The Amazon takeover has begun, the future is here for the company and it’s looking extra physical.
Looking at the amazon website can be overwhelming at times with all the options in front of you, but not quite physically there. This has made some wonder what it would be like if the online vendor had a physical store, as if physically seeing all the options would be any less daunting. But rolling off of that idea caused Amazon to brainstorm whether a physical location is what the people truly want, because at the end of the day maximizing profits is the most important for any business. So the big company has dreamt for a long time and planned for it’s own store, and now it’s happened.
In November Amazon successfully revealed it’s first ever-physical bookstore in Seattle, sending the retail industry into frenzy. Already the company posed a huge threat to the book industry, leaving many competitors in the dust. But the store is pretty much how you would expect any bookstore to be, but not for long. The “brick-and-mortar” store is called Amazon Books and features over 5000 books from the website’s bestseller’s list and also based off of customer’s reviews and comments. The store also highlights its staff favorites, but basically utilizes the website’s data to make sure the books featured in the stores are what the customer’s truly want. The store charges the same prices as it shows on the website and has reached out to local bookstores and librarians as the employees of the bookstore. Amazon has declared that Amazon Books will only be a bookstore and not be a location for online order pickup. This is the first and only physical store for Amazon, or at least for now.
Amazon’s plans for its retail expansion were revealed to show that Amazon has an initiative in place for multiple retail options. Headed by Steve Kessel who was a longtime Amazon executive before he left the company around 2011. He was also in charge of the team that developed and launched the first Kindle. The close relationship he has with Amazon’s current CEO, Jeff Bezos, allowed the two to sit down and really collaborate a proper initiative that stays true to Amazon’s usual business strategies. The initiative seeks to keep bringing back Amazon “veterans” or executives that left and will come back now. Although it hasn’t been confirmed there are rumors spreading that the company hopes to open 300-400 more bookstores. But what makes the bookstores different than competitors are the plans for the future. Kessel hopes to bring in technology so that customers can pick up the items and walk out with them, automatically scanning and purchasing the product, most likely for customers with an Amazon account set up. These plans are tentative but combine with the team’s hopes to also provide other types of Amazon related retail stores, not just bookstores.
Amazon Books also provides customers’ with the generations of Kindles produced and the other products, such as the Echo, that the company has developed. Even though the focus is on the bookstore aspect, it’s smart to bring out the other products that are offered because customers are already in the full Amazon environment, but can also feel like they have options. Plus it will be easier for the company to show the public the latest models, with every update that comes out, and by being in the physical store the company already covers marketing strategies.
It may just be that the future will truly be Amazon’s for the taking.
