According to reports, Amazon are planning to open up their very own department stores. This news comes shortly after Amazon became the world’s latest retail seller outside of China.
These new department stores wouldn’t be the first brick-and-mortar store owned by Amazon, just last year Amazon began opening their very first cashier-less supermarkets and four years ago they also bought Whole Foods, aiming to reinvent the grocery industry. Department stores however would give Amazon more opportunities to expand their own private labels alongside independent brands. It has been speculated that the first stores will be located in Ohio and California and will be around 30,000 sq ft in size.
We could see Amazon using their shiny new department stores to focus in on clothing, something that can still be tricky to sell online. Consumers not being able to see clothing items and accessories in person can cause a range of issues, will it fit? Is it good quality? Does it suit me? and then when customers end up buying a bunch of clothing items that they don’t like the businesses are left with a high volume of returns.
Even before the pandemic, brick-and-mortar stores found themselves struggling and for many, the lockdowns and restrictions that followed ended up becoming too much. Ironically, marketplaces like Amazon found success from the demand for digital and gave many businesses struggling on the high street a new home online where they could reach a much wider audience and so, as high street businesses flock online the ecommerce giant will be trying their luck in the physical world.
