Best Buy to Lay Off Sales Staff. Shopping Behavior Is Changing.

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Best Buy

is laying off hundreds of store employees as it seeks to adapt to changing consumer behavior.

The electronics company plans to eliminate hundreds of “consultant” roles. Consultants are store workers who specialize in selling more complex products, such as computers and smartphones.

A person familiar with the matter said the changes will allow the company to add more customer-facing employees. The Wall Street Journal reported the news earlier on Friday.

A spokesperson for Best Buy (ticker: BBY) confirmed the report in an email to Barron’s.

“As we shared last month, we’re evolving our stores and the experiences we offer to better reflect the changes in customer shopping behavior, as well as how we organize our teams to ensure we continue to provide our expertise, products and services in the best way possible,” the spokesperson added.

In its latest earnings call, the company said more sales were moving online.

Consumer-electronics companies have had a rough couple of months, as demand scales back following the pandemic-era boom. And while

Best Buy

‘s recent quarterly results beat Wall Street’s expectations, the company has warned that it sees pressure ahead as demand continues to waver.

Shares of Best Buy closed 0.3% higher. The

S&P 500

lost 0.2%.

Write to Sabrina Escobar at [email protected]