Amazon Closing Scores of Shops in US, UK in Retail Strategy Shift

E-commerce titan Amazon on Wednesday confirmed plans to shut its bricks-and-mortar bookstores and pop-up outlets so as to concentrate on the Whole Foods grocery chain and shops that includes its newest auto-checkout know-how.

According to a spokesperson, the corporate will shutter its Amazon 4-star, Books, and Pop Up shops.

Amazon 4-star shops carry curated alternatives of merchandise, all of which have been rated 4-stars or extra on the corporate’s retail web site.

The Seattle-based firm anticipated to shut 66 real-world shops within the United States and two extra within the United Kingdom.

“We remain committed to building great, long-term physical retail experiences and technologies,” a spokesperson stated in reply to an AFP inquiry.

“We’re working closely with our affected employees to help them find new roles within Amazon.”

According to the corporate, the closures are a part of a shift in technique to focus extra on Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, Amazon Go, and Amazon Style shops in addition to the corporate’s “Just Walk Out” know-how, which permits prospects to settle their tabs with out a money register.

Amazon deliberate to proceed opening “innovative” shops, together with a Style store in Los Angeles that might be its first bricks-and-mortar clothes retailer.

An Amazon Style retailer to launch later this 12 months will let prospects use the retailer’s app to scan QR codes of clothes, select from sizes and hues, then have these gadgets despatched to becoming rooms to strive on, in line with a weblog publish.

Fitting rooms within the Style store are designed to be a “personalised space” the place buyers will discover gadgets they requested by means of the app together with choices added based mostly on their selections, in line with Amazon.

Touchscreens in becoming rooms will let folks proceed to buy, with gadgets delivered “in just minutes” for them to strive on, in line with Amazon.

The plan for a bodily clothes retailer comes as authorities and rivals elevate warnings over the tech large having an excessive amount of clout in retail.

Amazon acquired the Whole Foods Market grocery chain for $13.7 billion (roughly Rs. 1,03,875 crore) in 2017, considerably increasing the e-commerce large’s presence in bodily retail.

© Thomson Reuters 2022