Management attributed it to the acquisition of Five Star inChina, a comp-store sales increase of 14% in Canada and an extraweek of revenue and new store openings. During a conference call,Bob Willett, CEO of Best Buy International, said, "in the upcomingyear, we will continue to assess additional new marketopportunities, which could include tests in Mexico and Turkey."

While international expansion is seen as an important route tocompany growth, and it expects to add 35 units abroad in the comingyear, it is not the only one. Best Buy will open 95 US stores andcontinue implementing "customer centricity," which Brian Dunn, theparent company's president and CEO, says is a global corestrategy.

He describes it as an emphasis on solving customers' problemsand meeting their desires and needs, versus concentrating onproducts and grabbing product market share. "It requires us tothink about ourselves in new ways as we differentiate more from thecompetition," he said, adding, "we're not there yet," and theapproach "will be broader and deeper as we continue to pursuegrowth."