Was unaware of its other formats, part of the problem. But online works so well for them. Not affecting Whole Foods
Amazon is closing all its Books, 4-Star and pop-up stores by George Anderson in Retailwire
Amazon.com appears committed to operating physical stores, but appears to be optimizing its format strategy. The retail and technology giant is shuttering all of 68 of its Amazon Books, 4-Star and pop-up shops.
Physical stores only made up three percent of Amazon’s revenues in the fourth quarter with almost all of that coming from its Whole Foods business. Reuters, which was the first to report news of the store closings, says that Amazon was never able to generate the types of results with its book, 4-Star and pop-up shops that would warrant further expansion of the concepts.
Michael Pachter, an analyst at Wedbush Securities, told the news service that ditching the physical store concepts makes sense as Amazon’s strengths lie elsewhere. “Retail is hard, and they’re discovering that,” he said. It’s common for legacy retailers that close stores to take a hit online as well, but that doesn’t appear to be a concern for Amazon based on the relatively small scale of the individual concepts and its dominance in the digital sales space.
Amazon expects that shuttering its niche concepts will benefit its other physical retail businesses. ... '
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