Jeff Bezos founded Amazon as an online bookstore. The e-commerce giant now has several hundred million product categories on offer. Objective: Customers should be able to cover all their needs from the Amazon range. For several years now, the online retailer has also been running stationary shops and cash-free supermarkets. The group also owns the Whole Foods supermarket chain. Therefore, a media report from the USA is not quite as surprising as it might initially appear.
WSJ: Amazon should plan department stores
According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which refers to called in the know, Amazon should now plan to open larger stores. These should resemble department stores. The group is said to want to sell clothing, housewares and technology there. The return of goods could also be processed there, as reported by the Tagesschau. In the clothing sector, according to a report by Wells Fargo, Amazon is now the largest seller in the US – ahead of its competitor Walmart.
The planned department stores with an area of around 2,800 square meters should be larger than the current Amazon stores, but significantly smaller than conventional department stores, as the WSJ writes. Department stores are usually from 3,000 square meters in size. The average sales area of the department stores of Galeria Karstadt Kaufhof is said to have been almost 10,000 square meters in 2001.
First deals in California and Ohio
When the Amazon department stores, if they are to be built, are not known. The WSJ report also left open whether the department stores would remain limited to the USA or whether they could also come to Germany. The first stores are to open in California and Ohio. Amazon did not want to confirm the report when asked. Should the e-commerce giant implement the plans on a large scale, this should mean new challenges for many retail stores.
