We know that companies all over the world are laying off employees for varying reasons but the main factor in all these layoffs is the fact that economic slowdown is real in the market right now and this has lead to economic conditions where spending big is not recommended at all. However, there is the e-commerce sector as well which is thriving and retail stores are struggling to thrive due to the cost of employees as well as managing the stores. Due to this reason, it looks like Best Buy has decided to take the big step and is now laying off its store employees to push online sales.
Without revealing much details, Best Buy said in a statement that “As we shared last month, we’re evolving our stores and the experiences we offer to better reflect the changes in customer shopping behavior, as well as how we organize our teams,”. This confirms that the company is looking to push its online sales and that means that their in-store employees will be reduced going forward. One report also mentions Best Buy letting its employees who sell smartphones and computers know that their jobs will be eliminated.
Best Buy can be considered one of the biggest employers in the US as it employes more than 90,000 employees in the US and Canada and majority of these workers are full-time employees whereas 32% of them are part-time and the rest are seasonal workers. Now, we know that there is a trend in the US of shopping during Black Friday and Cyber Monday and even during the holiday season in stores. However, those sales have started to increase online which means that Best Buy is focusing in the right direction.
Right now, Best Buy does have an online presence and while its sales figures are not known, it is clear that the company is not doing as well as it needs to otherwise Amazon would have been worried by now. On the other hand, it is worth noting that Best Buy could carve out its niche in the technology products online market as Amazon and Walmart are known for selling everything whereas Best Buy mostly sells tech products.
