What's So Unique About Amazon Books?

By Matt Pillar, chief editor

In case you missed it, Amazon opened a brick-and-mortar bookstore, appropriately dubbed Amazon Books, in Seattle last week. Its grand opening came as no surprise, as even months ago the company did little to quell speculation of its low-key next-step into physical retail. Still, the tech, retail, and mainstream media had a field day with the news this week. Without fail, the commentary I’ve read is littered with attempts to wring something unique, innovative, or earth shattering out of Amazon’s grand brick-and-mortar book selling experiment. But the most innovative element of Amazon’s new store experiment is flying under the radar.

That’s the most interesting thing about a story subject that’s set a pretty high standard for newsworthiness, after all. Breaking news out of Amazon headquarters could be anything from the release of a hot new consumer tech to further development in its effort to pioneer delivery drones.

Jennifer Cast, VP of Amazon books, made a demure attempt to differentiate her company’s brick-and-mortar strategy in a statement on Monday. “We've applied 20 years of online book-selling experience to build a store that integrates the benefits of offline and online book shopping,” she said. “The books in our store are selected based on Amazon.com customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, popularity on Goodreads, and our curators' assessments.”

Part one of Cast’s statement reads like 101-level retailing in the new millennium. Any merchant operating both physical stores and e-commerce sites is keenly aware of the necessity—and striving toward the reality—of “integrating the benefits of offline and online book shopping.” Yes, Amazon practically owns e-commerce. But can it claim a corner on the market for bringing online learning and innovation to brick-and-mortar stores? Doesn’t a merchant need some serious experience with brick-and-mortar stores to get handy at that exercise?

Part two of her statement is also a bit humdrum by Amazon standards. Basing store inventory selection on customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, and social popularity is simply intelligent merchandising. Stocking shelves with products proven by sales and social data to sell is a prerequisite to modern retailing in any channel.

Separately, Amazon promised that its in-store prices would match those listed on Amazon.com. Cross-channel price congruency? How novel. Sarcasm and pun entirely intended.

Amazon’s own statements aside, let’s look for that nugget of newsworthiness in some of the ensuing press commentary on the store opening.

One writer made mention of what he found to be a notable distinction; that Amazon Books displays its wares on their covers, as opposed to their spines. A true testament to Amazon’s customer centricity, he called it. Cost of shelf real estate and sacrifice to selection be damned, the consumer can judge a book by the cover, rather than the spine.

Another reporter found it telling that the new Amazon Books store is planted in the same outdoor mall that used to host a Barnes and Noble, until that Barnes and Noble was shuttered in 2011. How dramatic. Would it be news if the same mall boasted a Circuit City before that, or a Media Play two decades ago? Without doubt, there’s irony in the fact that Amazon, which gets so much credit for putting physical bookstores out of business, has now opened one of its own. But even iconic retail storefronts come and go. Should its University Village site become the first of many Amazon Book stores, that’s a brick-and-mortar lesson that Amazon is sure to learn.

Other reports extolled the virtue of Amazon’s real estate selection. The demographics are perfect, they say; a tech hub, close proximity to the University of Washington, and America’s most well-read city, albeit by Amazon’s own account of the matter. Again, there’s a lesson in site selection here, but it’s not one that savvy merchants haven’t mastered.

Amazon’s Big, Albeit Covert Step Toward Omni-Channel Data Integration

So, where’s the innovation in the Amazon Books experience? It’s decidedly at the point of integration between the retailer’s physical and virtual bookshelves. While its selection is somewhat limited, each book in the store is labeled with a shelf tag which, when scanned by a consumer’s smartphone in Amazon’s app, offers reviews, ratings, and price.

So what, you ask? Sure, more modest merchants broke ground on QR codes and smartphone apps long ago. But Amazon kicked things up a notch with this in-store app integration. When a consumer scans an in-store product using the Amazon application, that consumer’s online purchase history, preferences, and Amazon Prime membership are instantly available. Albeit limited to Amazon app users, that’s a big step toward the coveted omni-channel customer experience.

Interesting that the details of little tidbit weren’t the focus of Amazon’s own statements on the launch if its first physical bookstore. That the company isn’t trumpeting the most exciting feature its new store offers is evidence of the experimental nature of the effort. It’s an innovative experiment, and one that’s not necessarily exclusive to any single merchant. With the data in place, any omni-channel retailer can replicate what Amazon is trying to do. Consumer acceptance and business case are what remain to be seen.

At the end of the day, Amazon opened a cozy little bookstore in Seattle. That’s the news. And the company’s attempt at a huge leap toward the integration of the online and offline customer experiences? That’s the developing story.