Best Buy's Try-Before-You-Buy Strategy

(RTTNews) - Best Buy will offer a try-before-you-buy rental option for cameras, audio equipment and fitness trackers as it battles against Amazon, Recode reported. The move is said to increase the odds that these customers will choose Best Buy over a competitor when they are ready to buy.

The big-box retailer is partnering with a San Francisco-based rental startup called Lumoid for the program.

As per the report, the retailer later this month will start advertising try-before-you-buy rentals on BestBuy.com. The company will direct online customers to Lumoid's tech rental site, were the customers can pay fees to rent equipment. With the fee they pay, customers can earn about 20 percentage of the rental price back in Lumoid credits. These points can later be redeemed and used for outright purchase of the item from Best Buy.

The new program reportedly would help extract more value from open box items. These are goods that a Best Buy customer returned so they can't be resold at full price. Best Buy is providing these goods to Lumoid to rent out.

Aarthi Ramamurthy, Lumoid's founder and CEO, said, "Customers are not walking into physical stores for discovery. They already know what they want and they just go in to get it."

As per the report, customers can also buy the item they rented for a discounted price, since it's an open box item and may have been rented out to others. They can also choose to buy a brand-new one through Lumoid.