Best Buy (BBY 0.20%) just released some chilling data today from the recent holiday shopping period. U.S. same store sales were down nearly 1% indicating that even the seemingly reborn specialty retailer's efforts to drive sales via promotion didn't pay off. In fact, this only hardened the blow as management lowered guidance for Q4 operating profit as well.
While Best Buy has made significant strides over the past year to improve its fortunes, it's difficult to see the increasing level of competition ending any time soon. With Amazon.com (AMZN -2.56%) as a major competitor, there's no wonder to Best Buy's strategy for righting its ship. Take a look at management's first three bullet points for its Renew Blue turnaround plan to see what I mean :
- Lower cost structure
- Grow online channel
- Innovate for multi-channel customer
This sounds like all the things that Amazon already does well to beat Best Buy to the punch. The key question now for shareholders who have rode the company's stock to incredible gains over the past year is should they double down on the massive dip, or should they sell now to protect their gains? Learn more in the latest video below from the Motley Fool's consumer goods team.
