<a href="http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/amazon-store-manhattan/" rel="nofollow">http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/09/amazon-store-manhattan/</a><p>Seems unnecessary. I guess Amazon is getting so bored making money in sane ways that they want to lose money in insane ways.
Since we all don't have a wsj account...<p><a href="http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-to-open-first-physical-store-in-manhattan-2014-10-09" rel="nofollow">http://www.marketwatch.com/story/amazon-to-open-first-physic...</a>
I assume this will be more of a Kindle showroom with a bunch of Amazon lockers for product pickup. They're always trying to reduce shipping costs and having people pick stuff up is a good way to keep the shippers on their toes.
This is probably to help feed the media buzz when they release a new Kindle or such.<p>TV loves these " people in Manhattan queued all night in front of the store in anticipation of iThingy 15.7 "
Amazon has nothing to lose from this store.<p>- They will ride the media wave when a product launches/when they do a stunt like drone delivery and have people waiting outside.<p>- You can bet they will be testing in-house tracking/advertising by analyzing their customers' actions under their own conditions<p>- You can bet they will sell at least a small number of their flagship products<p>Kind of surprising that they didnt already have a brick-and-mortar location.
UX: Relentless body and eye tracking from the moment you walk in. Physical identity linked to your Amazon account. No opt-out. No cash payment. Tight integration to online experience. Customer is seated beside a large touch screen, product arrives kaiten sushi style. Some visibility of robotic pickers behind the scenes. Reservation of seating days in advance.
I'm sure someone can find a niche for it. Stock "deal of the day" items, top sellers, small items (not worth cost of shipping but buyers willing to drive to get), and ship-to-store (lowered shipping, don't worry about shipper leaving it on porch to get stolen). Also provides a live face for service.
How many warehouses does Amazon operate in the suburbs outside NYC? I bet they can already do same day delivery on lots of products. Will be interesting to see what inventory they put on display here. Or how its innovative? Maybe giant interactive walls where they let you browse tons of their stuff thats upstairs?
Seems cool. Picking up from a store can be useful when it's something you're worried about sitting on your doorstep all day. Could be a great way to improve customer service as well. I'm curious as to whether the store will actually stock non-amazon products.
I'd be curious what proportion of public facing space would be lockers.<p>I imagine it'd be great to showcase flash sales and extremely high demand items. I really believe a retailer selling physical goods needs some sort of physical presence and hope this is something interesting.
They ship by drone from the warehouse to the store in 30 minutes. You order something, 30 minutes later, after you drink an expensive latte and use their free wifi to watch some TV show from their network, you get your hard-to-find item, and you go home happy.
Wonder how long it will be until we start seeing subdivisions built around Distribution Centers, with robots delivering the goods almost immediately after ordering. 20 years?
I could see Amazon using this as a NYC media presence, as much as a store. They could do readings by authors, launch events for Amazon original video content, Kindle product launches, and so on.<p>Also, six foot HDMI cables. Everybody needs those.
Reminds me of the eBay store scene from The 40-year-old Virgin:<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxRg5I7r5s" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGxRg5I7r5s</a><p>The future of e-commerce is bricks and mortar (?!)