Best Buy Global Senior Vice President, Five Star CEO Wang Jian

(Global Power Grid Su Liang) When China's home appliance market as a whole showed a weak trend, the nation's home appliance chain and regional chain fell sharply year-on-year, and e-commerce price wars began to rise again, Best Buy has begun its new strategic deployment in China. On June 26th, Best Buy Mobile, one of Best Buy's four global strategies, officially launched its China strategy. The senior vice president of Best Buy Global and CEO Wang Xing of the Five Star Appliance told Global Power Grid Reporter: “This not only marks the official return of Best Buy in China, but also is a highly recognized global market for Best Buy.”

Paying attention, trust, and intensifying efforts are Wang Jian’s evaluation of Best Buy’s China strategy; “Returning to China” is the most direct impression left in the industry.



What is Best Buy Mobile?

As we all know, INSIGNIA, Rocketfish, Dynex and Init, which were born in 2003, are the four professional brands from North America. They are the exclusive brands of Best Buy Group. The "Best Buy Mobile" brand does not mean that Best Buy created a mobile phone brand, but a "shop-in-shop" model that has already achieved success in the United States and Canada.

Founded in 2006, Best Buy Mobile aims to change the way consumers choose and buy mobile phones. Now, Best Buy Mobile has been in more than 1,100 Best Buy stores in North America and has opened more than 335 independent stores.

It is understood that Best Buy Mobile will cooperate with more than a dozen internationally-known mobile phone brands and re-arrange them in the Five Stars store in the mode of Best Buy Mobile.

Wang Jian said: "Five Star will be the original store mobile phone area, is also the best area for five-star appliance store to Best Buy Mobile, while mobile phone vendors are very aware of this model, and believe it will be successful, so Support for Best Buy Mobile will also be sparing no effort."

According to reports, Best Buy Mobile is committed to becoming the largest provider of carrier services, mobile phones and related accessories. Its employees have undergone at least 80 hours of intensive training and are receiving ongoing mobile phone technology and trend education to help customers get the best mobile phone for them.



New Chinese gameplay

International development is an important strategy for Best Buy. In China, Best Buy focuses on continuously expanding the business of Five Star Electric and accelerating the development of new stores of Five Star in 2012. On the other hand, Best Buy also gains insights into the continued development of the Chinese market economy, especially the rapid development of personal mobile products such as mobile phones and tablet computers. increase. This prompted Best Buy to officially introduce China's highly successful mobile retail brand Best Buy Mobile into the Chinese market.

Wang Jian said: “Best Buy Mobile has three major foundations for entering China. First, Best Buy Mobile is a successful model that has been verified to be reproducible. Second, Five Star’s deep understanding of the Chinese market and high-quality resources. Third, the Best Buy Mobile team. With the dual qualities of Global and Local."

Wang Jian said: “Five Star’s profitability is very strong. The number of stores opened in the past year is the total number of new stores opened in the first three years, and will continue to develop in the physical stores in the future. So in the future, Best Buy will increase investment in China. The strength of the implementation of the dual-brand strategy and multi-channel strategy, relying on Best Buy Mobile and Five Stars two brands to accelerate the development."

Wang Jian said that Best Buy Mobile in China will cooperate closely with Five Star Electronics to fully combine Best Buy’s international success model with Five Star’s mature Chinese market operation experience. Five Stars will share its in-depth understanding of Chinese domestic consumers with Best Buy Mobile, as well as its mature store network, consumer base, employee base, and scale purchasing power; Best Buy Mobile will share marketable customer experiences in North America and Europe. , knowledge capital and associated experience, technology, and Best Buy's global supplier relationships. The two parties will complement each other and strive to become China's leading provider of mobile phones and related accessories and services to improve the experience of Chinese consumers in selecting and using mobile technology products.

Stephen Mackarel, Principal of Best Buy Mobile (China), has served as Chief Executive Officer of Carphone Warehouse Ireland, Europe's leading retailer of mobile phones and wireless products for 13 years. He has strong experience and ability in retail operation of mobile phones and other wireless products. .

Before he introduced Best Buy Mobile to China, he spent a year leading the team to conduct mobile phone shopping experience surveys in Nanjing and other cities. The results of the survey led Stephen to "double the confidence" of Best Buy Mobile in China.

According to the forecast of GFK market research institutions, the total mobile phone sales volume in the Chinese market in 2012 was approximately 303 million, of which smart phone sales were approximately 177 million, an increase of 106% over 2011. The 1-4 months of GFK industry data in 2012 also showed that the mobile phone is the only category that has grown rapidly in 3C, and its sales increased by 40% year-on-year.

Stephens found that due to the emergence of smart machines, mobile phones have become an important entertainment and leisure tool and life helper; most consumers purchase mobile phones once a year or two, and the update frequency has exceeded the international average; consumers are still favoring physical stores. Buy a mobile phone, but before making a decision, you often check product information and prices through the Internet.

However, compared with the booming market, consumer demand is still far from being satisfied. This is reflected in the fact that before the purchase, it takes a lot of time and effort to search for the latest technology and product information to understand the purchase and use experience of other consumers. To avoid being fooled. The efficiency of this process is often very low; in the purchase, the lack of a fair and reliable adviser, there is no real machine experience, the price is not transparent, worry about buying parallel imports and refurbished machines, the shopping process is complicated, time-consuming and labor-consuming; in the purchase After that, the lack of trusted service providers to carry out data transfer, information backup, timely solution to problems, and so on. Consumers expect these problems to be resolved as soon as possible. In short, the mobile phone retail stores that consumers like should be price transparency, sales personnel knowledge, objective recommendations, comfortable environment within the store, a professional mobile phone retail image, brand models complete.

Wang Jian said: “Five Star has brand advantages, customer resources, and more importantly, customer experience, especially in recent years to get an excellent reputation. Therefore, we will first open Best Buy mobile stores in Nanjing, while strengthening in China Cooperation between operators and suppliers to ensure the success of this advanced model in China. When we succeed in Nanjing, we will quickly promote in Jiangsu Province and across the country, and actively look for 300 square meters, 500 square meters and 800 square meters. The independent stores, whether in the community or in more and more shopping centers, provide a vast space."

At the same time, the Best Buy Mobile China team combines Best Buy International Elite and Five Stars’ local team. Members are the best mobile retail elites from 8 countries around the world, with an average of more than 10 years in the retail industry. Stephen Mackarel, Principal of Best Buy Mobile (China), has served as Chief Executive Officer of Carphone Warehouse Ireland, Europe's leading retailer of mobile phones and wireless products for 13 years. He has strong experience and ability in retail operation of mobile phones and other wireless products. .

In fact, Best Buy Mobile's entry into the Chinese market also represents the first step in global development for Best Buy’s “Global Connect” project. In November 2011, Best Buy and Carphone Warehouse established the “Global Connect” to promote the successful experience gained in North America and Europe to other countries in the world through cooperation with third parties in emerging markets. In 2006, Best Buy began to expand into the North American mobile phone retail market through successful cooperation with Carphone Warehouse.

Commitment to return to China

The announcement of Best Buy Mobile’s China strategy is an important sign of Best Buy’s return to China and Best Buy’s high recognition and trust in the Chinese market and Five Star Electronics.

Wang Jian said: "Best Buy Mobile officially entered China and marks the return of Best Buy to the Chinese market. When Best Buy first entered China, it attached importance to customer experience, real machine experience and employee development. A new trend has come and won the love of many consumers, so when Best Buy closed its stores in Shanghai, many people hoped that Babamais would return.The announcement of Best Buy Mobile can now announce that Best Buy has returned to China. market."

Wang Jian said: “Best Buy has four strategies in the world, and Best Buy Mobile released today is just one of them. This time, Best Buy’s return is mainly based on this approach. In the past five years, Best Buy’s global development has two new stars. One is the Five Star Appliances, and the other is BESTBUY MOBILE. In China, it is the first stop for this project to be opened globally."

This reporter learned that in 2012, Five Stars will open its first batch of 14 "shop-in-shops" in Nanjing stores. These store-in-shops will upgrade and transform the existing mobile phone sales area in the five-star electronics store and operate personal mobile products such as mobile phones and tablet computers. In the future, Best Buy Mobile will promote Five Stars Jiangsu and national stores. After the model is mature, it will also open an independent mobile retail store and go online.

"Being serious, trusting, and intensifying" is both Wang Jian's appraisal of the new senior vice president of Best Buy and the high evaluation of Best Buy's new strategy in China. Wang Jian said: "This is Best Buy's commitment to the Chinese market through practical strategies, and I believe it will succeed."