Amazon is putting a stop to the expansion of its physical stores. Reuters confirmed that the company is closing 68 brick-and-mortar retail stores across both the U.S. and U.K. Amazon launched its first physical bookstore in Seattle back in 2015, then spread across other states in America.
At the time this was a major move by the company, especially given the fact that Amazon started as an online store and works entirely in a digital space. It was a move that led investors to speculate as to what was to come.
Over the years Amazon has been testing new ideas on how to improve the customer experience within stores. Ideas such as Cashierless shopping technology was implemented and proved to be a success in certain cases.
Analysts are speculating that Covid had a huge impact on the physical location of businesses. Due to the pandemic, it was difficult for customers to shop and they would often opt for the online portal to have goods bought online and delivered to their homes.
Another factor might be the aggressiveness of the worker’s union which retail workers demand better wages, more comfortable environments, and other benefits. Amazon made it clear that they are not going to close their cashier-less grocery stores and other new concepts.
