• by Sarah Mahoney , 3 hours ago

Best Buy is delivering on an earlier promise to make building its ad network a top priority.

The company says it is on track to see those revenues climb 10% this year, building on the $900 million it raked in last year. And Jason Bonfig, incoming CEO, said that the company is following through, “advancing Best Buy as a retail media advertising and technology company.”

And while industrywide consumer tech sales are expected to be flat this year, Best Buy’s second-quarter results were far rosier. '

Comparable sales for the Minneapolis-based retailer gained 4.1%, with total revenue rising 3.6% to $9.78 billion for the quarter, compared to $9.44 billion in the same period last year.

In addition to growth in Best Buy Ads and the recently launched marketplace initiative, the company saw the strongest sales in computing, which marked the 10th consecutive quarter of positive comparable sales, driven by upgrades, replacement cycles and product innovation.

Home entertainment also saw its best performance since 2022 across all product tiers and price points.

In new and emerging categories, sales more than doubled as consumers snapped up AI glasses, trading cards, and health rings.

And mobile phones produced their sixth consecutive quarter of growth, driven by expanded partnerships and in-store operating model improvements with large carriers. Even major appliances, long depressed by a slow housing market, notched a slight sales growth.

Bonfig -- who is currently chief customer, product and fulfillment officer, and steps into the CEO role in November -- said that based on robust sales, the retailer is raising the outlook for the remainder of the year.

Where it had previously forecast a range of between $41.2 billion and $42.1 billion, it now anticipates sales of between $42.3 billion and $42.8 billion. And where it had earlier projected comparable sales to come in between negative 1% and a 1% gain, it now expects an increase of 1.9% to 3.0%.

Best Buy’s good news contrasts with more sobering category trends, as consumers scramble to adjust to higher food, gasoline and healthcare costs. Circana predicts thacx   6t U.S. consumer technology sales revenue will grow just 0.2% to $112 billion in 2026, following a challenged back half of 2025.

The market research, which also predicts a 3% overall price increase in tech products, says computers will continue to be the primary source of growth, increasing by more than $600 million compared to 2025. “Notebook and desktop computers will contribute equally to growth as consumers continue with a replacement cycle refresh, and the end of Windows 10 support will spur some additional replacement of older PCs,” it notes in the report.

Tablets will likely be the second largest source of growth, with more than $200 million in incremental revenue this year.