Best Buy is on a mission to improve. With the consumer electronics industry facing increasing competition and saturation within the global economy, the electronics retailer is seeking to implement new product categories and business models in an effort to double annual sales to $80 billion during the next five years.

According to Mike Vitelli, executive vice president for customer operating groups, Best Buy will add stores and boost its market share in mainstay categories such as computers and cell phones in order to drive growth. At the same time, the company plans to move into product areas that are considered to be outside traditional consumer electronics.

One area in which the retailer is expanding into is that of musical instruments. Best Buy stores throughout the country have traditionally offered only basic keyboards and guitars.

"We believe that is an example of categories that we can add to the traditional Best Buy box that customers will give us credit for and get us into spaces that we're not into today," Vitelli told an Oppenheimer Consumer Growth Conference.

Vitelli also highlighted that Pacific Sales Kitchen and Bath Centers, a high-end appliance chain purchased by Best Buy roughly two years ago, was a store model that the retailer plans to expand beyond the base in California. 

Digital services and international expansion are also expected to fuel sales growth. Best Buy agreed to pay $2 billion in May to create a joint venture with Britain’s Carphone Warehouse (News - Alert) Group. This venture is expected to generate the opening of Best Buy stores in Europe.

In the overall market, Best Buy is performing better that its immediate competitors. It is gaining market share and finance chief of the company’s U.S. strategic business unit, Ryan Robinson, said the Carphone deal would be “modestly accretive” to Best Buy’s earnings this year.

This electronics retailer will be one to watch over the next few years. Aside from its Carphone deal, the company has also been expanding within the U.S., opening stores in additional markets and strengthening its brand with focused and strategic marketing efforts.

These strategies seem to be paying off, but the retailer must be sure that even forays into product lines outside of traditional choices don’t get too far away from its initial focus. Such a misstep could actually create more damage to the bottom line than the promised growth can offset and in the end, it could render itself too broad to effectively compete.

Susan J. Campbell is a contributing editor for TMCnet and has also written for eastbiz.com. To read more of Susan’s articles, please visit her columnist page.