Best Buy’s Mirakl-Powered Marketplace: What Sellers Need to Know in 2026

TL;DR: Best Buy launched its U.S. third-party marketplace in August 2025, powered by Mirakl. Within three months, the platform had over 1,000 sellers and increased its online SKU count by 11 times. New categories span home, outdoor, seasonal decor, automotive tech, kitchen, and licensed sports merchandise. Customers return over 80% of marketplace products at physical Best Buy stores. Marketplace return rates run lower than Best Buy’s own first-party returns. Sellers who pair this channel with a strong multichannel customer service strategy are best positioned to scale here.

We’ve been tracking Best Buy’s marketplace closely since the announcement in January 2025, and now that the platform is months into operation, the early results are in. The numbers tell a clear story: over 1,000 sellers, 11x more SKUs, strong customer reviews, and return rates that are lower than Best Buy’s first-party business.

For eCommerce sellers already juggling Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Shopify, the question is whether adding Best Buy to the mix is worth the extra complexity. After looking at the data, we think the answer is yes, particularly for sellers in electronics, home, lifestyle, and accessory categories.

This guide breaks down how the marketplace works in 2026, what categories are open, how to get onboarded, and how to manage customer service across every channel without letting anything slip.

Why Did Best Buy Launch a Third-Party Marketplace?

Best Buy has dominated consumer electronics retail for decades. But the company needed a new growth lever. Annual revenue had declined for three straight years before the marketplace launch. In Q3 FY26 (ending November 2025), Best Buy posted $9.67 billion in revenue, a 2.4% increase year-over-year, with comparable sales up 2.7%, the company’s highest comp growth in four years.

The marketplace played a role in that momentum. CEO Corie Barry said on the Q3 earnings call: “We delivered sales growth across both online and stores, saw continued improvements in customer experience ratings and launched our Best Buy Marketplace.”

The marketplace model makes financial sense for Best Buy. Instead of buying and stocking new inventory, Best Buy lets third-party sellers list products on BestBuy.com and in the Best Buy app. The seller handles fulfillment. Best Buy expands its product assortment with zero inventory risk.

This mirrors what’s happened across U.S. retail. Walmart’s marketplace has grown aggressively. Amazon’s third-party sellers now account for 62% of all units sold on the platform. Globally, online marketplaces accounted for 67% of eCommerce in 2024, up from 40% a decade earlier. Global eCommerce sales are forecast to reach $6.88 trillion in 2026, making up 21.1% of total retail sales worldwide.

Best Buy recognized that staying competitive meant building a marketplace of its own.

Did Best Buy Have a Marketplace Before?

Yes. Best Buy ran an online marketplace from 2011 to 2016 but shut it down due to weak sales and heavy competition from Amazon. The company learned from that experience and from operating a Canadian marketplace since 2016. In Canada, approximately one-third of Best Buy’s website orders now come from third-party sellers, and marketplace sales growth reached 7x in three years. That Canadian success story gave Best Buy the confidence to relaunch in the U.S. with stronger technology.

How Does Mirakl Power Best Buy’s Marketplace?

Mirakl is a French-founded enterprise marketplace technology company trusted by 450+ retailers and B2B companies, with over 100,000 sellers on its platform globally. Retailers using Mirakl grew their combined gross merchandise value by 34.3% year-over-year in 2024, nearly four times faster than the 8-9% overall eCommerce growth rate. During Cyber Week 2025, Mirakl-powered marketplaces in North America saw 79% GMV growth while the broader market grew in the single digits.

For Best Buy, Mirakl provides:

• Seller onboarding and catalog management through Mirakl Connect
• AI-powered product categorization and data matching
• Scalable infrastructure (Mirakl handles 600M+ SKUs and 1B+ inventory updates daily across its network)
• Built-in tools for pricing, fulfillment, and compliance
• Integration capabilities with customer service platforms, including eDesk’s Mirakl integration

Mirakl Connect is the seller portal where brands apply, upload catalogs, and manage their listings across any Mirakl-powered marketplace. If you’re already selling on Macy’s, Nordstrom, or Lowe’s through Mirakl, you use the same portal to sell on Best Buy. That reduces onboarding time significantly. According to Mirakl, the average time from initial onboarding to first sale on its platforms is 23 days.

What Does Mirakl Connect Cost for Sellers?

Mirakl Connect fees for sellers typically range from $479 per month at the base level to $1,599 per month for brands selling up to $2.4 million annually across Mirakl platforms. Retailer-specific commission rates vary by category and marketplace.

What Categories Are Available on Best Buy Marketplace?

This is where things get interesting for sellers outside the electronics space. The marketplace more than doubled the number of products available on BestBuy.com. New and expanded categories include:

• Seasonal decor (including Halloween animatronics, holiday items)
• Automotive tech
• Office and home products
• Movies and music
• Kitchen and cookware (Oster, Crock-Pot, Martha Stewart, Zulay Kitchen, Cuckoo)
• Furniture (TV stands, office desks, gaming chairs, outdoor furniture)
• Floor care (Tineco, Eufy)
• Musical instruments
• Toys and games
• Licensed sports merchandise (through a Fanatics Fan Shop partnership)

Best Buy also expanded within its core categories. Mobile accessories tripled. Gaming accessories widened to include custom controllers, gaming chairs, desks, keyboards, and monitors from brands like Razer, MSI, and GT Player.

By Q3 FY26, the marketplace had approximately 1000 sellers and increased its SKU count by 11 times. Best Buy has also reported that five-star customer reviews on marketplace items match its first-party product ratings. Customer return rates for marketplace products have been running lower than first-party return rates.

Is Best Buy Marketplace Open to All Sellers?

No. Best Buy uses a curated approach. Sellers go through an application and vetting process. The company selects sellers and products that align with Best Buy’s brand standards and customer expectations. As Nordstrom’s President of Digital Miguel Almeida said at NRF 2026, the goal is “curation at scale,” not becoming the “everything store.” Best Buy takes the same approach.

How Do Sellers Join Best Buy Marketplace Through Mirakl Connect?

The onboarding process follows these steps:

1. Apply through Mirakl Connect at BestBuy.com/Marketplace
2. Complete the seller profile and compliance checks
3. Upload your product catalog (Mirakl’s AI tools help with data mapping and categorization)
4. Set pricing and fulfillment details
5. Go live on BestBuy.com and the Best Buy app

Sellers who already use Mirakl Connect for other marketplaces have an advantage. The catalog and account infrastructure carries over, which speeds up the process.

One important detail: marketplace customers return products at any Best Buy store. According to Best Buy CEO Corie Barry, over 80% of marketplace product returns are made in-store. This is a strong conversion driver for shoppers who value easy returns. Best Buy also claims over 200 million customers, reaching more than 70% of the U.S. adult population.

Best Buy has also launched a self-serve advertising platform called My Ads for marketplace sellers, giving them access to Best Buy Ads to promote their products.

Best Buy vs. Amazon vs. Walmart: How Do the Marketplaces Compare?

Here’s how the three major U.S. marketplaces stack up for sellers in 2026:

The key advantage for sellers on Best Buy is lower competition. With roughly 1,100 sellers versus millions on Amazon, the opportunity to gain visibility is significantly greater. The trade-off is a smaller audience overall, but for sellers in electronics-adjacent categories, the audience alignment is strong.

Best Buy is also investing in its retail media business. On the Q3 FY26 earnings call, CFO Matt Bilunas confirmed that marketplace and advertising initiatives represent planned investment areas going into 2026, signaling that Best Buy sees this as a long-term growth engine.

What Does Best Buy Marketplace Mean for Multichannel Sellers?

If you’re selling on Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and Shopify, adding Best Buy is another channel to manage. Every new channel adds complexity: more customer messages, more order tracking, more SLA requirements.

This is where multichannel sellers face a real operational challenge. Customer service quality directly affects your seller metrics, and marketplace SLA tracking matters. Best Buy, like other curated marketplaces, expects sellers to maintain high standards. According to Mirakl, 99.8% of customer service inquiries on its marketplaces are handled by sellers without the operator stepping in. That means the quality of your customer service is on you.

The sellers who succeed across multiple channels are the ones who consolidate their customer communications into a single platform rather than jumping between separate inboxes for each marketplace.

How to Manage Customer Service Across Best Buy and Other Channels

Selling on Best Buy through Mirakl means managing customer messages from yet another platform. Add Amazon, eBay, Walmart, and your own Shopify store, and you’re looking at five or more separate communication streams.

A unified eCommerce helpdesk solves this. eDesk connects directly with Mirakl-powered marketplaces, pulling all customer messages, order details, and tracking information into one shared inbox. Your team sees every conversation in context, regardless of which channel the customer used.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• A customer on Best Buy Marketplace asks about a delayed shipment. The ticket appears in eDesk alongside Amazon and eBay messages.
• Your agent sees the order details, tracking status, and customer history without switching tabs.
• AI-powered suggestions help agents respond faster, keeping SLA compliance high across all channels.

For sellers expanding onto Best Buy, having this infrastructure in place before you launch is the difference between scaling smoothly and drowning in fragmented support tickets.

What Should Sellers Do Right Now?

Best Buy’s marketplace is live and growing. If you sell in electronics, home, outdoor, kitchen, gaming accessories, or lifestyle products, this channel deserves serious consideration. Here’s a practical action plan:

1. Check your fit. Review Best Buy’s expanded category list and see where your products align. Categories beyond core electronics are where the immediate opportunity sits.

2. Apply through Mirakl Connect. If you already sell on other Mirakl-powered marketplaces (Macy’s, Nordstrom, Lowe’s, Ulta Beauty), your onboarding will be faster.

3. Set up multichannel customer service. Don’t wait until messages start piling up. Connect your Mirakl integration to a unified helpdesk so every Best Buy customer message lands in the same inbox as your other channels.

4. Optimize your listings. Best Buy shoppers skew tech-savvy. Make sure product descriptions are detailed, accurate, and highlight compatibility or tech specs where relevant.

5. Plan for in-store returns. Over 80% of Best Buy marketplace returns happen at physical stores. Factor this into your return logistics and customer communication workflows.

6. Explore Best Buy Ads. The My Ads self-serve platform is now available for marketplace sellers. Early movers in retail media on a new platform tend to see better cost-per-click efficiency before competition increases.

The marketplace model is the direction U.S. retail is heading. Global eCommerce is projected to reach $6.88 trillion in 2026, and curated marketplaces like Best Buy are growing far faster than traditional retail eCommerce. Sellers who move early into curated marketplaces get the advantage of less competition and stronger brand association.

Book a Demo today to see how eDesk helps you manage customer service across Best Buy, Amazon, Walmart, eBay, and every other channel from one place.

FAQs

How do sellers join Best Buy Marketplace? 

Sellers apply through Mirakl Connect at BestBuy.com/Marketplace. The process involves completing a seller profile, compliance checks, and product catalog upload before going live.

What platform powers Best Buy’s marketplace? 

Best Buy’s marketplace runs on Mirakl, the same enterprise marketplace technology used by Nordstrom, Macy’s, Lowe’s, and Ulta Beauty.

What products are accepted on Best Buy Marketplace? 

Beyond electronics, Best Buy accepts products in home, outdoor, kitchen, seasonal decor, automotive tech, movies, music, toys, musical instruments, furniture, floor care, and licensed sports merchandise. Approval depends on category fit and seller vetting.

How does Best Buy maintain product quality on its marketplace? 

Best Buy uses a curated model. Sellers and products go through an application and vetting process to align with the retailer’s brand standards. Five-star customer reviews on marketplace items match first-party product ratings.

Do Best Buy Marketplace sellers need to handle customer service? 

Yes. On Mirakl-powered marketplaces, sellers handle customer service directly. A unified helpdesk like eDesk connects with Mirakl to pull all customer messages into one inbox alongside your other channels.

How does Best Buy Marketplace compare to Amazon for new sellers? 

Best Buy’s marketplace has roughly 1,100 sellers versus millions on Amazon, which means significantly less competition. The trade-off is a smaller overall audience, but the customer base is loyal, tech-focused, and includes over 200 million customers and 100 million membership tier members.

Are in-store returns available for Best Buy Marketplace orders? 

Yes. Over 80% of marketplace product returns happen at Best Buy’s 1,000+ U.S. stores, which sets it apart from most online-only marketplaces. Marketplace return rates also run lower than Best Buy’s own first-party returns.