Reports that Amazon is planning to open its first physical store were true. Back in October, it was rumoured that the world’s biggest online retailer was going to set its brick-and-mortar store on the prestigious 34th Street in Manhattan, right next to Macy’s flagship store and the Empire State Building. However, Amazon seems to have decided to change the course, since it announced that its very first physical store is be set in a university campus in Indiana.
The store’s name is Amazon@Purdue and it is not a brick-and-mortar shopping facility in the traditional sense. It is described as a staffed consumer order pickup and drop-off location. The facility is set on the campus of Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. The university’s students and faculty will be able to pick up their orders from the store, as well as to return items purchased online. In addition, students and faculty members who are subscribed to Amazon Prime or Amazon Student services will also enjoy Free One-Day Shipping on textbooks and Free One-Day Pickup of more than a million product that are shipped to the retailer’s first physical store.
According to Amazon, the new store will offer students a more affordable, secure and convenient way to shop without leaving the campus. The facility will also focus particularly on shipping textbooks and other student supplies at an affordable price.
Amazon is also planning to open more stores in more locations in the near future. The next one will be based in the Purdue Memorial Union building. It is scheduled to open this spring. Other university campuses that will get their own Amazon@ store will be the University of California, Davis, as well as the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Shortly after Amazon announced its first-ever physical store, reports surfaced claiming that the retailer is currently in talks with RadioShack, a retail chain focusing on selling electronic products. According to Bloomberg, Amazon is interested in acquiring some of the chain’s stores with the intention of turning them into showcases for its Kindle and Fire products. In addition to that, the largest online retailer is said to also use these stores as pick-up and drop-off locations similar to Amazon@Purdue.
Although Amazon’s physical store strategy is quite untraditional, it is clear that the retailer no longer need to be confined to the realms of the internet.
