Showrooming at Best Buy
Best Buy is a consumer electronics retailer with nearly 2,000 stores worldwide. In 2012, the rising popularity of price-matching apps for mobile phones made price differences between retailers transparent, online and offline. Shoppers' desire to test electronics first-hand before purchase drove them to use Best Buy stores as 'showrooms' to see new products and then search for better deals on their smartphones. This case examines how Best Buy contends with this and asks whether they can survive by permanently price-matching their online-only competitors, primarily Amazon, despite having higher costs.
Airbnb, Etsy, Uber: Acquiring the First Thousand Customers
By 2016, two-sided online platforms (or marketplaces) were pervasive among the highest growing internet startups around. Among the most notable two-sided platforms in terms of their tremendous early growth were Airbnb, Etsy and Uber. They offered short-term property rentals, handcrafted goods, and car rides, respectively. But how did these platforms acquire their first customers, at the time when they had so few providers? How exactly did they go about acquiring their first thousand customers?
Monetizing Insurance at Trōv
Trōv is a disruptive startup in the insurance space ('insurtech'). It allows consumers to simply turn on and turn off insurance for each of their possessions on a mobile app with the swipe of a finger. Consumers love the simple, on-demand, single-item coverage product. However, the cost to acquire customers for Trōv is significantly higher than the total expected contribution margins for the single item coverage insurance product that the company is known for. In light of this, what should the CEO of Trōv do with the product? How can Trōv monetize on-demand insurance?
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Thales is the co-founder of digital disruption consultancy 