Verizon and AT&T are heading to Best Buy, where both carriers will soon be having their own dedicated mini-stores inside the nation's leading electronics retail chain. This is apart from the space their products already occupy on the store shelves.
In separate announcements made today, Verizon and AT&T say they plan to set up their mini-stores in 250 Best Buy locations throughout the United States by the end of 2015. Verizon says it is on schedule to place 100 of these stores in Best Buy's outlets by the end of September. Likely, both wireless carriers will be putting up their stores in similar locations.
Verizon calls its mini-stores Experience Stores, as opposed to its Destination Stores and Smart Stores. They will be manned by specially trained Best Buy employees who will answer customers' questions and help them make purchase decisions about a range of Verizon products, including its new mobile plans, wearable tech, mobile computing and connected home offerings.
"Just like in our own Destination and Smart stores, the specialists in the Verizon Experience stores at Best Buy are trained in a hands-on environment so they can provide real-world examples to customers when talking about our new simplified plans and devices," says John Colaiuti, vice president of national distribution at Verizon Wireless.
AT&T plans to showcase its products, including the latest smartphones, tablets, smartwatches and the just announced in-car Mobley Wi-Fi plugin by ZTE. The carrier also plans to include a section for its smart home offering Digital Life and its newly acquired DirecTV service. The AT&T shops will also be peopled with Best Buy employees trained on AT&T's products and services.
"The shops allow us to offer even better service to our customers, whether they need help with their data plan or understanding how their phone or tablet can better control their increasingly connected life," says Josh Will, senior category officer of mobile and connected home at Best Buy.
Although Apple has demonstrated that having its own retail stores can bring massive success, the store-within-a-store concept is not new either. In Asia, for instance, technology brands usually sit right next to each other's stores in larger electronics malls. In the U.S., while the idea is not as common, all the biggest names in the industry, including Microsoft, Samsung and Sony, have, at one time or another, partnered with Best Buy to set up their mini-stores inside the bigger outlet.
