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Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

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Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#41

Post by alttab »

mmanfrin wrote: post #23
vessenes wrote: post #17

Interestingly a lot of data they say they're using is available to any bookstore. I wonder if there are small mom-and-pop chains that use Amazon ratings and sales ranks as cues for their buyer. A tie-in to an e-reader that still makes the bookstore money is a killer feature for me as a reader. Indies still haven't gotten that totally sorted yet, and it keeps me buying more paper books than I'd like, and also buying l…

A friend of mine gave me guff about my kindle -- his parents had a book store, but couldnt keep it open. I started to think about how an indie book store could work in an ereader world; my ideas: You'd need an ereader with a small nfc reader or barcode scanner. Customers browsing the paper books in store could elect to buy the same book for the ereader in store if they wanted by just scanning the book with their erea…

The more you think about it, both the indie book store owner and Amazon would have no incentive to participate. The indie book owner wouldn't want to give away 20% of gross sales to survive, because there isn't much there to begin with.

If Amazon books takes off, maybe they franchise it out and allow personal branding of some kind.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#42

Post by antsar »

anindyabd wrote: post #37
peterburkimsher wrote: post #33

This takes "Look Inside" to a whole new level. It's a neat idea, and a good way to put a public face on their business. The major reason I'd still prefer to shop online is the reviews. I doubt that those are printed alongside the physical copies. Sure, I could read the reviews on my phone - but why not then finish my one-click "Buy" instead of walking all the way to a store just to look at my phone screen? I hope tha…

According to the article, even though you can't see all the reviews, you can see at least one review or a rating: "Below each book on the shelf is a card with either a review or a rating from the site."

"A rating". Why not give high-margin items get a cherrypicked high rating, and low-margin items a cherrypicked three/four star rating (you can't just say everything is five stars, of course).

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#43

Post by janesvilleseo »

devindotcom wrote: post #22
tom-_- wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How are the prices displayed? They should match the .com price, and I assume the .com price can change frequently.

The price isn't displayed - you see the standard/printed price on the book itself (i.e. $25 in usa) and then take it to one of several little stations that tells you the current price on Amazon ($16.94 or whatever, you save X amount). You can also scan barcodes on each little review placard with the app and it'll pull up the price. Not ideal, I'll allow, but since the prices fluctuate there's not an easy way to do it…

This seems so backwards. Amazon lead on cheap prices. But this retail store only displays book/listed price. Which are higher. The only way to get the real price is to manually scan each one. Why? What am I missing?

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#44

Post by theseoafs »

whoiskevin wrote: post #11
maxerickson wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can't you do this at any library or book store?

Maybe the library but the book store...well not if you are then taking home only what you purchase from Amazon instead of the place you just comfortably browsed inventory. I find it hard to understand the logic of using a place of business in order to take advantage and not purchase from them. People justify it in many ways but none of those justifications stands up to examination.

There's nothing to justify. They let you freely browse their inventory, and you browsed the inventory.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#45

Post by amrrs »

teirce wrote: post #36
kenjackson wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is an interesting thesis... which is that brick and mortar can work if you also own the online alternative. I never bought books and B&N because I knew I could get the book cheaper at Amazon. The same with toys when I used to shop at ToysRUs. But those are both goods that I'd actually like to buy on the spot. If I know that the price in the store is the same as online, I'd probably do a lot of in store purchases…

I used to hold this viewpoint until I watched a video (I can't seem to find it now) that made a pretty good point. The point was something along the following: "I like book stores. I like going in and flipping through the books. Sure, I could buy the book on Amazon for $4 less, but if I keep doing that eventually book stores won't be around. And I like book stores." Ever since then, I usually try to buy the book in B…

For such concerned customers, Amazon Book store seems to be the solution. So still you can flip the pages and buy online but Book store won't go anywhere.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#46

Post by zeckalpha »

vnorby wrote: post #26
thinkling wrote: post #3

I'm very curious what Amazon is trying to do here. Can the business plan pencil out by selling enough additional goods to pay the store's operating expenses? Is the real goal to expose more people to the Kindle who wouldn't otherwise see one, i.e. it's a Trojan?

In 2013, Amazon had 65% market share of online book sales [1]. It wouldn't surprise me if this was 20% higher now. When customers walk into a Barnes and Noble (or any bookstore) and browse books but don't buy (for example, because they found a cheaper price online), they are most likely to end up on Amazon to complete the purchase. B&N did the work but Amazon got the money. Amazon doesn't have that problem. They don'…

Additionally, the decline of brick and mortar book stores may have hurt Amazon's book sales. Customers no longer have as many showrooms to browse for books. See also: Tesla showrooms which cannot sell you the car (due to dealership rules).

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#47

Post by maguay »

Today, a bookstore. Tomorrow, Amazon's the new Walmart/Tesco and everything's priced the same as Amazon.com.

Either that, or this is a glitch in the Matrix and a digital store accidentally became real.

Seriously though, the digital-to-physical world touches like a cookbook row of the most wished-for cookbooks or Amazon's top preorders on a real shelf is fascinating. Almost surprising we don't see more things like that already in other stores. It's data eating the world.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#48

Post by pcurve »

thinkling wrote: post #3

I'm very curious what Amazon is trying to do here. Can the business plan pencil out by selling enough additional goods to pay the store's operating expenses? Is the real goal to expose more people to the Kindle who wouldn't otherwise see one, i.e. it's a Trojan?

I think this is an attempt to offset their skyrocketing delivery costs.

I don't think they're doing this because they have Apple retail store envy.

They've done the math and figured out that additional cost would be more than paid off through this means.

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#49

Post by spudlyo »

vnorby wrote: post #26
thinkling wrote: post #3

I'm very curious what Amazon is trying to do here. Can the business plan pencil out by selling enough additional goods to pay the store's operating expenses? Is the real goal to expose more people to the Kindle who wouldn't otherwise see one, i.e. it's a Trojan?

In 2013, Amazon had 65% market share of online book sales [1]. It wouldn't surprise me if this was 20% higher now. When customers walk into a Barnes and Noble (or any bookstore) and browse books but don't buy (for example, because they found a cheaper price online), they are most likely to end up on Amazon to complete the purchase. B&N did the work but Amazon got the money. Amazon doesn't have that problem. They don'…

This is the final nail in B&N's coffin.

    > weh8ban
    > A hollow voice says, "Fool!'

Re: Amazon opens first bricks-and-mortar bookstore

#50

Post by nbarAKL »

janesvilleseo wrote: post #43
devindotcom wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The price isn't displayed - you see the standard/printed price on the book itself (i.e. $25 in usa) and then take it to one of several little stations that tells you the current price on Amazon ($16.94 or whatever, you save X amount). You can also scan barcodes on each little review placard with the app and it'll pull up the price. Not ideal, I'll allow, but since the prices fluctuate there's not an easy way to do it…

This seems so backwards. Amazon lead on cheap prices. But this retail store only displays book/listed price. Which are higher. The only way to get the real price is to manually scan each one. Why? What am I missing?

I think that the assumption is that you'll always get the best possible price on the book, so consumers won't worry too much about pricing.

We don't have Amazon as such a big influence in my country, so I'm curious - does the price of a book on Amazon impact your decision to buy it?

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