Best Buy, Circuit City Plugging In

Who better to hop on the e-commerce bandwagon than electronics retailers? After all, they have the technical and marketing understanding already in place.

So it wasn't surprising that Circuit City Stores, Inc. (Richmond, Va.) announced a strategic agreement with Alliance Entertainment Corp. to provide popular and classical music, movie and video game product and content to the Circuit City Web site, http://www.circuitcity.com.

And, on the same day, BestBuy.com, Inc., the wholly owned Internet subsidiary of Best Buy Co., Inc. (Minneapolis) announced an alliance with E! Online, to post E! Online's entertainment news, information, gossip, reviews, games and live premiere coverage. In addition to integrating portions of thiscontent into its new Internet services, BestBuy.com will have an exclusive e-commerce relationship for shop.eonline.com, the Internet's primary source for entertainment-related merchandise associated with film, television and music.

“The agreement will give Circuit City's online shoppers access to a massive selection of entertainment titles, while also providing them with premium information from Alliance's industry-leading All Media Guide (AMG) entertainment databases,” said Circuit City president and ceo W. Alan McCollough. “The AMG databases offer an exceptional variety of information, including professional reviews, images, titles, credits and thousands of descriptive categories.”

“The integration of theStore24 [Alliance's turnkey e-commerce plug-in solution] allows Circuit City to extend its product lines and offers the customer an enhanced experience,” said Alliance president and ceo Eric Weisman. “This partnership will add a valuable new dimension of selection and service to the Circuit City brand name.” When the partnership is executed in November, the Circuit City Web site will feature an integrated portal with three new tabs on the home page to reflect the addition of video games, movies and music. Advanced query options with quick response times will allow consumers to create comprehensivesearches for entertainment titles. In addition, Circuit City will offer customers an integrated shopping cart that lets them purchase consumer electronics and entertainment titles in one transaction.

“By aligning with E! Online in entertainment and other merchandise sales, Best Buy is leveraging our leadership in retailing to create a strategic opportunity that provides a new outlet to serve our customers,” said Scott Young, vice president & general manager of entertainment.

“Best Buy is developing the most comprehensive, consumer-oriented Internet service available for technology and entertainment products and services,” said Edward Zarcoff, general manager at E! Online. “The growing popularity of Hollywood-related merchandise, which is shop.eonline.com's strength, combined with the established retail skills of Best Buy, is a formula for e-commerce success.”