Rebecca Day

Best Buy CEO Corie Barry highlighted technology the retailer is using to improve the in-store shopping and delivery experiences for consumers on the company’s fiscal Q3 earnings call Tuesday. It’s using electronic sign labels to promote the Best Buy Totaltech membership program by using the digital labels to show member pricing for customers shopping in stores. Customers can also see from the labels if the product is in stock in that store, or at a nearby store, and when it can be delivered and installed, Barry said. Improvements in communication technology include an appointment tracker consumers can use to see on delivery day how many stops away the driver is from their home. The retailer has seen “significant customer engagement” from the feature, which is designed to help customers “feel confident and in control” throughout the purchase process, the executive said. In December, Best Buy is launching a new capability to address theft, using QR codes “for high-velocity products that are locked up, particularly in areas of high shrink,” she said. Instead of waiting for an associate to unlock the product, the customer will scan the QR code and go to checkout to pay and pick up the product, she said.

Electronics had the highest online out-of-stock levels as of Tuesday, Adobe reported in a Wednesday email. Overall, out-of-stock messages were up 8% in a week; for November, they were up 261% vs. pre-pandemic levels in November 2019, it said.

Best Buy’s domestic revenue edged ahead 1.2% to $11.9 billion in Q3 of fiscal 2022 on 2% comparable sales growth, riding strength in appliances, home theater and mobile phones, said CEO Corie Barry on an earnings call Tuesday. Domestic online comparable sales fell 10.1% for the quarter ended Oct. 31 vs. a gain of 173.7% in the year-earlier COVID-19-affected quarter, said the company.

Most of Best Buy’s Black Friday prices kicked in Friday, in a season that retail experts expect to be less promotional due to tight inventories caused by component shortages and shipping and logistical snarls.

Components shortages forced manufacturing shutdowns for Sonos and will continue into 2022, said Chief Financial Officer Brittany Bagley on the company’s Q4 fiscal 2021 earnings call Wednesday for the quarter ending Oct. 2. The company expects holiday quarter revenue to fall below fiscal Q1 a year ago, and due to supply constraints “we won't be running typical promotional environments in Q1,” Bagley said.

Dolby CEO Kevin Yeaman forecast a low-single-digit decrease for the company’s foundational audio revenue in fiscal 2022, citing analysts’ reports indicating “we will not see the level of market growth we saw in the previous year,” due to uncertainties about global supply constraints and consumer spending.

Target bumped up sales guidance for the holiday quarter to “high-single digit to low-double digit growth” in comparable sales, compared with previous guidance for a high-single-digit percentage increase, said Chief Financial Officer Michael Fiddelke on a Wednesday earnings call. Q3 revenue exceeded expectations, popping 12.7% for the quarter ended Oct. 30.

Despite consumers’ early holiday shopping start this year, the National Retail Federation expects a year-on-year increase of 2 million shoppers from Thanksgiving Day through Cyber Monday, it said Wednesday, though the estimated 158.3 million are below the 165.3 million who shopped in 2019.

Walmart is “off to a good start” for the holiday season, and customers “should expect to find the items they want,” said Chief Financial Officer Brett Biggs Tuesday on a quarterly call. Walmart’s inventory position is “good,” despite macroeconomic and industry challenges, and stores and fulfillment centers are “well-staffed,” said Biggs. The company decided last year to “be aggressive with inventory positioning,” and it paid off, he said. Inventory grew 11.5% in Q3 as Walmart prepared for an expected strong holiday sales season. See Q3 materials here.

The interactive promise of the metaverse will take music’s ability to be “the one true global language to an entirely new level,” said Warner Music Group CEO Steve Cooper on a Monday earnings call. Cooper sees the metaverse as “super exciting” for the music business, due to its potential scale and global reach.