Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) announced that it has received approval from China's regulatory authorities to build four new stores in that country. Best Buy recently stated that entering the Chinese market was an important goal for the company, and it sure isn't wasting any time.

Best Buy, which has pummeled rival Circuit City Stores, Inc. (NYSE: CC) into the ground (forcing the CEO's resignation this week), is a retailer on a mission. In the consumer electronics arena, it has no equal. Only global retailing giant Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE: WMT) has market power to compete with Best Buy's prowess in electronics. In an informal straw poll I took recently about the breadth of electronics products available and the aggressiveness of current prices at both Best Buy and Wal-Mart, Best Buy won hands down.

Although this year's results from Best Buy's Chinese presence were affected by earthquakes and the meltdown in the Chinese stock market, the country still holds incredible promise for the consumer electronics retailer. In August, the company opened a second store in Shanghai, and in 2009 it will most likely add all four stores it just received approval for.

Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) continues to remain dominant in the U.S. when it comes to large consumer electronics stores, but that doesn't mean that is ignoring other potentially lucrative markets. Six to eight new locations in the Shanghai area this year will help make China become its second largest market after the U.S., according to Best Buy International chief Robert A. Willett.

China's move up that important ladder will occur within three to five years. Best Buy already has a store in Shanghai and plans on a second in a "short period." In fact, Best Buy recently hired an exec dedicated just for picking retail location sites in Shanghai. Now, that means business!

With Best Buy (NYSE: BBY) planning to open eight to 10 new stores in China, will this international growth help ignite more sales and, more importantly, more profit? The largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. reported a disappointing quarter just this week, and even though the consumer electronics industry as a whole is seeing the same kind of performance, Best Buy didn't come close to measuring up to the latest profit expectations.

At the same time, the retailer is expanding its presence in China and wants to be a dominant consumer electronics player in that market as the Chinese consumer economy continues to expand at a rapid pace. But, make no mistake -- this strategy is not meant to be a short-term profit-boost solution. Best Buy is in this for the long haul, and it has to be. Industry watchers who think "turning on stores" in China and the recognition of immediate sales and profits will be a simple task are not looking at the whole picture.

As usual, though, this won't please the immediate gratification-obsessed Wall Streeters who look for growth every single quarter and go nuts if there isn't any (or if it's slow). Sometimes long-term plans are way more important than playing a business to the fiddle of every quarterly period. In fact, I would say long-term plans are the only plans most companies should set up. Business models with short-term strategies can be set up for failure easily, and then that can lead to cooking the books and other shenanigans that get companies into trouble. Maybe that's the way Wall Street wants it.

With Best Buy's(NYSE:BBY) recent opening of its first international store -- located in China -- the consumer electronics giant may also be looking to move into India, with planned stores in the higher-end cities where consumers, for the first time in a long time, have disposable cash to spend.

As any company looking for global sales growth would be considering, Best Buy has begun talks with RPG Enterprises for a planned foray into India. This comes really as no surprise. This is just a rumor at this point, but it makes perfect sense. If the standard of living and the amount of disposable cash levels are rising in certain areas of the world, leave it to capitalism to come to the rescue, eh?

Best Buy here, though, may be looking for an equity joint venture as opposed to opening its own stores, according to the rumor. In fact, RPG Enterprises' Sanjiv Goenka stated that "there is no firm proposal from Best Buy under consideration."

With the largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. -- Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) -- now having a presence in China, are the consumer electronics retailers in that country scared and confused? By all counts, hardly. Best Buy's largest-ever store was constructed in one of Shanghai's most popular commerce districts and it will certainly turn heads and wallets, but will customer shun it in favor of local establishments?

The top-two appliance chains in China, Gome and Suning, have not really responded in official terms to Best Buy's entrance into their home turf. Are they scared, not scared, or not even wanting to acknowledge that a new (and foreign) competitor has entered their market? It's been said that Gome sped up a takeover from a rival chain in response to Best Buy's pending Chinese launch, and the chain also blocked Best Buy from taking over a commercial space in Beijing just five months ago.

Those are signs of classic protectionism, and why shouldn't they be? Any entrenched competitor would want to ward off the new kid on the block until the last minute and try to ensure customers don't defect as soon as they can. But the "entrenched" numbers will make it hard for Best Buy to inflict any kind of huge damage for now, as Gome and China Paradise have more than 800 stores, and Suning has more than 430 outlets across the country. Compare that to one store for Best Buy and you see that a long, uphill battle is on the way.

Best Buy Co. Inc. (NYSE:BBY) recently launched its largest-ever retail store as it entered the country of China in a huge way. The largest consumer electronics retailer in the U.S. probably wants to make a big splash in the Chinese marketplace like every other red-blooded company whose out for more sales in this rapidly developing marketplace.

But what Best Buy will probably find out (and I'm sure it already knows), is that the China marketplace is one of ultra-cheap prices and bartering between buyer and seller for every single penny of a commerce transaction. Proof of this concept was proven recently, as Nokia Corp. (NYSE:NOK) -- the largest producer of wireless handsets in the world -- was rumored to have left Best Buy's new China store out to dry since the retailer apparently was selling Nokia's handsets below a certain price. In the U.S., this is called "minimum advertised price," or MAP.

Will certain manufacturers start bailing on Best Buy due to the retailer's pricing stance in this new market that doesn't know the meaning of the word "regular price?" 2007 will be interesting in Best Buy-land, that is for sure -- at least in China, anyway.

In a country where wheeling-n-dealing in the bartering of consumer electronics is commonplace, a retail giant from the U.S. has planted seeds for its foray into the world's fastest-growing economy (by some measures). That market is, of course, China.

Best Buy Co.,Inc. (NYSE:BBY) opened its first store in China as of last week. The 80,000-square-foot facility, the company's largest store anywhere and its first outside North America, is in Shanghai's busy Xujiahui shopping district.

Will Best Buy be successful in this new market as it enters a country where bartering has been known to take heavy tolls on retailers and other entities not prepared for aggressive pricing strategies? Best Buy will be finding that out very soon most likely. Either the chain will flop miserably, or the Best Buy name will become part of the permanent Chinese retail landscape.

North American consumer electronics retailer Best Buy Co., Inc. (NYSE:BBY) recently said that it would be entering the Chinese retail market soon with its first store there. Just like countless retailers before it, Best Buy wants to catch the wave of consumer spending in China as the economy there continues to be red-hot.

In an announcement just this week, Best Buy says that its first store in China will be open for a trial operation in Shanghai in the last week of December 2006. The trial store will be open in a business circle in the Xujiahui area of Shanghai made up of over 130 home appliance chain stores like Gome, Suning and Yongle.

What will Best Buy's first foray into the rapidly growing market of China be like? First of all, the chain said that it will not try to engage in a price war with its entrenched Chinese rivals. At least, not off the bat, right? Best Buy's entire premise here in the home market of the U.S. is exactly that -- price competition. Best Buy operates in every commodity electronics business there is with very little value added to the product equation. Now, in its defense, the "Geek Squad" services Best Buy offers now counteracts the commodity business it operates in, and it could have come sooner really.

Chinese home appliance retailers feel no threat from Best Buy at this time, as they state that Best Buy needs to spend lots of time to get accustomed to the Chinese market before it will ever become successful. That is very true in any new market -- and global retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (NYSE:WMT) knows all about it, having failed in South Korea and Germany recently.

The largest consumer electronics chain in the U.S. is reaching beyond the confines of America's shores by announcing that it will be opening the first Best Buy-branded store in China later in December.

The Best Buy (NYSE:BBY) China stores will occupy 8,000 square meters and will be located in the premier Shanghai shopping district of Xujiahui. The retail location will initially employ about 300 people or a little more, according to Best Buy.

"We've made adaptations to respond to local consumer needs in product choice, service and price," said Lu Weimin, chairman and president of Best Buy's China division.

Best Buy, like any retailer based in the U.S. that has to respond to constant growth demands from shareholders, is joining a legion of firms --- like retailer Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) -- in opening up for business in the world's most explosive economy, China. What's funny about this is that so much of the goods in both Wal-Mart and Best Buy stores are already made in China -- so now its citizens can buy back their own goods in an ironic twist.