Targeting specific customers for profit at retail

Tags: Best Buy, Electronics, Marketing, Retail, Marketing Measurement,

Today's Washington Post has a great case study of how Best Buy has been redesigning its retail experience to address the wants and needs of specific types of men and women. Some stores are being targeted toward "Jills", women who are "CEOs of their families", while others are being transformed to favor "Barrys", or male shoppers looking for better entertainment experiences. Sound like fluff? Best Buy has the metrics to prove it works:

Since the redesign was rolled out in October, Jills have increased their spending at the Santa Rosa store by 30 percent, helping boost the store's revenue to what is expected to be $75 million to $80 million this year from around $50 million a year before the redesign and pushing its customer loyalty rating to among the top five in the country.

Nationwide, such "customer centricity" stores had an 8.4 percent increase in sales in the quarter ended May 28, compared with the same period a year ago, Best Buy executive John C. Walden said in June.

Kudos to Best Buy for noticing that consumer electronics retail has been underserving the more than 50% of the population that is female. That's smart marketing no matter how you look at it.