AKAMAI CASE STUDY

Akamai Helps Best Buy Improve Performance of Dynamic Content and Applications by 80% and Shopping Cart Transactions by 20%

Akamai helps us ensure a fast and consistent user experience at all times, even during peak traffic, which leads to higher customer satisfaction and more sales.
Steve Trimbo, Director of Online Operations, Best Buy

The Situation
With beginnings in 1966, Best Buy is now North Americas leading specialty retailer of consumer electronics, personal computers, entertainment software, appliances, and related services. An innovative and growing Fortune 100 company, Best Buy employs 140,000; operates more than 1,150 retail stores in the United States, Canada, and China; and surpassed $35 billion in revenues for fiscal year 2006. Launched in 2000, BestBuy. com serves as an information resource, offers a wide range of products, and reaches more customers than any physical Best Buy store. In fact, the site offers 600,000 SKUs, 20 times what a store can carry, andaccording to Internet Retailerhosts 400 million visitors a year, equal to the total visitors at all stores. Revenue from online operations increased approximately 36% in fiscal 2007, and for the fourth year in a row, Best Buys online store was named to Internet Retailers Best of the Web Top 50 list of online retailers.

COMPANY
Best Buy Minneapolis, MN www.bestbuy.com

INDUSTRY
Retail & Consumer Goods

SOLUTION
Akamai Dynamic Site Accelerator

KEY IMPACTS
Delivers dynamic content and applications 80% faster Improved speed of shopping cart transactions by 20% Supports 470% increase in traffic Increased revenues by 35% year over year Reduced bandwidth by 52%

The Challenge
As a leading multi-channel retailer in a highly competitive market, Best Buy understands the importance of leveraging the Internet to drive traffic and purchases at its retail stores. With a customer-centric focus, Best Buys goal is to deliver a consistent customer experience across all of its channels, empowering consumers to research and purchase products seamlessly, either online or in its retail stores. The company is committed to continuously updating its Web site to deliver a top-notch online experience. As a long- time Akamai customer, Best Buy is constantly taking advantage of new Akamai services to help it reach its goals. This partnership has proven critical to helping Best Buy serve the dynamic content and applications that ensure an engaging and interactive shopping experience.

The Goal
In 2006, Best Buy needed to meet three key requirements to support its brand and objectives:
Deliver Superior Customer Experience The company wanted to make sure that

its customers enjoyed a superior online shopping experience, especially during the holiday season.
Protect Brand Image Well aware that its Web site is an extension of its brand,

Best Buy wanted a solution that ensured a reliable and always available Web site.
Reduce Operational Costs As a retailer concerned with tight profit margins,

Best Buy always seeks to avoid costs that would erode its top line.

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Best Buy

AKAMAI CASE STUDY

Why Akamai
Satisfying Customer Expectations Best Buy typically enjoys greater revenues around the holiday season, both in-store and online. And the company relies upon its site to drive consumers to its stores where it can typically increase the total order value by encouraging shoppers to also purchase accessories and valueadded services, such as installation. According to Steve Trimbo, Director of Online Operations for Best Buy, In our highly competitive market, even a slight differentiation can make a big impact in customer loyalty and revenues. Akamai allows us to deliver our dynamic content and applications such as our store locator and product recommendation center 80% faster than we could on our own.As a leading brand, Best Buy is constantly being ranked in industry lists. One issue the company faced was that its shopping cart transaction time was consistently ranking lower in performance than the rest of its site. With Akamai, Best Buy has seen a 20% improvement in the speed of shopping cart transactions. Akamai helps us ensure a fast and consistent user experience at all times, even during peak traffic, which leads to higher customer satisfaction and more sales, continues Trimbo. In fact, BestBuy.com generated 30% higher revenues in the third quarter of fiscal year 2007 than in the third quarter of fiscal year 2006, and a 65% increase in the third quarter of fiscal year 2008 compared to fiscal year 2007. Ensuring Uninterrupted Availability As a savvy retailer, Best Buy knows that dynam- ic applications such as store locators are more important now than ever. In fact, according to Best Buy 60% number of its customers visit the companys Web site to research purchases before shopping in stores. While dynamically generated content offers an unprecedented opportunity to engage with consumers, rendering pages on-the-fly can lead to delays and even failures in delivering content.

Akamai ensures that our dynamic content and applications are always available and perform- ing well. That enables us to deliver the type of rich, interactive experience that promotes cus- tomer satisfaction and loyalty. This, combined with the fact that many of our key partners such as Bazaar Voicealso use Akamai, ensures a consistent experience for consumers while meeting customer demands. It also guarantees that the Best Buy brand is consistently repre- sented across all of our channels,says Trimbo. Avoiding Infrastructure Buildout Unfortunately, traditional Web infrastructure does not cope efficiently or cost effectively with the highly variable and unpredictable nature of consumer demand on the Web. And when companies deliver dynamic content and applications from their sites, it places tremendous stress on their Web infrastructure.When we first launched our site in 2000, we quickly realized it was costly and ineffective to expand our infrastructure to support traffic surges. Thats when we first became an Akamai customer. Now that we have evolved our Website to take advantage of technologies such as dynamic applications, we are once again faced with delivery issues that our beyond our control. Fortunately, Akamai has developed solutions to keep pace with Web and e-commerce trends, allowing us to avoid infrastructure buildout while ensuring that we can deliver the best site experience possible, says Trimbo. With Akamai in place, BestBuy.com is able to support 470% times the normal traffic load. In fact, the site has served as many as 119 millions visitors per month, while at the same time, bandwidth requirements have been reduced by 52%. By reducing the load on our servers, we avoid the costly, complex infrastructure buildout that would remain largely idle for the rest of the year, concludes Trimbo.

About Best Buy Co., Inc.

Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is an innovative Fortune 100 growth company that continually strives to create superior customer experiences. Through more than 930 retail stores across the United States and in Canada, our employees connect customers with technology and entertainment products and services that make life easier and more fun. We sell consumer electronics, home-office products, entertainment software, appliances and related services. A Minneapolis-based company, our operations include: Best Buy (BestBuy. com and BestBuy.ca), Future Shop (FutureShop.ca), Geek Squad (GeekSquad.com and GeekSquad.ca) and Magnolia Audio Video (Magnoliaav.com). We support our communities through employee volunteerism and grants from The Best Buy Childrens Foundation. For more information visit www.bestbuy.com.

The Akamai Difference

Akamai makes the Internet work for some of the best-known companies in the world with its solutions for cloud computing, eCommerce, Web sites, HD video and softwareas-a-service. Delivering unmatched performance, scale and security, Akamais solutions are built on the Akamai Intelligent Internet Platform, unique in the industry due to its rich functionality and intelligence and because it is globally distributed across 650 cities, in 72 countries and integrated into about 1,000 of the Internets most important networks. To learn more visit www.akamai.com or follow us on Twitter @akamai.

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