WebProNews

Best Buy is changing the way it does business online and surprise, surprise - it involves social media and APIs. The company has introduced what it is calling the "Best Buy Remix Developer Network."

"We're working to give you the tools you need to make Best Buy into what you need it to be," the company says.

Remix gives developers access to product images, pricing and customer reviews. They can then use this information anywhere on the web, and while enhancing their own sites and blogs, Best Buy comes away with the branding and likely traffic. Finance and Commerce Staff Writer Arundhati Parmar writes:

The project is the brainchild of Michele Azar, Best Buy’s vice president of Internet growth, and is one of several Web-services initiatives the company has launched.

This push into leveraging technology and social media is coming at a moment of singular opportunity for Best Buy. Circuit City, the company’s retail archrival, has short circuited and is in liquidation. JPMorgan analyst Christopher Horvers believes Best Buy will get a 30 percent sales lift with Circuit City’s demise.

It comes off as a pretty smart move on Best Buy's part, and one Circuit City perhaps should have thought of before. Clearly Best Buy has less competition in the brick and mortar world now, and with Remix, it could bolster its own competitiveness greatly online as well.

Remix also comes with an affiliate program in which participants can earn commissions if the traffic they send to BestBuy.com results in a sale. That ought to create a pretty wide adoption of Best Buy's plan. Other online retailers are going to want to consider similar moves.