Amazon.com has decided to close dozens of its pop-up stores in the United States and will focus opening of more book stores instead, a move company made to expand and streamline its growing retail operations, a company spokesperson said on last Wednesday.
After the Amazon’s decision, all of its 87 pop-up stores in the United States will expectedly be closing by the end of April, reported the Wall Street Journal citing some employees at the stores.
The news also highlights that online retail giant is still have a focus around exercising its brick-and-mortar strategy as Amazon is remained expanding its physical retail presence in the market.
Pop-up stores are the Amazon’s stand-alone kiosks often found in the malls or grocery stores, which for years helped the company to showcase its devices like Echo speakers and Fire tablets, and are present in more than 20 states.
But, with acquisition of larger chain of Whole Foods stores in 2017, last year launch of its cashierless Amazon Go stores, before holiday season opening of a gift shop-like Amazon 4-Star stores in New York’s SoHo neighborhood and also in the business of selling books and gadgets at Amazon Books stores for several year, company is now available with a larger platform of its own to market those products.
After a thorough review, company decided not to continue its pop-up kiosk program and instead it will expand Amazon 4–Star and Amazon Books stores where company is already providing the customers with broader selection and comprehensive experience, the spokesperson said.
Amazon’s growth mostly came on the heels of convenience and speeds of home delivery, but in recent years, acknowledging the combination of online presence with their physical store as key factor to grow rapidly, Walmart and other retail businesses came to be tightening the competition for Amazon.
