Update: Samsung to invest more in Best Buy, planning to buy stake?

Whats the best way to get people to buy your product? In my opinion, its to get people to use your product. Many products I would have never bought if it werent for using them in a retail store. Its the reason Im not a huge fan of internet shopping; it occasionally ends in disappointment. Many companies have their own retail stores, and Samsung is trying to replicate that experience on a smaller scale.

Instead of full-fledged stores, it opened many Samsung Experience Shops in Best Buys around the US. Theyre literally a big space in the center of a Best buy with nice signs and stands and tables full of Samsung products on display. Its definitely a great concept and provided my first contact with a Galaxy S4, which I quickly fell for.

Samsung seems to be looking to expand their Experience Shops, as Samsungs vice chairman Lee Jae-yong met with Best Buy executives recently. Analysts believe that Samsung has been considering increasing subsidies paid to Best Buy in a strategic move to help the retailer and also increase the exposure of its products. The Experience Shops might get quite a bit better sometime in the future, but there is another possibility.

Samsung may be considering buying a stake in Best Buy to provide a better budget to its own shops inside retail stores. This exposure inside such a popular store must be doing the company wonders in terms of sale, as seen with the success of the iconic Apple stores.

This is a piece of the puzzle many manufacturers are missing. HTC doesnt have any sort of store for me to go to. If I wanted to try out an HTC One, Id have to go to a specific AT&T store. That store does has one on display, and often it doesnt even work properly. Many stores dont even have a real one on display, but rather a dummy phone.

If more manufacturers had stores for people to play with their products freely, they would get more customers. Samsung is on the right track with these Experience Shops, and maybe its an even better idea than dedicated stores that many people wont walk into unless they have an express interest in Samsung. This way, theyll be entering a Best Buy for miscellaneous products and stumble upon the Experience Shops. What do you think of Samsungs Experience Shops? Tell us in the comments!

Update. Samsung has contacted us saying that these rumors that they plan on investing in Best Buy are untrue. There have been no talks whatsoever regarding stock acquisition of either company.