Best Buy Better

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Improving Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) may seem like a daunting task in the bricks-and-mortar world. While the consumer electronics superstore chain has had its shares of ups and downs, it's widely recognized as a retailing winner. The stock has actually more than doubled over the past year.

However, when it comes to BestBuy.com, there is clearly room for improvement. Naturally its Alexa popularity rating is well behind that of e-commerce havens Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) and eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY). However, for a company looking to bridge the store shopping experience with home delivery, it's worth noting that its site traffic is also lapped by UPS (NYSE: UPS) and even the United States Postal Service site.

The company claims to be the Internet's second most popular online retailer, wedged between Amazon and Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), but where are the people? It's now neck-and-neck with Netflix (Nasdaq: NFLX) in Alexa's ratings, which says as much for the online video rental specialist's excellence as it does for Best Buy's failure to truly cash in on its broader appeal. Jumping into the dot-com game late given the site's delayed launch may have put it at an initial disadvantage, but shouldn't BestBuy.com own the world about now?

So in comes TeleTech (Nasdaq: TTEC). The customer service provider announced a multi-year deal with BestBuy.com last night. TeleTech will handle many of the site's customer-centric functions. As an outsourcing pro, TeleTech had also inked a deal with Best Buy rival Circuit City (NYSE: CC) last week.

With connected friends like these one would think that TeleTech would be the toast of the town. While the stock has roughly tripled over the past three months it's still an obscure player.

Pity.

Earlier this month the company posted respectable quarterly results. It generated $28 million in free cash flow as it grew its margins and revenue in what some may consider a difficult economic climate. The company has been able to use its earnings to clean up its balance sheet. It now sports a net positive cash balance. All this will only get better with the Circuit City and Best Buy contracts.

Matt Richey wrote favorably about TeleTech last year when the stock was trading for roughly half of today's going price. With the fundamentals improving, one is left wondering if TeleTech isn't just teaming up with Best Buy. In Wall Street's fickle terms, maybe it is the best buy.

What do you think of Best Buy turning to TeleTech in outsourcing some of its site's customer service functions? With the holidays coming how do you think Best Buy will make out this quarter? All this and more -- in the Best Buy Discussion Board. Only on Fool.com.