As consumers return to stores, why would Amazon shut the door?
The e-retailer is expanding its grocery fleet and experimenting with apparel stores. But it has abandoned stand-alone brick and mortar for book sales and other merchandise.
Retail Dive - Daphne Howland, Senior Reporter
"The pandemic supercharged e-commerce as even more consumers discovered its convenience. That led research firm FTI Consulting, for one, to move up its timeline by three years, to this year, for online sales to handily top $1 trillion.
The vast majority of shoppers still favor stores, however. About three-quarters of consumers prefer them even for ordinary household items, according to consultancy Big Village. Yet in a year when retailers drastically eased up on store closures and Amazon itself saw a 3% decline in its Q1 online retail sales, the e-commerce giant closed all of its bookstores, 4-star stores and pop-ups. The nearly 70 locations — 66 in the U.S., two in the U.K.— were almost the entirety of its non-food fleet. At press time all that remains in that category is a lone, newly opened Amazon Style apparel store."
The vast majority of shoppers still favor stores, however. About three-quarters of consumers prefer them even for ordinary household items, according to consultancy Big Village. Yet in a year when retailers drastically eased up on store closures and Amazon itself saw a 3% decline in its Q1 online retail sales, the e-commerce giant closed all of its bookstores, 4-star stores and pop-ups. The nearly 70 locations — 66 in the U.S., two in the U.K.— were almost the entirety of its non-food fleet. At press time all that remains in that category is a lone, newly opened Amazon Style apparel store."
Read the full article here.
Jul 24, 2022