Delivering a world class supply chain through agility, ability and AI.
Irvin Mark

Mark Irvin - EVP & Chief Supply Chain Officer Best Buy

Mark Irvin joined Best Buy in 2013 and oversees the strategy and operations across the company’s global supply chain network at North America’s largest speciality electronics retailer. Best Buy operates over 1,000 stores across North America, employing over 85,000 team members employed. Sales associates are known sometimes as the blue shirts and their expertise has become a core part of how Best Buy has continued to lead the US market.

“Customers, they've got technology, but they haven't always been able to fully unearth it and its capabilities. I think that's where Best Buy shows up. You can sit down with someone and say, this is what I currently have, help me know what I am missing,” says Irvin.
“If you think about Best Buy, what I think is we've been able to actually unleash omni-channel capabilities and services that are quite profound.”

 

A Shift Towards Omnichannel Sales and Scheduled Delivery

Today, about 40% of sales start online and end online and this year Best Buy is introducing something it calls scheduled delivery in small parcels, complementing its delivery of large products and appliance installation across North America.

“Now with that, you can shop us online. You can use technology to figure out how that tech, that appliance, shows up at your house, and then you can click a button and schedule the delivery and the installation in your home. We've brought that across the line so you can do the exact same thing now with electronics and small product,” he says.
“You're always concerned, if I buy now, is it going to be on my front porch? Where is that product going to sit? With small product scheduled delivery up to seven days out, you could buy that product, schedule it for delivery and pick the time to ensure you’re home.”

 

Marketplace Launch: The Big 2025 Initiative

The biggest initiative this year will take place in June, with the launch of Best Buy’s Marketplace, enabling customers to stay on its site and fulfil their electronics categories needs across multiple areas and multiple sellers.

“We think that's going to be a game changer for our customers. People are looking for that seamless experience, a one stop shop. We're already signing up sellers, vendors at an incredible pace, because people are incredibly excited about a curated marketplace that is focused on electronics and electronic adjacent areas,” Irvin adds.

 

Operational Excellence Through Customer-Focused Innovation

The company is also always looking to drive operational effectiveness and efficiencies, and Irvin believes that the most efficient operations provide those benefits to customers, sellers and the vendors they work with.

“We try to think about, how does that show up in our stores? How do we redefine our stores and redefine the shopping experience to maximise this curation of technology and how it would show up to our customers in the most valuable way for them,” he says.

 

Building Resilience Amid Global Challenges

However, while Best Buy has focused on optimising supply and delivery services, it is not immune from the macro environment, and in recent years its supply chain has had to cope with a pandemic, climate volatility, regional conflict and most recently tariffs.

“One of the things we have always tried to do in positioning the supply chain is to be agile. It has to be able to dynamically respond to world events that we know and then also world events that we don't know,” Irvin reflects.
“The other piece is you have to have a supply chain that has visibility both upstream and downstream. That just means, where's my stuff at? What are some of the things that are happening across the world, and do I need to pivot in the way that I'm currently moving inventories to get them to our customers? Visibility is critical, and so we've always been investing in agility through great partnerships.”

 

Supply Chain Agility Powered by Partnerships and AI

Much of this has been achieved through collaborations with partners and a supply chain “that can pivot on a dime,” he stresses.

“If you're in supply chain, you love problem solving. That's the art of supply chain. What you're doing is taking the uncontrollable and making it controlled through insights, visibility and being able to dynamically use partners and systems together to find the answer that keeps the supply chain open and running,” he says.

 

Digital Twins and Adolescent AI in Sourcing

Part of that new agility is AI and Best Buy has established digital twins of both its large products and appliances, and its electronics and small items categories and run simulation models to understand what events are currently happening and how they might impact throughout the process.

“What it lets you do is to test and learn in an environment that isn't real,” says Irvin.
“You can apply the learnings from that environment to the physical world and make dynamic changes at pace. You're not just testing with people and disrupting lives, what you're trying to do is test in a digital world, give the insights, and then go back to your teams and tell the stories of the benefits that you've seen. Then you roll it out across the physical world. That's quite powerful.”

The team is also rolling out data driven sourcing, which Irvin describes as “adolescent AI”, meaning that it's something that requires monitoring “like a teenager” to develop.

“Now, we would hope over time this will continue to evolve, and it will be able to take on more and more capabilities. Right now, what we look at is, if a customer is online and they're shopping with us, data driven sourcing can look at our entire network, where that product is behind the scenes, and then what it would take to meet the customer's expectation. The AI adolescent is looking at the network and then trying to provide the most efficient cost model to deliver what you're looking for,” he says.

 

Toward a Data-Enabled, Human-Centered Future

In the future, that should evolve to consider weather patterns and how courier partners perform to optimise processes, with enhanced day of delivery and installation tracking, allowing the customer and Best Buy to stay connected on the journey. However, he also stresses that Best Buy is trying to be very specific in its testing, “not just trying everything and running the teams crazy, but picking our spots in the most thoughtful way.”

The results, he believes, will be happier and better connected customers and store and fulfilment staff who can use technology to improve their working lives too.

“If you do that better and better, your cost model comes down. It allows you to be incredibly competitive in the marketplace with how you price and how you show up as well,” says Irvin.
“We’re trying to figure out the right spot for us to really accelerate the use of AI in the buying experience. And we've said we will be a human centred, data enabled, world class supply chain team.”