Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Matt Bilunas: I think as we go through this coming year, there could be some — when we start the year, there could be some ASP pressure year-over-year, but not to the extent that we compare it to FY ’20, obviously. We believe that will remain elevated. And as you get into the latter part of this year, we’ll have to see, but it’s probably a bit of growth coming from the industry improving, which means demand is improving, which means it’s probably a combination of units improving and potentially, give or take, some ASP increase. Again, we’re not guiding it, but you probably see both as you — our expectation is at the high end is that the industry would continue to grow and demand would come back, which would actually drive more units.

Greg Melich: And then my follow-up is on services, 5% of revenue. Is that basically Totaltech as a majority of that now? Or how should we think about that in terms of building that side of the business?

Matt Bilunas: Yes. Totaltech has become majority of that number as it’s — as we launched that membership program, it’s replacing more of the stand-alone services sales that we would have had in the stand-alone warranty sales that we would have had. So, we’ve seen it shift into being a Totaltech -based number. There is still stand-alone services and stand-alone warranty sales, but it’s shifted to Totaltech.

Operator: We will take one last question, then hand over to your host to conclude today’s conference. Next caller, please go ahead.

Scot Ciccarelli: Hi. It’s Scott Ciccarelli with Truist. I know that reduction in incentive comp is a big part of the SG&A swing. But domestic SG&A was essentially flat on a year-over-year basis on a high single-digit comp decline. That’s not really easy to do. So, does that level of austerity, let’s call it, create a situation where retention actually starts to become a challenge, especially in an environment where a lot of other retailers are actually talking about accelerating wage pressures in ’23 even on top of ’22’s levels?

Corie Barry: Yes. So, what’s been interesting here, and we said it in the prepared remarks, I mean our average hourly wage is up 25% versus 2019. We were one of the first to move our wages up in August of 2020 to $15 minimum almost three years ago. And so, we’ve been making continuous investments in our workforce over the last three years. And what we’re seeing, and we watch it incredibly closely, our turnover rates are really low compared to industry averages, and they’re generally very similar year-over-year. And we — I mean, we’ve talked about it before. We might not be exactly a pre-pandemic, but we’re still in the like mid-30% turnover range overall. And so that is exactly what we watch to make sure we’re trying to strike the right balance here.

We are continuing to invest — and it’s not just wages, it’s also hundreds of millions of dollars in benefits over the last three-year period as well. And of course, we’re going to keep monitoring that on a market level basis, but we remain laser-focused on making sure that as we adjust the operating model, we are reinvesting into those employees that we have. And I think, for some of the key roles like our general managers, our turnover is in the mid-single digits, and we tapped before about some of the tenure that we see in our peak slot agents or within some of our consultants. So, we are very carefully monitoring constantly both the balance of pay and benefits and, frankly, some of the work-life balance and flexibility that our employees are demanding, and we continue to see it reflected, I would argue, in industry-leading turnover numbers.