Amazon logs back into brick & mortar

The comedian Jerry Seinfeld once said a bookstore is the only piece of evidence we have that people are thinking. Whether he factored in the migration of bookstores to the digital world is not known, but the entertainer could be among those chuffed at the news that Amazon, the online giant that decimated brick-andmortar outlets, itself opened a book store on Tuesday.

"Dear Amazon customer, Tuesday morning at 9:30, Amazon Books will open its doors. These aren't metaphorical doors: these real, wooden doors are the entrance to our new store in Seattle's University Village. Amazon Books is a physical extension of Amazon. com," the $ 88 billion retail behemoth said. Earlier this year, Amazon surpassed Walmart as the most valuable retailer in the US by market capitalization.

Explaining its volte-face, Amazon said it is "applying 20 years of online bookselling experience to build a store that integrates the benefits of offline and online book shopping." The books in the store will be selected based on Amazon.com customer ratings, pre-orders, sales, and assessment by curators. Store prices will match online prices and Amazon devices such as Kindle, Echo, Fire TV, and Fire Tablet will also be available.

Amazon plans Diwali e-store in US, UK

Amazon will open a Diwali Store on its US and UK websites this year. The objective is to cater to the anticipated huge demand from the millions of Indians who live in these countries. The move has been made possible by the 5,000 Indian sellers on its platform who are eligible to export from here.

For the e-tailing giant, India is no longer just a big market. "We are looking at the country as a big export hub," Diego Piacentini, the company's global head of international consumer business, 



The export platform was thrown open to sellers in India in February this year on an experimental basis. Now it has been formalized. Indian sellers will be able to sell their products to Amazon's 285 million registered buyers globally.



"I believe what we are building now is the road for India to export to the rest of the world. Indian sellers can sell anything from clothes to home furnishings, jewellery, and handicrafts. The 5,000 sellers exporting now is just the tip of the iceberg. Those numbers will grow dramatically," Piacentini said, adding that this was in line with the 'Make in India' objective of the Indian government.



Given India's huge base of small and medium businesses, Piacentini said the country would be a big base for Amazon to procure products for its global customers. "I don't know how big, but definitely huge. It is difficult to project any numbers now. We could have never predicted Amazon India operations would grow by four times in a year," he said.

US and UK consumers will be able to get products - like Indian books in vernacular languages, history, music and other cultural products - that have traditionally been difficult to obtain. In the next few months, Amazon will also open the Indian store in other European countries and then in the rest of Asia.