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Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

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Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#11

Post by schintan »

droithomme wrote: post #5
devoply wrote: post #3

I like the moves all of these brick and mortar stores are making online. Walmart, etc. They are slowly but surely catching up, so much so that I this Amazon dominating everything is not guaranteed. Walmart and other brick and mortar stores might develop strategies to effectively compete... which will be great for consumers to be able to get everything online delivered or store pickup... with lots of deals offered. Th…

Very good points. I concur. WalMart's website is very poorly designed compared to amazon, but they generally have the same goods at the same price. WalMart will offer free ship-to-store that I can get faster than waiting for amazon free shipping, and critically, WalMart allows no-hassle returns of internet purchases at the local return counter. Amazon's return policy is good, but it's more of a hassle to deal with bo…

agreed, but Amazon can change all this by acquiring Kohls or Target for example.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#12

Post by Consultant32452 »

skywhopper wrote: post #9
devoply wrote: post #3

I like the moves all of these brick and mortar stores are making online. Walmart, etc. They are slowly but surely catching up, so much so that I this Amazon dominating everything is not guaranteed. Walmart and other brick and mortar stores might develop strategies to effectively compete... which will be great for consumers to be able to get everything online delivered or store pickup... with lots of deals offered. Th…

Walmart in particular seems well-positioned to pivot to competing with Amazon in retail in the US. They maintain what are essentially warehouse facilities within a short drive of a huge percentage of the population. Outcompeting Amazon in terms of a pleasant and trust-building web-shopping experience should be achievable--Amazon's UX has been getting worse over time, and achieving truly fast delivery outside of huge…

I think Walmart is doing a great job with their online presence of late and I've seen articles about local delivery experiments they were performing. There was an article on HN some time back about Walmart basically paying their employees to deliver packages on their way home from work. It got a lot of negative feedback, but it's clear they're willing to experiment and try new ideas. They've also introduced some really great free shipping policies which compete well with Prime, but don't require a subscription fee.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#13

Post by thaumasiotes »

rabidonrails wrote: post #8
droithomme wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Very good points. I concur. WalMart's website is very poorly designed compared to amazon, but they generally have the same goods at the same price. WalMart will offer free ship-to-store that I can get faster than waiting for amazon free shipping, and critically, WalMart allows no-hassle returns of internet purchases at the local return counter. Amazon's return policy is good, but it's more of a hassle to deal with bo…

All good points. I think that Amazon sees this issue and working with retailers (Kohls) to set up locations that you can drop items without having to deal with the boxing, shipping etc. It will be interesting to see how to two bridge the gaps from opposite sides. Amazon moving from online to physical | Walmart moving from physical to online

Amazon already allows you to drop items for them at a UPS store. They pay for the shipping. And UPS will handle packaging the item -- but you have to pay for that.

If Amazon would pay for packaging too, the whole problem would be solved.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#14

Post by acomjean »

_ea1k wrote: post #4

Ah, so they are shutting these down but adding new 4-star stores and more Amazon Go stores. I guess the real takeaway is that those stores were performing better? It is interesting to see them doing A-B testing at this level. I'm sure it happens regularly with other retailers, too, though.

They did buy a large retail food operation (Whole foods) which now has amazon lockers and sells all matter of kindles etc.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#15

Post by ignoramous »

_ea1k wrote: post #4

Ah, so they are shutting these down but adding new 4-star stores and more Amazon Go stores. I guess the real takeaway is that those stores were performing better? It is interesting to see them doing A-B testing at this level. I'm sure it happens regularly with other retailers, too, though.

> ... adding new 4-star stores and more Amazon Go stores. . I guess the real takeaway is that those stores were performing better?

Not sure why they'd then terminate employment and offer severance to people working for them in those stores. The key takeaway could be that these pop-up stores didn't result in tangible benefit to their bottom-line?

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#17

Post by anth_anm »

async_dev wrote: post #6

Note that they are only shutting down pop-up stores that feature (it sounds like) all Amazon products like Kindle, etc. NOT their cashierless "Go" stores. It sounds like they figured out that dedicated physical locations for Amazon products don't make sense like it does for Apple, etc.

Makes more sense to have them in go stores, whole foods, etc...

I bought my parents an echo because they had them on sale at whole foods around christmas.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#18

Post by wincy »

skywhopper wrote: post #9
devoply wrote: post #3

I like the moves all of these brick and mortar stores are making online. Walmart, etc. They are slowly but surely catching up, so much so that I this Amazon dominating everything is not guaranteed. Walmart and other brick and mortar stores might develop strategies to effectively compete... which will be great for consumers to be able to get everything online delivered or store pickup... with lots of deals offered. Th…

Walmart in particular seems well-positioned to pivot to competing with Amazon in retail in the US. They maintain what are essentially warehouse facilities within a short drive of a huge percentage of the population. Outcompeting Amazon in terms of a pleasant and trust-building web-shopping experience should be achievable--Amazon's UX has been getting worse over time, and achieving truly fast delivery outside of huge…

I’ve commented on this several times, but Walmart’s online grocery pickup app is coming along nicely. They’re doing a push to hire developers and the improvements show in the app.

You originally had to call a phone number but now you say you’re on your way and it notifies the workers to come out and put your groceries in the trunk. My wife hates going inside Walmart’s so we’d use the smaller more expensive grocery stores, but with online pickup she stores her favorite items, adds them to a cart with a $30 minimum, and picks them up the next morning. It’s super convenient and we love it. I’d be hard pressed to see how Amazon could improve upon it, honestly.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#19

Post by sct202 »

I used one of the pop-ups to trade in my old broken Kindle, and it was a relatively pleasant experience. I think really the most negative part about the whole process was that the city I live in had AMZN pop-ups and book-stores, but only a few select locations would do a trade in.

Re: Amazon to Shut All U.S. Pop-Up Stores as It Rethinks Physical Retail Strategy

#20

Post by TAForObvReasons »

skywhopper wrote: post #9
devoply wrote: post #3

I like the moves all of these brick and mortar stores are making online. Walmart, etc. They are slowly but surely catching up, so much so that I this Amazon dominating everything is not guaranteed. Walmart and other brick and mortar stores might develop strategies to effectively compete... which will be great for consumers to be able to get everything online delivered or store pickup... with lots of deals offered. Th…

Walmart in particular seems well-positioned to pivot to competing with Amazon in retail in the US. They maintain what are essentially warehouse facilities within a short drive of a huge percentage of the population. Outcompeting Amazon in terms of a pleasant and trust-building web-shopping experience should be achievable--Amazon's UX has been getting worse over time, and achieving truly fast delivery outside of huge…

More and more frequently, Walmart online prices for the same items are comparable or even better than Amazon. Nowadays I search there first and generally prefer it.
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