Amazon opened a new store in New York yesterday, and it’s clear that they’re breaking new ground.

Having made their name (and trillion-dollar evaluation) through online sales, the SoHo neighbourhood is now home to a brick-and-mortar Amazon store, known as ‘Amazon 4-Star’.

The store will sell “what the e-commerce giant considers to be some of its most popular or best-rated merchandise on its website”.

Pretty groundbreaking stuff, having online reviews of products in real-life retail spaces. Maybe it’s something that Woolies, and their CEO Ian Moir, could look into?

Then again, they probably don’t want that happening, especially with some of the drama surrounding the company at present.

Anyway, Amazon 4-Star sounds to me like the kind of place you can pop into to pick up one item, and leave hours later with a serious dent in the bank balance.

Before we go any further, let’s have a tour via CNBC:

Take my money now. All the more reason to buy shares in Amazon, I guess.

You won’t get bored of what’s on the shelves, either:

The company will be rotating inventory out on a weekly basis, as items become more or less popular on its website, Cameron James, vice president of Amazon’s physical retail division, told CNBC. James also said that he anticipates the shop, which is roughly 4,000 square feet in size and has a large portion of space dedicated to gifts and toys, will be buzzing with people this holiday season…

Bringing Amazon’s website to life, the store has digital price tags next to items that show how much Prime members would save on a purchase. Shoppers will also be able to see how many ratings an item has received, what the average rating is, along with certain reviews on display throughout the store.

Much like how walking the aisle at a supermarket checkout is a test of willpower (I enjoy watching people crack as they reach, begrudgingly, for that chocolate), the ‘people also bought’ feature of online shopping will be replicated:

Amazon even has a table in the store that shows items “frequently bought together,” something the company has always highlighted on its website. Specific to New York, the store in SoHo will bring in items trending in the city at any given time, which on Thursday included a cast-iron skillet, a new book by actress Reese Witherspoon and a portable Black & Decker vacuum cleaner.

I suppose it’s good news for shoppers in New York, but for the rest of us, Amazon remains an online shopping platform. Then there are the new regulations with regards SARS and that pesky importer rule, although there are ways to get around that.

Spend wisely.

[source:cnbc]