Hardware Retailing The Industry's Source for Insights and Information
Amazon may be opening as many as 400 brick-and-mortar stores, following a trend of online retailers adding physical locations and the debut of its Seattle bookstore in 2015.
A recent earnings call spurred the talk of the online retailer planning to open traditional stores.
According to an article by The Wall Street Journal, Sandeep Mathrani, chief executive of mall operator General Growth Properties, responded to a question about mall foot traffic, saying “You’ve got Amazon opening brick-and-mortar bookstores and their goal is to open, as I understand, 300 to 400.”
It wasn’t clear where Mathrani got the store figure, but he could have spoken with Amazon’s real-estate executives about their plans, the article says.
During the call, Mathrani noted that other online retailers, like fashion site Bonobos and eyeglass seller Warby Parker, are opening physical stores. Online makeup subscription service Birchbox “is cutting their overhead to open bricks-and-mortar stores,” he adds.
“If Amazon were to open hundreds of stores, it would take years to pick locations, reach leasing deals and hire staff,” The Wall Street Journal says. “Physical stores would give Amazon customers a place to leaf through books before buying them.”
After the media began reporting on Mathrani’s comment, Mathrani released a statement saying what he said “was not intended to represent Amazon’s plans.”
Amazon’s first physical bookstore in Seattle opened last November. The store sells books and Amazon’s Kindle and Fire devices. The company stocks the store based on data it collects through its website.
“The new Seattle outlet leans on Amazon’s big data algorithms and customer-centric ideology to display to consumers just what they’re looking for in the format they’ve learned to know and love,” according to an article from Entrepreneur.
At the Seattle bookstore, customers can purchase books at the same prices as at the online store. Additionally, the store posts customers’ online book reviews and books’ rankings in website sales.
