Best Buy projects a USD 1 billion revenue addition from AI-driven device upcycling. India’s Croma, Reliance Digital, Vijay Sales, and five other offline electronics retailers are sitting on an identical opportunity — if they move fast enough.
Best Buy has long navigated the brutal reality of consumer electronics retail — thin margins, commoditised product lines, and Amazon never sleeping.
The AI device upgrade supercycle changes that calculus considerably.
Over 600 million PCs and laptops globally lack the neural processing units that AI-native applications now demand. That installed base is functionally obsolete.
Microsoft’s Copilot+, Apple Intelligence, and AI-optimised chips from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm have collectively set a hardware threshold most existing devices cannot meet.
Best Buy’s Geek Squad Service Layer, financing partnerships, and trade-in infrastructure are purpose-built for exactly this considered, high-involvement purchase.
The company’s internal models project a billion-dollar annual revenue addition — on top of its existing USD 41 billion in revenues — at even moderate upgrade conversion rates.
Higher average selling prices, strong accessory attachment, and trade-in volumes create a compounding effect. The cycle has begun.
The same wave is building in India — and eight retail chains are sitting directly in its path.
Reliance Digital, with 1,500-plus stores reaching deep into Tier 2 and 3 markets, is the single largest physical beneficiary nationally.
Croma brings premium positioning, financing depth, and 500-plus stores. Bajaj Electronics in the South, Kohinoor in Delhi-NCR — adds 227 stores and four decades of trust.
Regional players complete the picture. Vijay Sales in Maharashtra, Sathya Agencies across Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, Sangeetha, Poorvika, and Lotus Electronics in Central India collectively command millions of loyal consumers.
The Indian consumer will not upgrade until the need feels personal and urgent. Physical retail closes that sale — every single time.
Editor’s Note
There is a quiet irony in artificial intelligence becoming the unlikely saviour of the brick-and-mortar electronics store.
For years the narrative was relentless — e-commerce would render physical retail redundant, algorithms would replace the sales associate, convenience would trump everything.
AI upcycling has rewritten that script. The more complex the purchase decision, the more indispensable the store becomes.
Eight retail chains across India have the stores, the staff, and the relationships. The billion-rupee question is simply whether they see this moment coming — before it passes.
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