Amazon To Open Brick-And-Mortar Store, Stocking Only High-Rated Products


For anyone who hasn’t made a purchase from Amazon because they don’t like shopping online, the opportunity to shop at an Amazon brick-and-mortar store may be in your future. The e-commerce giant announced plans to open a general store in New York City featuring a range of household goods, toys, and other products, Reuters reports.

This Amazon general store offers the promise of only high-quality products as only items with four- and five-star customer ratings on the website will be stocked on the shelves. Utilizing customer data, the store’s shelves will also be stocked with items popular among their New York shoppers.

While in the store, shoppers will have the opportunity to try out a variety of Amazon devices and technology including the Echo speakers and Kindle readers. This offers a unique opportunity for customers to get a feel for Amazon technology before committing to a purchase. Amazon has also confirmed video games, books, and kitchenware will be available for purchase when the store opens.

Being referred to as Amazon 4-Star, this store is Amazon’s latest clap back at an ongoing war with Target Corp. The competing retail giant recently opened small-format stores to target urban shoppers. As Reuters points out, this move into the brick-and-mortar world is another opportunity for Amazon to shine a light on their commitment to customer satisfaction. Amazon frequently boasts of putting their customers before anything else.

The shelves of Amazon 4-Star will come equipped with digital prices, allowing the product prices to fluctuate the same way they do on the website. The digital prices also ensure that customers with Amazon Prime memberships get the best pricing in store as well as online.

Reuters notes that customers without a Prime membership will likely pay higher prices than those with a membership as the company already owns more than a dozen book stores that operate with the same policy.

Promising lower prices in-store for anyone with a Prime membership – or willing to sign up for one – is a business strategy the e-commerce giant utilizes to increase their customer base both online and offline. Once the company locks someone into a Prime membership in the store, they hope the customer will log in to the website to reap the full benefits of being a member and possibly to start shopping online.

If the trial is successful, the e-commerce giant plans on opening additional stores in other locations.

As those who have kept up with Amazon-related news know, the e-commerce giant also stepped into the brick-and-mortar world in the form of grocery stores. Last year, the company purchased Whole Foods Market for $13.7 billion. The company used the deal to offer customers the opportunity to order fresh groceries for home delivery.

Amazon also started to roll out small grocery stores called Amazon Go. These stores offered the opportunity to walk into a store, get what you need, and walk out. Customers did not need to stop at the cash register because the store used technology to automatically charge the customer for anything they walked out of the store with.

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