The Best Buy Marketplace launched in the United States in 2011 and was designed to compete against Amazon. Unlike eBay where anyone can list anything, the Marketplace is chiefly for companies looking to sell their wares. The service is poised to expand to Canada in the coming weeks and Canadian tech companies will be able to list their commercial electronics.
Third-party sellers on the Canadian version of the Best Buy Marketplace will handle product shipping and returns. Customers will use the same single shopping cart and checkout process.
One of the big reasons why the Best Buy Marketplace is launching in Canada is primarily attributed to the elimination of the Future Shop brand. 66 Future Shop stores are closing and 65 will be converted to Best Buy. As a result of this consolidation, approximately 500 full-time and 1,000 part-time positions will be eliminated. Everything is now under the Best Buy banner and its easier to promote and market a singular online marketplace.
We have heard from sources within Best Buy that the preliminary groundwork is all laid out and it should be launching in the next few weeks.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.