Best Buy has started slashing store jobs across the United States as the electronics retailer aims to cut costs and shift its business more towards e-commerce, the Wall Street Journal report said.
Best Buy had more than 90,000 employees in the United States and Canada, including about 58 percent full-time employees, 32 percent part-time workers and 10 percent seasonal staff, as of January 2023, the report said.
Best Buy has generated domestic online revenue of $5.14 billion, registering 13 percent drop, in 2022. Best Buy’s revenue from e-commerce business represented 38 percent of its total domestic revenue in 2022 versus 39.4 percent in 2021.
Best Buy is projecting 3-6 percent drop in total revenue in 2023 from $46.298 billion sales posted in 2022. Best Buy does not reveal its online sales target for the current year.
The job cut would affect hundreds of jobs across Best Buy’s U.S. stores. The report said that the laid off employees could re-apply for open positions within the company or receive severance.
Best Buy has told several store workers, who specialize in selling more complex products such as computers and smartphones, their jobs would be eliminated.
“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,” Best Buy said. The retail giant did not reveal the number of jobs that will be reduced.
Best Buy has incurred $86 million of restructuring costs in Q4 FY23, primarily related to employee termination benefits associated with an enterprise-wide restructuring initiative that commenced in Q2 FY23 to better align its spending with critical strategies and operations, as well as to optimize its cost structure.
