Best Buy, Accenture Announce Innovation Partnership

Need to Know

• Accenture and Best Buy have signed a five-year deal to advance the consumer electronics company’s technology goals.
• The deal will focus on three areas of improvement: building and growing diverse talent; investing in growth and learning; and investing in new tech.
• Best Buy’s “Total Retail” overhaul, implemented in 2019, has seen the company turn its focus towards improving its digital consumer-facing experience.

Analysis

Best Buy has signed a deal with Accenture, the professional services company, to help it achieve its goals in technology, diversity, and innovation.

The two companies will work together to advance Best Buy’s data science capacities, information security, product development, technology risk management, and user experience design. In addition, Accenture will help Best Buy hire new employees for its digital and technology team, and has committed to hiring a diverse roster of talent.

“Together, we are creating a fluid, reimagined collaboration model that is anchored on shared success, beliefs and ways of working,” Rob Birdsong, a managing director at Accenture and the company’s client account lead for Best Buy, said in a statement announcing the partnership. “This new model will help us redefine the way we partner with Best Buy, bringing them the best of Accenture’s skills and capabilities, with a focus on building and growing Best Buy talent.”

Best Buy and Accenture’s partnership will focus on three areas of improvement for Best Buy. First, the consumer electronics company aims to build and grow a diverse talent team: Best Buy hopes to bring 1,000 new hires to its digital and technology team and has committed that 30% of these employees will be Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and women. Accenture will assist in the recruiting, hiring, and training of new talent.

Second, the two will work to increase Best Buy’s investments in technology innovation, by jointly investing in tech that helps Best Buy improve its customer experience. These investments will also help Best Buy continue to grow its existing health and membership programs. And finally, the two customers will seek out investment opportunities in learning and development programs, including access to Accenture’s learning and development programs.

“Our primary goal is to create the best possible experience for our customers and our employees who serve them directly, and this collaboration will help drive that important work forward,” said Brian Tilzer, Best Buy’s chief digital and technology officer. “We’re excited to work with Accenture to advance technology innovation and build an even stronger technology team at Best Buy.”

Best Buy has been working to improve its consumer-facing digital and technological capacities for some time: in 2019, the company announced its “Total Retail” approach to business, a shift towards a blend of retail channels that eliminated the siloing between digital and bricks-and-mortar research. The company’s digital focus has paid off: in August, Best Buy posted its strongest-ever digital quarter, with a 242% increase in online sales year-over-year.