Amazon Brick and Mortars Coming to England

[Daithi]

According to an Article in the Times Online Amazon is looking to open up brick and mortar stores in England. The objective being that people can buy online and then pick their items up locally instead of having the item shipped.

[HarryT]

That's interesting. Do they have such stores in the US?

[Daithi]

No, not yet. This is entirely new.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by Daithi

According to an Article in the Times Online Amazon is looking to open up brick and mortar stores in England. The objective being that people can buy online and then pick their items up locally instead of having the item shipped.

Seems like a horrible waste of time and resources. Then again maybe Amazon are looking to compete with Argos who have a similar service.

[aceflor]

Why would they do that ? Their business model is based on the fact that they can still have a good margin although they are offering low prices BECAUSE they don't have the costs linked to a B&M structure. Their logistics costs are kept quite low because they managed to secure excellent conditions with DHL here in Europe, and the booksellers with B&M structures are facing difficult times right now in UK as well as in other countries in Europe.

I am not denying the veracity of the information, but I cannot grasp why on earth they would go that road.

[HarryT]

What seems to be being proposed are "collection points" where one could physically pick up goods ordered on-line, rather than full-blown retail stores. That could probably be done at relatively low cost.

[cklammer]

Originally Posted by HarryT

What seems to be being proposed are "collection points" where one could physically pick up goods ordered on-line, rather than full-blown retail stores. That could probably be done at relatively low cost.

They can go and just buy Borders ...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by cklammer

They can go and just buy Borders ...

If they are after collection points, unfortunately Borders stores probably wouldn't be appropriate, given that they are (mostly) small shops in (mostly) town centre location. They'd probably be after industrial units in out-of-town retail parks.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by cklammer

They can go and just buy Borders ...

"just buy" is still expensive. And I don't see the strategic motive here, unless parcel delivery service has gone really, really bad in the UK. Plus Harry is right, they would need warehouses.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by aceflor

"just buy" is still expensive. And I don't see the strategic motive here, unless parcel delivery service has gone really, really bad in the UK.

The motive is explained in the newspaper article. Now Amazon sell "big stuff" rather than just books and CDs, it's no longer things that the postman can put through the letterbox, and people don't like having to arrange redeliveries, etc, when they're out at work. What people are perceived as wanting is the ability to order on-line, but collect from a store at a time that's convenient for them.

[neilmarr]

This is the worst news I've heard for several years. Amazon wants it all ... it wants its toast buttered both sides ... it wants too much. Amazon is not customer-friendly, it's simply bloody greedy. Had Dr Frankenstein created this supposed 'book store' he could not have made a worse job of it. N

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The motive is explained in the newspaper article. Now Amazon sell "big stuff" rather than just books and CDs, it's no longer things that the postman can put through the letterbox, and people don't like having to arrange redeliveries, etc, when they're out at work. What people are perceived as wanting is the ability to order on-line, but collect from a store at a time that's convenient for them.

Sorry again, but, amazon sells exactly the same sortiment here in Germany or in France, for example. The big companies that were in this kind of business and tried to open on top small shops for pick-up and deliveries such as for instance Quelle (the biggest group in Europe, mind you) just went bankrupt because of their decisions, some years ago, to open these shops. The remaining online ordering businesses (Otto, La Redoute, les 3 Suisses and so on) are not doing too good, and have closed all these shops to try to concentrate on an organic growth. So either the situation is completely different in the UK, as I said maybe due to the quality of mail and parcel delivery service, or amazon is very badly informed about the market situation in Europe, which I cannot believe.

[Hogan]

One interesting thing mentioned on Teleread. What if you automatically accquired download rights when you bought a pBook. Now that would be cool!

[HarryT]

As the newspaper article mentions, there's a very big chain of "catalogue" shops here in the UK called Argos, where you can order on-line and then collect from their (very large number of) shops. Sounds as if Amazon are trying to muscle in on their business.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The motive is explained in the newspaper article. Now Amazon sell "big stuff" rather than just books and CDs, it's no longer things that the postman can put through the letterbox, and people don't like having to arrange redeliveries, etc, when they're out at work. What people are perceived as wanting is the ability to order on-line, but collect from a store at a time that's convenient for them.

Several webshops have some sort of storefront. It's generally in a few towns spread across the country. But if they send by way of ordinary post, you can always pick it up at a postal office... (which is either a full-fledged office, or a small counter at an existing shop or, in our case, a gasstation...)