Amazon will open more than 300 bookstores in the coming time, according to the report published by the Wall Street Journal.
It was learned last year that Amazon Inc. is thinking to build several brick and mortar stores in the United States. In fact, the online retailer came up with a few physical bookstores in the region. Ever since the company launched its e-book service, it has put almost every other firm in the same category out of business. Now it is believed that Amazon might follow the footsteps of same bookstores that it put out of business in the past years.
According to the Wall Street Journal, a source familiar to the matter reported that the U.S. e-commerce firm is looking to open nearly 300 to 400 brick and mortar bookstores in the United States. The source with detailed knowledge of the matter is the CEO of a shopping mall. It is believed that this is not Amazon’s first ever step in the world of brick and mortar retailing, as it opened its first physical bookstore in November, called Amazon Books located in the hometown of the company, Seattle.
Amazon opened a physical bookstore, which does not operate in the same manner as other book stores do. If book lovers have to shop at Amazon Books, it is not like browsing for desired book in a typical store like Barnes & Noble. As it is the US e-commerce giant, the company uses data from its online marketplace including customer reviews and ratings to decide which book it will stock in the brick and mortar store.
Apart from this, the bookstore of the Seattle-based firm places the books in the rack face out instead of placing it spin out as other stores do. It also includes the rating and customer review of each book in the store from its platform, Amazon.
The physical bookstore is just not limited to browsing and buying books. The company allows its customers to try and buy its devices, such as Amazon Kindle, Amazon Echo and Fire series products as well including Fire TV, Fire Phone, and Fire Tablet etc. It is still unclear whether the newly planned openings of its stores will follow the same strategy as that of Seattle store or will implement a new strategy.
When Amazon launched its idea of offering a service that allows customers to buy books from the store, it came with a plan to put every other brick and mortar bookstore out of business. It did not do it because it had the power to do but wanted the US to be a digital world. The irony is that it is now intending to open physical bookstores itself.
Fortune reported that aggressive discounts on books online were the reason as to why other bookstore chains went out of business in 2011. The largest bookstore chain of the United States, Barnes & Noble, currently has 650 stores but closes nearly 20 stores every year. Amazon’s book service accounted to 7% of the company’s total revenue in 2014.
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