Best Buy Reportedly Keeping Online Price Matching, Cutting Return Window

Best Buy will soon cut its return and exchange window in half and let customers price match items from online retailers according to The Consumerist.

Best Buy currently has a 30 day return and exchange policy, giving its customers about a month to return or exchange items they change their mind about. On March 3 the big box store will cut that windows down to 15 days. Any items bought from Best Buy on March 2 or before will still have a 30 day return or exchange window.

Best Buy Reward Zone Premier Silver customers won’t have to worry about their return windows, however. Members of Reward Zone Premier Silver will continue to have 60 days to return or exchange items after March 30.

Best Buy will also soon add a number of national online retailers to its list of stores it will price match. The store made a similar move during the holidays last year, and now it will remain a permanent store policy.

The store hopes that by price matching retailers like Amazon.com, NewEgg.com and Buy.com (now Rakuten.com) it will decrease the amount of “showcasing” in stores. “Showcasing” is when people use Best Buy as a place to view items they may want to buy from Amazon or another online store. The practice turns Best Buys into showcases for online stores.

Best Buy hopes that if its price matches online stores its customers will buy more from its brick-and-mortar stores due to their convenience. If Best Buy sells items at the same price as Amazon, it’s tempting to go to the store instead of possibly paying shipping and waiting.

It’s not clear if Best Buy will charge shoppers a shipping surcharge akin to the price of next day delivery, which some brick-and-mortar retailers do for online price matching.

Users who want to get items at Best Buy for the same price an online store charges will have to ask cashiers to honor the price, as stores won’t match prices automatically.