One of the largest online retailers is entering the brick-and-mortar world, as e-commerce giant Amazon opened its first ever physical bookshop in Seattle this week and confirmed that the store would stock thousands of the most popular titles from its website.
According to Reuters and BBC News, Amazon is describing the new bookshop as a physical extension of its online business, and plans to sell select books based on customer ratings along with pre-orders. Prices will be the same as those on the retailer’s Internet marketplace.
Furthermore, the University Village shop will sell Amazon devices such as the Kindle, the Echo, the Fire Tablet, and Fire TV. Customers will be able to try out the products, and staff experts will be on hand to answer any questions.
Amazon Books vice-president Jennifer Cast told the BBC that the 5,500 square foot store would stock 5,000 books selected from online customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, overall popularity on the book-lovers website Goodreads, and the advice of employees running the shop.
Store to offer limited books, no online order pick-ups
Cast told the Seattle Times that the store would not be a location for customers to pick up their online orders, nor will it be a showcase for Amazon Publishing imprints, and while the Amazon brand devices will be there, she emphasized that it will first and foremost be a bookstore.
She also told the newspaper that unlike many bookstores, were titles are crammed onto shelves with only their spines visible to customers, every book featured at the University Village location will be face-out—limiting the number of books on display but offering a better look at them.
“Our goal is to do a great job selling lots of books,” Cast said, adding that while the company is “completely focused on this bookstore,” opening additional locations elsewhere is not out of the realm of possibility. “We hope this is not our only one,” she said, “but we’ll see.”
As CNET pointed out, Amazon is far from the only online tech company to enter the brick-and-mortar world. In 2001, Apple launched its first Apple Store, and now has more than 450 locations in 17 different countries. Likewise, Microsoft has 110 physical stores throughout North America, with the latest opening in Manhattan in September, and even Google has toyed with the concept.
Tom Tivnan, features editor for Bookseller magazine, told BBC News that he felt the Amazon bookshop went against the company’s model of “being a never-ending bookshop.” He added that while he could future locations opening in “a limited number of cities like New York or possibly London, but I don’t think it will have a huge impact.”
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Feature Image: Amazon
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