The US electricals store Best Buy have launched an online shop in the UK to take the fight to its rivals Currys, Comet and Argos on to the web.
Best Buy, which opened its first UK store in May and now has five, will deliver across the UK, but not in the Channel Island or the Isle of Man. The electricals retailer will offer thousands of products online, including all those available in its stores, as well as some products not available in store.
The online move by Best Buy, which first revealed its intention to enter the UK market with the £1.1bn acquisition of 50 per centof Carphone Warehouse in May 2008, will shake up the lucrative online consumer electronics market which is populated by the high street stalwarts, as well as the online specialists, such as Amazon, Dixons and Play.com.
Online sales of consumer electronics, excluding laptops, computers and mobile phones, as well as click and collect purchases, will exceed £1bn in the UK for the first time this year, according to forecasts by GfK Retail and Technology. This compares to actual total sales of £985m in 2009.
Electricals purchases on the internet made up 17.2 per cent of total sales in the UK market from 1 January to 30 September 2010, up from 15.7 per cent last year, according to the research firm.
These figures chime with those of Dixons Retail, the owner of the Currys chain and Dixons online, which in May said that online sales accounted for between 12 per cent and 15 per cent of total sales and that its internet sales passed £1bn in 2008.