Amazon opening 2 stores in area
E-commerce giant putting down offline roots with The Woodlands and Friendswood shops
Amazon is opening two stores in Houston on Friday in an expansion of its bid to scoop up more offline sales.
The e-commerce giant is installing an Amazon 4-star at The Woodlands Mall and an Amazon Books at the Baybrook Mall in Friendswood. The 4-star store brings the retailer’s top-selling items into a physical store format, while the bookstore offers readers a chance to browse popular books and e-readers in person.
Amazon ventured into the realm of physical stores with temporary popup shops in 2014, and began rolling out permanent stores in select cities two years ago. It has a 4star store in Frisco and an Amazon Books in Austin; the two shops opening Friday are the first in the Houston area.
The 4-star joins 22 others across the country, and is one of eight stores listed as “coming soon” on Amazon’s website. The Amazon Books will be one of 23 in the nation.
While Amazon’s online success is undeniable, much of the retail sector exists offline. Before the pandemic, online retail sales made up 10 percent of all retail sales, though online sales have grown since the crisis hit.
“We’ve gotten that feedback from customers, that they really enjoy the idea of discovering something in these stores in a way that’s kind of unique and can really only be done in person,” said Drew Sheriff, Amazon’s director of physical stores. “There are a lot of products that people just want to see, touch or feel before they purchase it.”
The pandemic hasn’t slowed Amazon’s store rollout, Sheriff said — “we’re really excited to continue to bring these stores to customers. And we’re committed to it.”
Between the two stores, the store
openings bring about 40 jobs to the Houston area, with more job openings coming as the holiday season nears.
Amazon uses sales and search data from its site to determine the product mix in its physical stores. The 4star store in The Woodlands features a “Trending Around Houston” table.
This week’s suite of items includes back-to-school items such as a wireless mouse and noise-canceling headphones and other products of the times, such as air purifiers, yoga mats and an Exploding Kittens expansion pack.
Another section features the “most wished for” items on amazon.com, including Pyrex measuring cups, Ninja food fryers and the party game Cards Against Humanity.
A demo area of the store allows customers to interact with Amazon’s smarthome devices, which are growing in popularity even as they mystify some customers. Sheriff said it was important to Amazon to give customers a chance to experiment with them.
“If you were to say, ‘Alexa, good night,’ at the station, what would happen is that the noise machine will come on and the light will turn off — an example of a routine you can set up at your house,” he said during a virtual tour of a similar store in Seattle. “And we have a bunch of different routines you’ll see across this whole demo bar.”
At Amazon Books, there’s a section called the “most un-put-downable,” made up of books read on Kindle in three days or less.
Prime members enjoy savings in the store, and those with Amazon apps can scan a code and pay in the app without having to use a register. Digital tags also display the name of the product, price, how many stars it’s rated and how many reviews it has.
“We have the luxury of being able to look at multiple sources of insight and figure out what really works best offline. And online,’ Sheriff said. “And sometimes it’s the same thing.”