What a Coinkydink! Kohl's Neighbor is an Amazon Fresh

What a Coinkydink! Kohl's New Neighbor is an Amazon Fresh

This past weekend, while doing my bi-weekly offload of Amazon returns at my local Kohl’s store (like most?shopaholics) I made a surprising discovery. The long-speculated mystery storefront under construction next to Kohl’s was finally?revealed... cue?the drumroll…to be an Amazon Fresh.

This would never have ever been on my list of guesses, especially considering recent news of Amazon’s store closures. However, after the shock wore off, I had an epiphany and truly began to understand why this should have been my first guess.?

Although Amazon announced the closure of 68 physical retail locations including its bookstores, 4-star stores, and Pop-Up Shops?it still holds a sizable footprint with Whole Foods at over 500 stores. Whole Foods was acquired in 2017 and has provided the digital first organization a crash course in brick and mortar. This experience is likely being applied towards the Amazon Fresh concept after the failure of the Fresh online marketplace.? They also opened their first Amazon Style store in L.A. on Wednesday.

Amazon is arguably the most data driven retail organization. This data has been sourced not only from customer profiles on shopping habits across categories, but also from vendors within its marketplace and suite on technology products sold at retail. However, there is a long history of debate on how ethically that data is captured and even applied towards company strategies. This includes accusations of notoriously replicating products that are successful on its marketplace after capturing all the necessary consumer data or pressuring other startups into acquisitions with threats of a knockoff.

With the expansion of Amazon Fresh stores, I am noticing what could be a trend in the relationship between locations and their proximity to Kohl’s stores (reference chart at bottom of article).?Other than a coincidence, one possible explanation is that Amazon has done the same here with market intel, but rather than capturing data for products it has used its partnership with Kohl’s returns to identify the best locations to open its own stores by gathering traffic information of Amazon store shoppers which can be different than?ecommerce?shoppers.

So, what do I know about the store experience planned so far? Not much…but from peeping through the gates there are some key features being planned to attract customers.

1. EV Chargers
2. Just Walk Out Payment System
3. Offers Curbside Pickup with check-in via the Amazon App
4. They’re on a hiring spree, with no opening date set
5. Chart below of known store locations

KOHL’S STORE LOCATOR

AMAZON STORE LOCATOR ***only lists locations that are currently open

Meanwhile, what are your thoughts? Coincidence or trojan horse data-driven insights? What does this mean for Kohl's partnership moving forward? So many questions! Stay tuned for more insights to come once my nearby location opens.

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