20 years ago, Amazon began its journey on the World Wide Web as an online bookseller. Tomorrow, that trip comes full circle. On Tuesday, the Ecommerce giant will open its first ever brick-and-mortar bookstore in Seattle, Washington.
Simply titled, 'Amazon Books' - the location promises to serve as a real-life arm of the website, using purchase data and customer feedback to help curate the selection of titles available at the store.
''Amazon Books is a physical extension of Amazon.com. We've applied 20 years of online bookselling experience to build a store that integrates the benefits of offline and online book shopping.'' said Amazon Books VP Jennifer Cast in her letter to customers. ''The books in our store are selected based on Amazon.com customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, popularity on Goodreads, and our curators' assessments. These are fantastic books! Most have been rated 4 stars or above, and many are award winners.''
Cast also says that prices at the store will be exactly the same as those on the website, so customers don't have to worry about comparing the online and in-store prices.
All titles in store will be displayed face-out with an accompanying review and customer rating from the website.
This being an Amazon location, the store will also feature the company's entire range of devices.
''At Amazon Books, you can also test drive Amazon's devices. Products across our Kindle, Echo, Fire TV, and Fire Tablet series are available for you to explore, and Amazon device experts will be on hand to answer questions and to show the products in action.'' Says the letter.
The store will be open Monday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. and on Sundays from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. It's located at 601 26th Ave. NE in University Village.
