What's going on?

You might be tired of this work-from-home lifestyle, but Best Buy never wants it to end: the electronics retailer reported a better-than-expected profit and an uncertain post-pandemic outlook on Thursday.

What does this mean?

Folks have been kitting out their home offices and their, uh, kitchen table offices with screens, speakers, and laptops, and that�s been going well for Best Buy so far. But there are signs its luck is running out: the retailer�s revenue grew by a worse-than-expected 13% � a big drop from the 23% growth of the quarter before.

Best Buy isn�t sure how demand will look when economies reopen either, adding it to the list of retailers expecting shoppers to spend more on going out than staying in. So with the company keeping its sales outlook flat for the year, investors initially sent its shares down 8%.

Why should I care?

Zooming in: Retailers are never going to look quite the same.

Best Buy�s online sales represented 43% of its total sales last quarter � a significant bump from the 25% of the same time the year before. And since it reckons the shift toward ecommerce isn�t slowing down, it�s been rolling out some big changes: the company cut its workforce by 17% last year, and it�s testing a store design that�ll reduce the size of its sales floors so it has more space to fulfill online orders.

The bigger picture: Look for growth potential in your retail stocks.

You don�t need to tell Wayfair how important ecommerce is: the online furniture retailer benefited from the overlapping trends of online shopping and home improvement last quarter, posting a 54% surge in customers versus the year before. And while investors were worried this pandemic-driven boost would sputter out, Wayfair convinced them it still has plenty of opportunities for growth � from expanding its professional customer base to becoming a bigger player in appliances.