deals on items such as TVs and laptops from September 27 to 29.

Amazon’s sales jumped 26.1% during the same period, followed by Target (5.6%), Best Buy (4.4%), and Kohl’s (2.4%), per Earnest Analytics. Surprisingly, Walmart’s sales fell 1.9%, despite hosting its Walmart Holiday Deals event from October 8-13.

And they’re primed to spend as over half (55%) of shoppers plan to buy gifts by October, per a Bazaarvoice global survey. That shift happened quickly. Walmart, for example, didn’t announce its “Black Friday Deals for Days” event in 2022 until October 19. Now retailers like Best Buy and Big Lots aren’t even waiting for the calendar to turn to October to roll out promotions.

As a result, a wide swath of companies that sell housing-related products—including home improvement retailers like Home Depot and Lowe’s, consumer electronics retailers like Best Buy, and furniture sellers like Wayfair—suffered. Making it cheaper to borrow money could drive more consumers to splurge on big-ticket items like TVs.

Best Buy didn’t even wait until Q4 to launch the first of its promotions this year. Amazon, Target, and Walmart are launching holiday promotions in early October. Even so, Cyber Monday and Black Friday will still be the two biggest online shopping days of the year.

On today's podcast episode, we discuss if influencers can actually deliver both upper- and lower-funnel outcomes, the common successes (and mistakes) brands make when blending influencer and affiliate tactics, and how best to align influencer content with a brands message. "In Other News," we talk about Frank McCourt's bid to buy TikTok and what to make of Meta shutting down 'Workplace'. Tune in to the discussion with our analyst Max Willens and Carissa Flinders, the team lead of influencer partnerships for AWIN.

Black Friday in October: Amazon’s sale has driven retailers such as Best Buy, Costco, Target, Walmart to launch their own October events that, in some cases, coincide with Prime Big Deal Days. Consumers have taken note: 33% of Numerator respondents shopped or planned to shop Walmart Holiday Deals, and 31% shopped or planned to shop Target Circle Week.

Macy’s was a distant fourth at 9.7%, with Kohl’s (8.6%) and Best Buy (8.4%) rounding out the top five. Our take: Physical retail’s resurgence this holiday season underlines the importance of having enough staff on hand to handle the influx of customers—especially for struggling department store retailers under pressure to win back shoppers and regain relevance in a highly competitive landscape.

I would like to add Best Buy, although now I'm seeing a big buzz around LinkedIn on Best Buy, so I'm sad that this didn't happen earlier so I could take full credit for it. But I'm adding Best Buy because, one, electronics is truly the biggest category for retailers during back to school season, so it would be a miss to not have someone in that world that can represent that category.

July has turned into prime time for deal hunting and several merchants, including Best Buy, Target, and Walmart, shifted their sales ahead of Prime Day to capture a larger share of consumers’ finite discretionary spend. TikTok explains it all.

Best Buy launched a genAI-enabled virtual assistant that can help customers troubleshoot product issues, make changes to order delivery and scheduling, and manage subscriptions. Amazon launched Rufus, an AI-powered shopping assistant that can answer product questions, provide comparisons, and make recommendations.

Best Buy is partnering with Google Cloud and Accenture on its customer agent tool, which leverages Google Cloud’s Vertex AI platform and Gemini genAI models. Salesforce has launched Einstein Copilot, a customizable, conversational, genAI assistant for customer service agents that leverages a company’s own data to provide customer insights and recommendations.

Best Buy, TikTok take diverging approaches to live commerce: But getting viewers to tune in remains a serious challenge, regardless of whether retailers focus on education or entertainment.