Amazon To Follow Other e-commerce Companies Footprints

By deciding to open book stores across the United States, Amazon intends to follow the plans of other online retailers

The intent of Amazon to establish its own bookstores in different parts of the United States seems to defy a two decade long online blueprint for pummeling conventional retailers with seemingly unlimited production selection and cut throat prices.

But the apparent plan of the American e-commerce company is to establish its physical presence in urban centers and shopping centers follows the smaller web retailers’ playbook that finds early success by reaching buyers through kiosks and storefronts.

 Internet retailers including garments boutique Bonobos, jewelry seller Blue Nile and eye glasses outlet Warby Parker have addressed a biggest disadvantage of electronic buying with showrooms that let consumers try, feel and touch goods prior to purchasing them online.

Their small stores also boost brands and help offset the prohibitively high costs of attaining consumers online.  Since 2013, Warby Parker has established 24 United States locations. At the store of Warby Parker, consumers can try a huge selection of glasses, but unlike the Lens Crafters stores of Luxottica Group, all orders are placed through the website of the company.

Co-chief executive of Warby Parker, Dave Gilboa stated: the stores are lucrative and average just below $3000 per square foot in terms of sales, which is almost two times greater than that of upscale handbag manufacturer Coach Inc.

Whereas the success of Apple is coveted by retailers, brick and mortar retail is not a forgiving business. An early mail order personal computer manufacturer Gateway used to operate nearly 200 distribution centers prior to its retrenching, shutting all of them down in 2004.

And Google of Alphabet has long been contemplating a rollout of retail, but has settled in majority of areas within the stores of other retailers for displaying its hardware products. In November, Amazon, which established its first book store in Seattle, is silent regarding its growth plans. But the CEO of shopping center operator General Growth Properties Sandeep Mathrani recently stated that the online retailer aims to establish between 300 and 400 book stores.

Later, GGP stated Sandeep was not talking on Amazon’s behalf. The company would probably establish at least 2 more stores and aims to ultimately extend to as much as 200 areas, a person aware of the organization’s plans revealed.

By comparison, Barnes & Nobles is having 640 stores. Books are only equation’s part. Amazon is interested in using the storefronts for building brand awareness and showcasing its electronic offers. It’s  bookstore in Seattle is stocking around 5000 titles, compared with 160,000 titles found at the bookstores of Barnes & Noble and sells products that  include Amazon’s Kindle electronic readers and Fire Tablets.