Best Buy Bets on Health, Skincare & Other New Categories

Best Buy is breaking into new territory again while keeping its eye on high-tech products. As technology’s role in certain categories grows, the consumer electronics retailer is ushering in new categories in-store and online, including health and wellness, skincare, outdoor living and electronic transportation. Health & Wellness The health and wellness industry has becoming increasingly technological over the past few years, with the introduction of products that help monitor blood pressure and skin care devices, to name a couple. Given the trend, nearly 300 Best Buy stores (and Bestbuy.com) offer a new collection of skin care technology from brands including Swedish beauty-tech brand Foreo, Vanity Planet’s facial steamers and PMD Beauty, the premier beauty company behind various smart beauty tools and skincare products. Best Buy also now includes the latest from Therabody, which recently launched TheraFace Pro, a portable device that provides percussive therapy, microcurrent, LED lighting and cleansing for the face. These tech-focused products come with features like pulsating facial cleansing for deep cleaning, LED light therapy to help reduce wrinkles and microdermabrasion to help improve skin texture. In a post to its corporate blog, Best Buy said, “These devices will only continue to add features, and we expect to add more to our collection in the months ahead.” Outdoor Living Last year, Best Buy acquired premium outdoor furniture brand Yardbird as part of its work to create an outdoor living environment for customers. The collection of sustainable furniture joined the retailer’s existing assortment of outdoor TV and audio products, plus Best Buy also forged new partnerships with outdoor grilling and cooking brands like Traeger, Weber and Ooni. With the arrival of spring patio season, the retailer’s assortment now spans heaters, fire pits, speakers, TVs, grills and furniture from Yardbird. This month, Best Buy also added new Yardbird displays to several of its Pacific Sales Kitchen & Home stores in Southern California. Over the past few months, Yardbird also opened new showrooms in Denver, Chicago and Washington, D.C., with more on the way, according to the retailer’s blog. Yardbird products are also available on Bestbuy.com and Yardbird.com. Most recently, Yardbird introduced its Ludlow collection, featuring all-weather, hand-woven wicker on oversized, rust-proof aluminum frames. The Ludlow collection lets shoppers create a loveseat, sofa or custom sectional based on which configuration best suits their space. Electric Transportation Last year, Best Buy introduced a lineup sustainable electric bikes, scooters and mopeds. The retailer currently has more than 750 e-transportation products and accessories available on its website. Over the next 18 months, it will bring a selection of those products to nearly every Best Buy store. It’s also rolling out charging devices in several stores. And while Geek Squad already helps with safe assembly of new e-bike, (this service is free for Best Buy Totaltech members), the retailer is beginning a pilot to test service and repair for e-transportation products in some of its stores. In 2019, Best Buy rolled out a slew of connected fitness items, expanding on its growing interest in health tech. Also, that year, it acquired a senior remote monitoring company, Critical Signal Technologies. And in 2018, the retailer acquired GreatCall, which offers easy-to-use mobile products and customer care services to help older adults live more independently.

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