As one of the world’s premier big-box retailers, Best Buy has been around since its first store opened in Minnesota in August 1966. Fast-forward to 1998, and the company was ready to take its business online. Enter BestBuy.com.
The history of the Best Buy website is fascinating. At the height of the dot-com era in 2000, the BestBuy website looked normal. But to today’s online shopper, it looks like a complete mess. It’s like a car wreck that you can’t keep yourself from looking at.
So follow along as we go on a fun adventure back in internet history and look at Best Buy’s website then versus now.
Shop Online!
The thing I loved the most about the Best Buy website from 2000 is in the upper left corner. In bright red letters, it says, “Shop Online!” as if it’s a brand-new idea. In 2000, shopping online WAS a brand-new idea, so Best Buy is calling out this new convenient way to shop.
When you look at the Best Buy website today, there is no mention of shopping online as it’s just a given. You go to the Best Buy website to shop and order online for delivery. You may go to the site to check out local inventory, but it’s still shopping online and just normal internet behavior.
I love the simplicity of the early website, but there is no question that today’s website is far more versatile. This isn’t a surprise as the website offers a much larger selection, but there’s no magic like 24 years ago when this was all so new.
Where Are the Movies?
One of the immediate things that fascinates me about this site from February 2000 is that multiple movie releases are highlighted. This feels like an afterthought today, but the option to pre-order Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace jumps right out, on VHS, no less!
Fast-forward to September 2024, and you will need help finding a single movie mentioned on the Best Buy website. With the rise of streaming, DVD sales are continuously declining, so Best Buy has little reason to stand up and shout out its movie selection.
The same can be said for music. The 2000 website even has a “Find Out What’s Coming Soon to Music!” at a time when Best Buy and buying CDs were all the rage. Today, with streaming music, there is zero need for this. It’s a bit saddening as there was absolute joy in discovering new music when you bought a CD.
Weekly Features
One of the more prominent aspects of the old Best Buy website in 2000 is the use of “This Week’s Features.” Highlighting the “digital age,” winners of Sony sweepstakes, and how “Digital Cameras Are HOT!” is a throwback to a much earlier time of the internet. Notably, this addition to the page takes up almost the entire bottom half of the website, and it’s not even directly selling anything.
Conversely, you don’t have a direct correlation with the updated website. I do enjoy that you have three categories that are arguably chosen based on the time of year. Gearing up like a pro and tailgating are undoubtedly related to the start of football season. E-transportation is helpful for all the kids who are scootering instead of biking back to school, so if nothing else, these are time-sensitive.
Internet Explorer!
One of my favorite parts, if not my absolute favorite, of this February 2000 website is that it tells you to get Microsoft Internet Explorer. This was a time when Explorer dominated the World Wide Web. Long before Chrome and Firefox, downloading Internet Explorer would have arguably been the best way to see the Best Buy website, and it’s so joyful to see this download button.
On today’s Best Buy website, no browser experience is recommended. There is little question that BestBuy.com developers need to support any number of browsers, so promoting just one doesn’t make any sense. Still, losing this button is sad as it took us back to an age when the idea of the internet was magical.
Find More Like This
A big shoutout to the Wayback Machine for helping to archive these old images of what the Best Buy website looked like so many years ago. If you’re not careful, you can get lost in website archives for hours on this site, but at least it’s time very well spent.
The image featured at the top of this post is ©Mike Kalasnik / Flickr.