Best Buy’s (BBY, $62.59) strategy for damage control

Once embattled electronics retailing giant Best Buy Inc. has been dodging death for some time now, but the question is, for how long?

The company expects to grow same-store sales in 2019 amidst threats from tariff increase and concerns over consumer spending.

For years, Best Buy had watched customers walk its floors and test out products they would then buy online for lower prices, often from Amazon. It is now trying to test options where consumers would return to stores to buy products instead of buying them cheaper from e-commerce sites like Amazon (AMZN).

Under the current CEO, that trend is changing and the company boasts of retaining some of the customers who walked its floors. Unprecedented service, convenience and a proximity with vendors coupled with better employee training have yielded the desired results in the recent times.

That having said, Amazon itself is moving towards brick-and-mortar retail signalled by its recent acquisition of grocer Whole Foods. In the short term, a long list of tariffs could hit Best Buy harder than other retailers, since so much of its inventory is consumer electronics manufactured in Asia.