Best Practices for Engaging the Online Hispanic Market: An Interview with Best Buy’s Ana Grace
July 28, 2010 :: Posted by: Daniel Dahlman
Best Buy has long been a leader in successfully reaching Hispanics across multiple channels. The retail chain currently maintains a complete Spanish language site while also leveraging successful mobile, online, and traditional elements in their Spanish language marketing mix.
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Bixal had the pleasure of interviewing Best Buy’s Hispanic Initiatives Site Manager, Ana Grace, to discuss the retail chain’s strategy in engaging the Hispanic market.
In 2007, Best Buy launched www.BestBuy.com/espanol, which allows users to view Spanish language content for more than 12,000 products, service plans, and gift cards. The site also allows customers to toggle back and forth between English and Spanish and features a click-to-call feature that instantly connects shoppers to a Spanish-speaking customer service rep.
Now that the site has been up and running for three years, Ana Grace describes the site as well worth the investment:
“We couldn’t be more proud of the decision to reach out to our Spanish preferring customers in a holistic way. Our successful website is just one component of our multichannel outreach, but it is a critical one,” she says.
Allowing Spanish preferring shoppers the ability to browse, research, and compare products helps customers feel that they are making informed purchasing decisions.
“We have found that Spanish preferring customers do a considerable amount of research online before completing their purchase. Our Spanish website, which is the same as our English offering, allows our Spanish preferring customer the liberty to research their purchases in their language of choice before deciding if they want to buy in store, online or over the phone,” explains Grace.
The success of the Spanish language site extends beyond U.S. borders. Ana Grace says that the site receives “a considerable amount of traffic” from countries throughout Latin America, fueled by international shoppers who use the site to research and compare products and services. To address this demand, the chain has opened stores across Mexico and welcomes Latin American customers to order online and ship to family or friends in the U.S. or order products before they leave their country and have their products waiting for them.
Best Buy’s many online efforts to draw Spanish speakers to their stores make it imperative that the chain also works to create a positive experience for Hispanic shoppers once there.
“Many of our stores employ bilingual associates and we have increased our recruiting efforts to attract and retain bilingual employees; we identify these associates to our customers through store signage and unique nametags,” says Grace.
“Additionally, we welcome Latino customers through expanded assortment, bilingual signage and literature, Spanish web kiosks, Spanish ambient music and videos on our HD walls and through our strong presence in reaching out to Latino’s in their communities.”
Best Buy’s community involvement includes programs like giving “technology makeovers” to ethnically diverse housing developments and establishing the Emerging Latino Leaders Scholarship—initiatives that extend the store’s relationship with it’s customers beyond online or in store and positions the company as an active participant in community life. Best Buy’s proactive approach in courting the Hispanic market makes the retail chain a great example of how a large business can tailor its product and service offerings in a meaningful way to serve a unique, diverse, and profitable customer segment.
Comments
Dharma said on Sun August 1 at 04:49
Great post Daniel!