Amazon and Walmart should watch out for Best Buy’s rollout of the TotalTech premium loyalty program, which helped the electronics retailer win customers during the holiday season.

TotalTech is the latest episode of "Renew Blue," an intelligent strategy launched a decade ago to help Best Buy make the most of its precious assets, an extensive network of stores and a team of tech experts ready to assist customers with electronic purchases and product installation.

Renew Blue began with the merging of online and offline sales, by using stores as warehouses and pickup places to speed up online order delivery, as has been the case with other traditional retailers. That’s a critical move to counter Amazon’s Prime services.

Then it proceeded with the expansion of its product portfolio to address emerging consumer electronics trends like health technology solutions, home theaters and computing.

Renew Blue introduced the "stores within stores" concept, whereby major technology companies like Microsoft and Samsung set up their own stores inside Best Buy locations. That helped the retail giant shift the cost of showrooming to these companies.

Renew Blue made effective use of the Geek Squad by packaging product sales with services, something Amazon is missing.

Last week, Best Buy reported strong fourth-quarter earnings and revenues, in line with market expectations. That’s in spite of product shortages due to supply chain woes.

"Best Buy had a strong holiday season thanks to a strategic rollout of its TotalTech premium loyalty program,” said Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce. “As supply chain shortages weighed on retailers, many stores anticipated lower levels of inventory this year, especially for consumer electronics that were being held up in the chip shortage. Our data at the time found that 38% of U.S. consumers were looking to buy electronics like TVs, phones and laptops as gifts, but there wasn’t going to be enough for everyone.”

Best Buy didn’t let this crisis go wasted. Instead, it turned it into an opportunity to attract loyal customers.

“Best Buy was able to prioritize its top customers by giving TotalTech enrollees early and exclusive access to some of these harder-to-find items, a promise that it publicized ahead of the December rush - encouraging shoppers to sign up,” adds Caporaso. “Now that Best Buy’s membership is in full swing, the program will prove its price tag through direct Geek Squad access, installation help and extended warranties on breakable items, such as iPhones and laptops.”

But will Best Buy customers stay with the TotalTech program until the next season? It all depends on execution, according to Caporaso.

“If Best Buy is able to deliver the personalized support that it promised, shoppers will likely stay enrolled until the next holiday season, and membership will continue to grow,” he explains. “While Best Buy’s program is unique, we can expect more brands to roll out these kinds of loyalty programs after seeing quick enrollment rates for TotalTech as well as other programs like Walmart+."

Best Buy’s management seems to be on the same page with Caporaso, praising the company’s teams for “remarkable execution” during the holiday season.

“Our teams showed remarkable execution and dedication to serving our customers throughout the important gift-giving season,” said Corie Barry, Best Buy CEO. “In Q4, we drove improvement in year-over-year customer satisfaction metrics across almost all areas, particularly for in-store, online and chat experiences. And even with online sales at almost 40% of our domestic revenue, we reached our fastest holiday delivery times ever, shipping products to customer homes more than 25% faster than last year and two years ago. I am truly grateful for, and continue to be impressed by, our associates' dedication, resourcefulness and flat-out determination.”

Wall Street has cheered Best Buy’s Renew Blue strategy. Over the last five years, Best Buy’s shares have gained 134% compared to a 102% gain for Walmart’s shares and 82% for the S&P 500, but behind Amazon’s gains of 222%.

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