Best Buy profit up 21%

Best Buy’s profit jumped 21 percent as the nation’s largest consumer electronics retailer increased sales online and tried to create a better shopping experience in the stores while it also cut costs. The company has been working on revamping its stores and improving sales staff training to convert browsers into buyers. Sales of health trackers grew, as did those of home theaters and appliances as the U.S. real estate market has grown. Smartphone sales overall have been in a malaise because there have been few new products or innovations, and Best Buy has lost some traffic because shoppers aren’t coming into the stores to look at products. [...] Joly said mobile phone sales did better than than the retailer had expected, a contrast to comments from Target Corp. this month that consumer electronics were a big drag on sales. Skeptics had been ready to write Best Buy’s obituary just a few years ago, expecting it to follow its failed former rival Circuit City as it battled the penchant of shoppers to use the store as a browsing showroom and then buy online. In its stores, Best Buy has been rolling out dedicated spaces for TVs in the higher-quality format known as 4K.