Amazon recently announced that they will be providing their own version of Best Buy’s Geek Squad service, which offers in-home product installations and repairs. The new “Amazon Smart Home Services Store” on its website lets users book appointments for installations and free consultations. Company experts will answer questions and set up products like smart lights, thermostats and as well as Amazon’s line of smart-home devices.
Amazon is offering a 20% discount for some of these services leading up to Prime Day, although the most important discounts on Prime Day will be on its Echo devices. Prime Day will run for 30 hours starting Monday night. The discounts on in-home services however will continue for the following week.
Best Buy’s Geek Squad was about the only unique service provided buy Best Buy and with Amazon entering the race, Best Buy is expected to lose ground to Amazon and that has already started to show. Best Buy stock prices plummeted more than 7% after the announcement came in. This is equal to about a $1 billion decrease in value.
With Amazon’s fairly recent entrance into the smart device industry as well as their very recent acquisition of Whole Foods, it appears that Amazon is attempting to gain a foot hold in every industry. While this increases Amazon’s global market share tremendously, it also creates some risk. The more a company diversifies, the less it can focus on its core competencies. Many questions arise. What is Amazon’s next target, when will they stop, what is their endgame?
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