The festive season sees a massive spike in online orders from all your favorite internet retailers, and Amazon is no exception, being quite possibly the biggest store in the world, well, at least the biggest online.
In what has been lauded as one of the coolest moves of all time, Amazon has decided to go ahead and open up their own brick and mortar (as in real life) store in New York city in time for the big Xmas rush.
The Wall Street Journal, a purveyor of some of the most high profile, consistently accurate tech leaks of all time, has outed the new store, citing their own sources.
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What could one expect from an Amazon shop right on the ground? Well, the WSJ seems to think that it’s a quick move to boost the Amazon brand. Indeed, the big Amazon logo will do just that.
The store itself will be a local warehouse for one day ordering and delivery within the New York area, allowing customer to pay and order items to be shipped out that day or the next. The store will also be expected to handle returns and exchanges face to face as well.
Amazon;s experiment in real world shopping should be a very interesting one for the company. Their thin general budget may mean that Amazon shops might never see the light of day as a worldwide concept, however the company is expected to benefit highly from this single location idea.
The drawbacks of a brick and mortar store are obvious – paying for the space and the people who work there, as well as other bills that come as a consequence of owning a physical location, such as utilities, shop dressing, tills and other paraphernalia of traditional retail.
However, having a physical space allows the company to show off some of their flagship, own brand tech products. The Amazon Fire Phone performed disastrously in the market, regardless of its revolutionary 4 camera face detection feature. A lack of physical examples of the phone may have been to blame for this.
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In contrast, the Kindle eReader range, which is extensively demoed at bookstores across the globe, has done very well in the eReader market. Amazon may have been taking note of this fact, hence the physical location. Amazon Fire TV, a set top box by the company, could also be demoed alongside the Fire Phone and Kindle at the NY store.
Amazon’s New York store will open ‘in time for the holidays’ and will be located on 34th Street near Macy’s flagship store and the Empire State Building. If you manage to visit there this year, tell us about it if you can.
Source: WSJ
Via: Techspot