A New Blueprint: Best Buy's Visits Turn Positive

The Store, Reconsidered

The last few years have seen Best Buy extract more value from a shrinking store base – increasing ad revenue, launching an online third-party marketplace, and improving profit margins. Now the company is making its stores a pillar of its next phase of growth, adding locations for the first time in more than a decade while reimagining the space inside existing ones.

All of this comes as competition from online retailers intensifies and a memory-chip price surge pushes up the cost of the chain’s best-selling categories. We dove into the traffic data, and it suggests the renewed focus on stores is beginning to translate into visits. 

Best Buy's First Positive Visit Quarter in at Least Four Years

Visits to Best Buy rose 2.2% year over year (YoY) in Q2 2026, representing a notable change in direction. While visits have regularly improved since the start of 2024, this quarter is the first time overall traffic growth has been positive since at least 2022.

The shift comes as Best Buy invests in elevating the brick-and-mortar experience, from IKEA shop-in-shops and in-store Meta Labs, to exclusive national distribution of the next generation RGB LED TVs. 

Nationwide Growth, with Few Exceptions

Regional data indicates that Best Buy’s Q2 gains were broad-based: 43 states saw visit growth, including every state with 20 or more locations. 

Visits fell in just a handful of states, and the only states with more than a 1.2% drop – Wyoming (-12.9%), Vermont (-4.9%), and Montana (-3.2%) – have just six locations between them. By contrast, California, Texas, and Florida – Best Buy’s three largest state markets – all grew within a point of the national figure. Growth spread this evenly is evidence that Best Buy’s efforts have found widespread traction rather than reflecting the local conditions in a handful of states or a specific region. 

Three Months Up, One Explainable Down

Monthly growth was also largely consistent during the analyzed period, holding positive through most of the quarter and into the summer. Only June saw a slight YoY visit dip, due at least in part to a difficult YoY comparison with last year’s June release of the popular Nintendo Switch 2. Though Best Buy’s late-June 2026 “Tech-Fest” sales boosted visits in the back half of the month, it couldn’t entirely match the power of last year’s “Switch Effect.” 

Sixty Years In and Climbing Again? 

Best Buy enters the second half of its 60th year with visits growing and the high-volume holiday season on the horizon. One swallow does not make a spring – and time will tell if the turnaround can sustain its momentum. But for now at least, the chain is reaching more shoppers and giving them more reasons to stop by. 

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