Best Buy has discontinued its online Marketplace after five years of operation, citing product overlap, customer confusion, and minimal revenue contribution.
In an email to its approximately 100 third-party sellers obtained by TWICE, Best Buy e-commerce president Mary Lou Kelley said the platform would be shut and all listings removed effective Feb. 24. “We believe we can continue to provide a positive customer experience on our site through other product sourcing methods,” she wrote.
Best Buy spokesman Jeff Haydock told TWICE that the Marketplace accounted for only “a tiny fraction of 1 percent of domestic revenue,” and created confusion among some consumers who believed they could return third-party merchandise to the chain’s stores.
There was also a 70-percent overlap in Marketplace items, he said, and “we want to provide a curated list of products we sell.”
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