- Robyn Turk
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Amazon is continuing to expand its physical retail operations. The
retail giant opened a new “Amazon 4-star” store in Seattle, WA last
week, marking its fourth store of the type. There are currently 4-star
locations in New York City, Denver, CO and Berkeley, CA.
Amazon 4-star is different from the company’s Amazon Books stores
and cashier-less Amazon Go stores in that it only carries items that
have been rated four stars or higher by online Amazon shoppers, along
with top-selling, trending or new products.
The store concept is meant to be a direct reflection of the
company’s shoppers, bringing together shoppers’ favorite items and
making them easy to discover in a physical retail setting.
“We do of course use the data that we have available to us, like
sales and trending information, stuff that our category curator teams
are pulling forward,” a spokesperson for Amazon’s Physical Stores
division told GeekWire. “We have our own level of human curators that
take a look at all that and decide what we’re going to bring
forth.”
The new Amazon 4-star location in Seattle takes up a
4,000-square-foot space and carries categories including books,
kitchen supplies, seasonal items and electronics. Prices in the store
are marked by digital price tags and may fluctuate throughout the day
to reflect any changes in price on the Amazon e-commerce site.
The store features curated product categories to help shoppers
discover items such as “Trending Around Seattle,” “Most-Wished-For,”
“Go Out and Play” and “Upgrade Your Commute.” Customer review cards
are also placed alongside items, showing online customer reviews to
aid in-store shoppers in making purchase decisions.
