Amazon to enter Brick-and-Mortar Retail

Amazon is set to launch 400 brick and mortar bookstores it announced in early 2016. (Image Credit: Shutterstock). The internet giant is in a unique position to do in-store analytics in a new way that sets a new standard for physical retail. 

How retail chains are learning how to do Ecommerce and link it to physical retail is truly a symptom of the times. This is because many customers approach now the customer journey from different stages. Click and brick vs, brick and click, plugging the gap left by Amazon's disruption of bookstores means using new technology for the in-store experience. 

Amazon opened its first physical bookstore in Seattle just a few months ago. Many believe this was a pilot study to test a new way of showcasing online products, to give customers a sensory experience with a chain they already trust and use in a growing era of omnichannel shopping. 

Image Credit: Amazon

This means a new era of Ecommerce and physical retail integration, and Amazon is a pioneer in this. Matching customers with the right product is nothing new for Amazon's sophisticated algorithms that offer predictive analytic cross-selling based on a customer's purchase history and other variables. 

Amazon has evolved from its roots, and as a publicly traded company, the pressure is on to grow in new ways that add value for investors. Amazon now also has services such as a video-streaming platform that competes with Netflix and even a meal-delivery service for restaurants that competes with the likes of Uber and Postmates. 

More than a Store; an Experience 

Barnes & Nobles have had a harder time of it in the U.S., however in the UK they saw annual profits for the first time since 2011. The trend that the digital revolution is seeing, are new offerings in the in-store experience.  Barnes & Noble has already hinted at what it has in store, hosting coloring book events, selling art supplies, and even promoting coding and 3D-printing workshops. These educational experiences are now part of how B&M and physical retail uses events to lure customers to the store that help boost sales. 

By opening 300 or 400 stores, Amazon would make a play to compete with its last main rival, since  Barnes & Noble, a company that opened its first bookstore almost a century ago, has around 650 physical outlets remaining across the U.S. Independent stores can learn from online retailers that enter the brick-and-mortar space because for the most part, they are data-driven and analytics based at a whole other level. This in turn, has valuable implications on the customer journey. 

Brick-and-mortar stores need software as a service solutions (SaaS) to boost their ability to know about their customers and track them across their buying cycle. Software can now help connect the dots between high-value customers and high profit loyalty marketing campaigns.

Amazon and online retailers have a distinct advantage over their physical retail rivals because they have millions of data-points on consumers at their disposal which enables a personalization of the shopping, marketing and loyalty-brand experience. Brick-and-mortar stores have to start to think of the importance of integrated to the cloud via cloud or mobile POS systems and adding integrations  that best suit their needs. 

What we Learned from Seattle

Amazon opening its store in Seattle late last night gave us a taste of how they might proceed with their physical retail strategy. The current outlet in Seattle hints at how Amazon stores could be set up — with a section for: 

1. Bestsellers
2. Another for books rated 4.8 stars or above (like a B&M My favourites) 

Readers' reviews from Amazon.com are included in how the products are displayed, merging the online and physical retail experience and branding proposition. Omnichannel trends in retail are increasingly merging and making the physical experience consistent with a brand's online experience, smoothing the touchpoints of the customer experience and optimizing the in-store experience for digital natives. 

• Amazon likely will open several new stores
• In shopping malls or niche outlets or even in University campuses 

Whatever they decide, it could change the way we do brick-and-mortar retail and signal the emergence of Ecommerce brands moving and transition more to their gaps in the physical experience.

With Google itself launching its first own fully branded physical retail store in London in 2015, things are changing. Birchbox also opened its first physical outlet in Manhattan. With Apple, Samsung and Microsoft investing heavily in B&M, the omnichannel revolution is truly in full swing. 

• Cross-promotion
• Consumer experience optimization 
• Offering consumers expert advice 
• Connecting Data points and translating this into a new model of physical retail. 
• Personalization the experience to the consumer in new ways

The brick-and-mortar experience points to the age-old obvious thing about human beings: 

We actually enjoy going outside, in the sun and with friends and experiencing stores, touching products and viewing things in person before we actually buy them.

I work at a company that is helping independent retailers know more about their customers, with data, insights and loyalty marketing automation software, to act accordingly. Check us out.