Demand for Apple Watch has been 'so high,' Best Buy will start selling it everywhere
The electronics retail chain is also expanding the Apple "store within a store" program, where it sets up a special area to display Apple products.
On the company's earnings call yesterday, CEO Hubert Joly said:
The stores-within-a-store will have new Apple fixtures and are larger with more display tables for phones, computers and tablets. We've already implemented approximately 350 of them and expect to upgrade a total of approximately 520 by holiday. The additional display tables are great for the merchandising of Apple Watch, which went on sale on BestBuy.com and in more than 100 of our stores in August.
Now because demand for Apple Watch has been so strong in these stores and online, we are excited to share that beginning September 4 we will be carrying Apple Watch in more than 900 of our big-box stores. Apple Watch will be available in all 1,050 of our big-box stores and in approximately 30 of our Best Buy Mobile Stores by the end of September.
In July, market data from Slice suggested that Apple Watch sales had plunged after strong initial interest, echoing fears from some Apple analysts. But Apple said that the watch sold better in its first nine weeks on the market than the iPhone and iPad did, and 1010Data recently said that the Apple Watch has nabbed 88% of the smartwatch market.
BestBuy surprised Wall Street with stronger than expected sales in the quarter ended Aug. 1, and the stock went up more than 12% today.