Bookstores’ footprints, business concepts and strategies have morphed over the past few decades in very drastic ways. Founder Jeff Bezos first launched Amazon as an online bookstore in 1995. The impact of an online bookstore providing not just discounts on the books, but speed and ease in having them show up at your door – often without paying shipping due to their “spend $25 or more…” policy was groundbreaking at the time. In 2015, the first Amazon Books brick and mortar store opened in Seattle bringing it full circle – or is it? Publisher’s Weekly brought this interesting topic to our attention in their article, “London Book Fair 2018: Why Amazon’s ‘Digital Roots’ Will Reshape Physical Retail.”
Has Amazon changed how we select books? Do you choose in the same manner online as you do in a retail store?
One writer and analyst shared her experience in the retail store. “I was fascinated by how the physical experience was imitating the digital experience,” said Cherie Hu. “What Amazon does in the bookstore is to take certain features from their website, print all the information on a card and place it underneath every single book.”
Using the same star rating as they do online based on user reviews and ratings. There is also a dedicated shelf to books that have been reviewed more than 10,000 or 15,000 times, if you want to follow the trends. They even have arrows pointing from one book to another, suggesting that, “if you like this book, you may like this one.”
Melody K. Smith
Sponsored by Data Harmony, a unit of Access Innovations, the world leader in indexing and making content findable.
