We know that more people visited upscale grocery chain Whole Foods in the weeks after it became part of Amazon’s growing online and offline retail empire, but where did those people come from? Customer data shows that new visitors to Whole Foods stores were likely to be the wealthiest customers from competitors like Walmart, Costco, and Trader Joe’s. [More]
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PayPal And Mastercard Become In-Store Payment Pals
By 9.6.16
PayPal wants customers to pay using their accounts as mobile wallets, and credit card networks want customers to sign up for the networks’ own mobile payment services. Sounds like a perfect pairing, right? That’s what Visa thought a few months ago, and Mastercard has concluded now. [More]
eBates Expanding Cash Back To Stores In Real Life
By 7.13.16
You may be familiar with eBates, a company that sends shoppers a fixed percentage rebate from their online shopping as long as they click on the site from the eBates site. Now the rebates are invading real life, too, and will be available at physical stores too. [More]
Newegg Opens Another Store-That’s-Not-A-Store In Toronto
By 7.13.16
Online retailers have been expanding their brands into physical space, ranging from Amazon’s indie-style bookstores to Birchbox’s boutiques with crowdsourced locations. Some real-life retail locations are hybrids, though, like Amazon’s college campus pickup points where shoppers can’t directly buy anything. Newegg already has a facility like that in southern California, and this week opened another at their Canadian headquarters in Richmond Hill, ON, near Toronto. [More]
Report: Amazon Is Planning Another Real-Life Bookstore In Manhattan In 2019
By 7.6.16
Back in 2014, Amazon signed a 17-year lease on office space with some retail floors across from the Empire State Building in Manhattan, and that led to delighted speculation that the company might open a real-life store to sell its own products and let local customers pick up their packages. Instead, the office space is just boring old office space. Now, reports are circlulating that a deal for an Amazon bookstore in Manhattan has been or will be signed. [More]
Amazon Will Open Its Second Real-Life Bookstore In San Diego This Summer
By 3.7.16
Last fall, Amazon took its business model offline into the real world with a bricks-and-mortar bookstore that opened in its hometown of Seattle. The e-commerce giant is continuing its foray into the physical with its second book store, announcing that it’s preparing to open up shop as a book peddle in San Diego this summer. [More]
Please Call 9-1-1 When You See A Car Crash Before Taking Pictures With Your Phone
By 2.10.16
While there are many Internet-savvy police departments out there, one thing that the world’s cops have not yet learned how to do is receive reports of car crashes and other catastrophes through Facebook posts. That’s why the Iowa State University police are annoyed with the population they serve. When an out-of-control Infiniti landed on top of some other cars, onlookers took their phones out to take pictures, but not to call emergency services. [More]
Fabletics Seeks New Subscribers By Opening Stores In Malls
By 2.5.16
Fabletics is an athleticwear company for women that sells nice workout wear outfits for about $50. They operate on a subscription model: every month, you’ll get billed for a subscription unless you log in and decide not to buy anything that month. It’s like Columbia House for yoga pants. Yet the company is doing something sort of unexpected for a retailer that uses this business model: they’re opening a seventh real-life store, with the new one at the Mall of America in Minnesota. [More]
Mall CEO’s Comment About Amazon Stores Not Meant To Represent Amazon’s Actual Plans
By 2.3.16
Yesterday, everyone from book lovers to Barnes & Noble shareholders reacted to a tiny piece of news about Amazon during another company’s routine earnings call. The CEO of mall operator General Growth Properties told listeners that one factor affecting the future of mall traffic would be the 300 to 400 stores that Amazon plans to open in malls nationwide. “The what now?” everyone else on the call said. Now the company has walked back that comment. Sort of. [More]
Report: Amazon Is Planning Hundreds Of Physical Bookstores Nationwide
By 2.2.16
If you thought Amazon was determined to eventually put all bookstores out of business, that isn’t quite true. Today, a mall CEO let slip that the Everything Store, which began by selling just books, wants to duplicate its real-life bookstore in Seattle across the country. Update: The company has clarified that this was not meant to be a statement about Amazon’s actual plans, but neither company denies the story, either. [More]
Etsy Will Open A Real-Life Store In Macy’s Youngster-Focused Bargainless Basement
By 1.28.16
In the basement of their flagship store in Manhattan’s Herald Square, Macy’s is running an experiment. One Below is a store focused on shoppers in their teens and twenties that the department store is using as a laboratory to figure out what the kids today like, and they plan to use what they learn there in their other stores across the country. Now they’re adding something new: a real-life Etsy store. [More]
Amazon Puts Mini E-Book Stores In Drugstores In Washington State
By 1.25.16
Back in November, Amazon did something unexpected: the company opened a real-life bookstore in its hometown of Seattle. The company also has a Kindle and Fire showroom at its new package pickup point at UC Berkeley. Amazon clearly wants to move into real-life retail, in some ways, and they have an intriguing new product spotted on drugstore shelves in Washington state. [More]
Amazon Opens UC Berkeley Campus Facility For Students To Pick Up Packages, Maybe Try A Fire Tablet
By 1.14.16
A new college semester will begin soon, and UC Berkeley has a new January transfer: Amazon is opening yet another staffed pickup point on a college campus. The facilities are meant to promote the Amazon brand and alleviate the strain on campus mail services that are flooded with Amazon packages, and there’s something interesting in the Berkeley version: students can sample Kindle devices at an in-store counter. [More]
Amazon To Open Fifth On-Campus, Offline Location At University Of Pennsylvania
By 1.12.16
Amazon has spent the last year expanding its challenge to the existence of college bookstores, opening pickup locations on campuses scattered across the country. There, students can pick up things that they ordered on Amazon, and… that’s about it. A new pickup point at the University of Pennsylvania will also offer study and collaboration space for student use, and will provide same-day or next-day pickup for members of Amazon Student or Amazon Prime. [More]
Amazon Opens Actual Real-Life Bookstore Today In Seattle
By 11.3.15
In the last year, there have been rumors that Amazon planned to open a gadget store and package pickup center in Manhattan near the Empire State Building, and that they planned to buy the leases of some RadioShack stores when that retailer declared bankruptcy. Neither of these happened. This morning, Amazon is opening an entirely different sort of real-life store. They’re selling books. [More]
Birchbox Wants Customers To Help Decide Where Next Stores Will Be
By 7.15.15
Birchbox, the company to blame for the current subscription beauty box trend, opened a retail store last year in Manhattan, where shoppers can create their own boxes in person and shop for other beauty products. Now the company wants to expand, and wants customers to tell them where to build their next store. [More]
BaubleBar Latest E-Commerce Retailer To Open A Real-Life Store
By 6.25.15
If you’re worried that online shopping is killing off real-life commerce, don’t fret just yet. A popular online jewelry seller, BaubleBar, is bringing its brand to Roosevelt Field Mall on Long Island. Yes, they’re moving from online to real life, opening a physical store where loyal customers and new ones can touch and try on their jewelry before buying. [More]
Amazon Signs 17-Year Lease On Manhattan Building That Is Totally Not A Store
By 11.21.14
More than a month ago, there were reports that Amazon planned to rent space in Manhattan across the street from the Empire State Building to expand its own empire into brick-and-mortar retail. While Amazon has signed a lease on space in that building that includes ground-floor retail, the company says that it is not going to use that space. Nope. [More]
