(San Francisco) Amazon, whose online sales platform has participated in the closure of many bookstores, will close its physical bookstores and temporary stores to invest more in its other brands (food and clothing), and in its online sales technologies. shop.
Posted at 8:16 p.m.
“We have decided to close our Amazon 4-star, Books, and Pop Up stores, and focus more on our Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market (organic supermarket chain), Amazon Go, and Amazon Style stores,” it said. a spokesperson at AFP.
The e-commerce giant also wants to develop its technology called “Just Walk Out”, which allows customers to pay automatically when they leave the store, without going through the checkout.
In all, 66 US stores and two in the UK will close. 4-star Amazons offered eclectic product selections, which were highly rated on the e-commerce platform.
“We remain committed to building great physical retail experiences and technologies over the long term,” the spokesperson said. “And we are working closely with affected employees to help them find new positions at Amazon.”
The move came as a “surprise” to GlobalData analyst Neil Saunders, as some stores had opened recently, including in “high cost” malls.
But “people are going to the stores less,” he notes, and most importantly, “Amazon is not your typical retail business. They try and test new things, investing reasonable funds, but don’t hesitate to walk away if they don’t see future potential”.
Amazon announced in January that it would open a high-tech apparel store in Los Angeles later this year with technologies used in its logistics centers, allowing the benefits of online and in-person shopping to be combined.
At “Amazon Styles”, consumers will be able to scan the clothes they like, and the algorithms will “make them personalized recommendations in real time”, according to the press release from the Seattle group.
From the fitting room, they can also order different models and sizes, which will be brought to them “in a few minutes” by the sales staff.
The tech giant, a world leader in cloud (remote computing), bought the organic supermarket chain Whle Foods Market in 2017 for $13.7 billion, allowing it to significantly expand its physical presence, and also to strengthen loyalty programs.
But this acquisition and expansion policy also fuels accusations of abuse of a dominant position by the American authorities.