Amazon is expanding its brick-and-mortar retail presence with a new 4-Star location in Boston and add another Amazon Books location in Nashville, according to Geekwire.
Amazon’s 4-star stores sells products that average at least four out of five stars on Amazon’s website, or are new or trending.
In total, Amazon will now operate five 4-Star stores and 19 Amazon Books stores, in addition about a dozen Amazon Go convenience stores.
Amazon seems to be strategically expanding its proprietary retail footprint outside of its more than 500 Whole Foods stores.
Source: Business Insider
In Q2 2019, Amazon’s online retail sales hit $31 billion, representing 16% annual growth — the company’s best quarter growth-wise since Q4 2017.
But over much of the past year and a half, Amazon’s online retail sales growth has remained largely stagnant, hovering between 11% and 14% on a constant currency basis. According to Business Insider, this could be a result of macroeconomic changes, brand saturation, or both, but if the trend continues, it may force Amazon to look to new segments to expand.
Because physical retail is such a large segment, there’s plenty of room to grow. Amazon’s physical stores segment incurred just $4.3 billion in sales in Q2 2019, growing just 1% year-over-year.
Though e-commerce is growing rapidly, according to Business Insider, physical retail still comprises nearly 90% of overall retail sales in the U.S.
