With retailers going bust, and retail space availability growing day by day, to read that Amazon is going the retail route in the UK is to say the least interesting.
Sure, Apple has been successful, but the dot.com companies who tried retail, and failed, started with Gateway. But, Amazon is smart and they are looking at this as a product delivery and pick up location. Sort of like the Sears or J.C. Penney catalogue shopping of days gone by. But those places existed inside already built and thriving locations, and were not stand alone shops.
Candidly, if I was Amazon, I'd work out a method of doing this with FedEx/Kinkos and UPS stores, making them larger to warehouse, and at the same time be a way to easily receive the good in lots of locations.
eBay has tried the drop-off service and failed (in conjunction with UPS stores). Other companies have also tried the drop-off/pick-up route and none have been successful: everything from logistics to space issues have stymied online retailers. There are no FedEx or Kinkos stores left in the UK (FedEx sold its last 5 remaining shops early 2009). The only organisation in the UK that has a ubiquitous presences with(almost) reasonable opening hours is The Post Office. No doubt Amazon has talked with the Post Office and decided that the only way they can control the customer experience is by opening their own shops.They may even be able to take advantage of a weak retail property market. However, I'm not sure they're ready to deal with the vagaries of the UK retail leasing market--e.g. 5 year upward-only rent reviews. But, good luck to them!
Posted by: Kerry Ritz | December 07, 2009 at 12:57 AM