American electronics retailer Best Buy (BBY) has announced the opening of a lifestyle digital store in Laya Plaza in Shanghai's Pudong area.

This is the retailer's first lifestyle store in the world. As Best Buy's first small store in China, the new Laya Plaza store only covers a business area of 77 square meters. Unlike the standard Best Buy stores that sell various products such as appliances, computers, mobile phones, office supplies, video products, and software, this small store will focus on over 100 kinds of digital products.

Redmond Yeung, president and COO for Best Buy Asia, said the Best Buy lifestyle model is the company's strategic attempt specially designed for the Chinese market. It is also a newly developed model that aims to meet the demands of different consumer groups.

Apart from the newly opened Laya Plaza store, Best Buy has also opened a 488-square-meter Best Buy store in Beijing's SciTech shopping center. Targeting at high-end consumers, the store provides high-end electronics products, including Panasonic's 103-inch plasma TV, blu-ray players, and intelligent home systems.

Previous to this, Best Buy opened four stores in Shanghai and all the four stores are large ones, including the 5,800-square-meter Xujiahui store, the 5,000-square-meter New Land Plaza store, the 4,000-square-meter Zhongshan Park store, and the 2,400-square-meter Zhengda Plaza store. In addition, Best Buy plans to open another outlet on the B1 floor of Shanghai Laya Plaza on December 24, 2008 and the store will cover a business area of over 2,200 square meters.

According to Qian Yan, general manager for public relations of Best Buy China, Best Buy will continue to open small stores in Shanghai in 2009. In the current strategic attempts of Best Buy, the company has focused its business on three management models, which are Best Buy Premium store, Best Buy Lifestyle store, and standard Best Buy store.