Best Buy Spotlights Startups

Best Buy is giving startups a chance with some space in the store through a new program called Ignite. The program goes along with the electronics retailer’s move to support product development and manufacturing for startups through a partnership with PCH, a product innovation company that works closely with emerging businesses.

Startups will not quite be getting their day in the sun nationwide; instead, the startup test labs will get their first home in-store in perhaps the likeliest of places — Mountain View, CA.

Ignite is already a feature of the location and has, among other things, a selection of crowdfunded gadgets from companies such as Tangram, Flic, RoBo and others. Ignite will also be getting some page space and exposure on BestBuy.com, which is aimed at giving consumers more time to learn, browse and hopefully buy products from startups featured in-store.

This move is interpretable as a response to Amazon’s Launchpad Program, which exists to showcase products from up-and-coming startups. Amazon has been buttressing Launchpad of late with a variety of co-partnerships aimed at boosting the program’s image.

Best Buy is betting that its physical location and ability to create specialized stores within stores will offer it the edge. Other recent attempts at similar experience-based draws include the Intel Experience with in-store demonstrations of the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Best Buy has also experimented with the Samsung Experience, though that seems to be more a work in progress.

Unlike existing stores-within-stores, however, Ignite isn’t about brands that are already well-known; instead, it features the brands that hope to be household names someday. If the program works as intended, Best Buy hopes to cements its status as the nation’s premier electronics sales location — a crown Amazon is avidly competing for — by becoming the “ain’t it cool” discovery location for the tech-savvy and enthused.