Best Buy's future plans include closing stores and shrinking floors

Best Buy is planning a future with fewer stores and smaller sales floors as consumers shift toward online shopping.

State of play: Best Buy closed 70 of its stores nationwide over the past three years, including 17 this week. That's about 7% of its store count.

• It plans to close 15 to 20 stores per year going forward, CEO Corie Barry said during the Richfield-based retailer's fourth quarter earnings call yesterday.

Zoom in: Two of the store closures are in the Twin Cities and they reflect Best Buy’s new strategy.

• The Shakopee location is closing for good. The Blaine store will reopen as an outlet.

By the numbers: Digital sales now make up 33% of revenue at Best Buy in the U.S., up from 19% three years ago, Barry said.

Meanwhile, Best Buy will also remodel many of its big boxes, dedicating less of those stores to sales floors and more to backroom space where it can fulfill pickup of digital orders.