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- Stein Mart, a discount department store chain, announced on Tuesday it would be rolling out Amazon Lockers to more than 200 locations.
- The Amazon lockers can be used for both picking up and returning Amazon orders, and will be used to draw in shoppers.
- It’s unclear if Amazon Lockers convince users to stick around to shop and become customers.
- Stein Mart stock popped nearly 50% above its previous close on the news.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Stein Mart is dangling the Amazon carrot to get customers into stores.
The discount department store announced on Tuesday it would be rolling out Amazon Lockers to more than 200 locations.
"We are thrilled to offer this innovative delivery experience to Amazon customers while introducing new shoppers to Stein Mart," Hunt Hawkins, Stein Mart’s CEO, said in a statement. "Customer service and convenience are top priorities at Stein Mart, and the ability to give both to Amazon customers was a big factor in our decision to introduce this program."
The Amazon lockers can be used for both pickup and returning of Amazon orders, and will be used to draw in shoppers. They will be rolled out to the stores in June.
Instead of shipping to a traditional address, customers can choose to get their order delivered to the kiosk for free. Returning things works much the same way, by selecting the kiosk when approving your return with Amazon.
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Stein Mart, like most of its department store competitors, is faced with sagging sales and year-over-year sales declines. Sales for the first months of 2019 were down 3.5% over the year prior, and sales for all over 2018 declined 1%.
The company is likely betting on the Amazon Lockers to increase traffic, but they may need to be careful where they put them. At Whole Foods, which now has Amazon Lockers in all of its more than 500 stores in the US, visits have been increasing, but so has the number of visits shorter than 5 minutes, according to data from InMarket via Marketwatch.
Investors are appreciating the news anyway. Stein Mart’s stock popped up nearly 50% to an intraday high of $1.34 on the news.
Kohl’s, a Stein Mart rival, is expanding its own partnership with Amazon, soon offering Amazon returns in all of its stores.
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Source: Business Insider – dgreen@businessinsider.com (Dennis Green)