Apple Watch coming to Best Buy near you


Starting Aug. 7, Best Buy will be the first national retailer, other than Apple Stores, where customers can buy the Apple Watch. It will begin to arrive in more than 100 Best Buy stores and will also be available on BestBuy.com. Another 200 of our stores will have the Apple Watch in time for holiday shopping.

The release goes on to state that customers will be able to both buy and try on 16 configurations of Watch and Sports models in both 38mm and 42mm options.

Best Buy has a large retail footprint that reaches further than Apple's own retail stores, plus they see traffic from different customers. So, it makes complete sense that not only Apple extend the Watch retail outlets, but to do it at Best Buy first. Many Best Buy stores have small specialty Apple sections staffed by experienced sales associates.

It seems like the release tries to head off any speculation on lagging sales by stating that the Best Buy rollout is a ramp up for the holiday sales season. Initially the watch is coming 100 Best Buy stores and is expected to expand to 300 towards the end of the year.

Leading up to the Apple Watch launch a big deal was made about the sales experience. Retail staff were drilled in both how to present the watch and awkwardly instructed how to provide fashion-level advice. Will this approach be extended to Best Buy staff? Or was this more about designing an experience unique to Apple Stores? It will be interesting to compare and contrast the shopping experiences.