While this past week might very well have been Google’s time to shine, that hasn’t stopped Amazon and others from getting involved with their little pieces of news here and there. Many people might not know this, but Amazon opened a real, physical store last year in Seattle, and while it’s very much an experiment for Amazon it clearly has some more traditional chains more than a little worried. It’s no wonder that they’re worried either, as Amazon is the biggest online retailer in the United States, and it’s making a name themselves in emerging markets such as India, too. What would happen if Amazon started to open more of these stores though? Well, we might find out in the future.
During a shareholder meeting, Amazon’s Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is quoted as saying that “we’re definitely going to open additional stores”. It’s important to remember that the whole idea about shareholder meetings is to reassure shareholders when something is’t going right that it be set right and also that if things are going well, they can only get better in the future. For Amazon, it would appear as though the latter is what these shareholder meetings are all about, but if Amazon to be seriously thinking about opening more brick-and-mortar stores then it could have big implications on the everyday market of buying and selling in person. Of course, these stores will still probably be something of an experiment for the online firm, but they certainly have the right brand to drive foot traffic, and it could even lead to a resurgence in visiting stores, rather than just buying something online.
Bezos himself has been fond of the idea of stores like this in the past, but only if “it can be significant in the context of our overall company”. Just what that means is unclear, but for the foreseeable future at least the main focus will be on the online side of things, with any brick-and-mortar stores helping to drive traffic to Amazon.com. One of the things that Amazon is best-known for however, books, have proven to be successful, as the firm looks to open their second physical book store in Southern California. It’s unlikely that we will start to see these new stores before the end of 2016, but we might hear more information about any possible plans later on in the year.