It looks like in the U.K., Amazon is thinking about opening “Click and Connect” stores:
The online retailer is reportedly planning to open stores in the UK where customers can pick up purchases they make on the website, rather than wait at home for deliveries.
There’s not a whole lot more information at the Times of London site, but it sounds as though the Amazon stores won’t be as much retail shops as UPS Stores. Sounds to me as though Amazon’s basically trying to remove delivery services from the equation.
They’re just coping an existing store in the UK called Argos. Argos have a catalogue which you take home, and a website. Order online/phone/in the store…then pick up and pay in the store. Very small ‘store front’ and then big warehouse in the back. Pretty simple.
If you lived and worked in London, you would immediately recognize this good idea. Delivery services suck horribly, leaving anything at your door is impossible.
“Sounds to me as though Amazon’s basically trying to remove delivery services from the equation.”
No. They’re offering a quicker way to pick up merchandise for people who don’t want to wait. Amazon will never be able to drop their delivery service.
This may be partially in response to Wal-mart, who has vastly expanded their online catalog. They will ship to a store for pick-up for free. I had the thought the other day that maybe Wal-mart was trying to take a page from Amazon’s model and become a huge online clearinghouse of stuff — with the advantage that people don’t have to pay for shipping.
Outside of the United States, it’s often more efficient to pick up deliveries while you’re out and about anyway. Unlike in the U.S., people in Britain and other countries go out shopping a couple times a week at least since their refrigerators are so small, and people often do it on foot or by bicycle. (In Japan, people often pick up packages at their local minimart as a central neighborhood delivery/pickup point.) The carbon footprint and cost is substantially lower than it would be in the U.S. where everyone drives cars to do such errands.
So, basically blazing a trail pioneered by Sears, Montogmery Wards 80+ years ago, and later by Best, Service, etc…
What goes around comes around, eh?
Interestingly, Amazon took the time to directly deny this repot.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5B…
@6,
No doubt! Maybe in a few more years they’ll be delivering stuff by stagecoach?
If Amazon set up a storefront in Seattle where I could pick up my orders the same day, I would order even more crap from them!