Dive Brief:
- Best Buy will roll out an AI-powered search experience across its website and app in the coming year for customers and employees, executives said on a Q1 2026 earnings call Thursday.
- The updated search engine uses AI prompts to guide customers to more specific searches, according to CEO Corie Barry. The experience is designed to produce fewer but higher-quality results that offer more information and better reflect customer intent.
- The electronics retailer will update the in-store shopping experience as well. Plans range from special experiences for the Switch 2 console product launch to department-based training for associates.
Dive Insight:
Offering Best Buy customers a great experience creates opportunities for incremental profit streams across the business, according to Barry.
While the electronic retailer’s performance has been improving as CX initiatives roll out, the company was unable to maintain its return to sales growth as it had in the fourth quarter of 2025.
Comparable sales fell 0.7% year over year in the first quarter of 2026, according to a company earnings report. Revenue was down 0.9% year over year to nearly $8.8 billion, but domestic online sales were a bright spot — up 2.1% year over year.
About 3 in 5 Best Buy customers visit Best Buy’s digital platforms at some part of their shopping journey, and the channel accounts for one-third of domestic revenue transacted, according to Barry. This is in line with what Barry reported in fourth quarter 2025.
Best Buy’s third-party marketplace, which is slated to launch in the summer, could take advantage of this strong digital baseline.
“We believe our marketplace launch is even more important in this environment as it provides ultimate flexibility in product assortments, price points, vendors and SKUs,” Barry said during the call. “We can offer customers the broadest and most relevant experience possible, particularly when combined with our upgraded search capability.”
The company will enhance the post-purchase experience for its third-party marketplace by letting customers choose between returning products directly to the seller or through a Best Buy store, according to Barry. All products sold on the marketplace will honor Best Buy’s return window.
Even if digital is the focus, stores remain an integral part of Best Buy’s business, and CX investments are paying off there as well.
Best Buy will train its workers to improve their expertise. The company completed a program for major appliances associates in March, and it plans to do the same in July with home theater workers to ensure they are well-prepared to help customers.
