Amazon 4-star is an addition to the company’s brick-and-mortar store portfolio that promises to provide shoppers more ways to engage with the retailer and, critically, a new reason to do so.
Along with its sibling retail operations Whole Foods Market, Amazon Books, Amazon Go and Amazon Pop-Up, Amazon 4-star gets the company brand in front of consumers in their everyday lives. The branding aspect shouldn’t be overlooked, as carefully as the store is geared to send a message to consumers. The message arises from the store itself and how Amazon curates the business.
The company carefully calibrated Amazon 4-star to serve targeted urban consumers with a curation that’s evident and relevant to them. The store format showcases products that have a four-star rating or higher in Amazon’s online review section. The company has pointed out that the average rating of products available is 4.4 stars. Amazon displays the star rating on electronic tags adjacent to the products offered.
The tags also feature the list price, the Prime member price and percentage off that Prime members get. Shoppers can sign up for Prime at the store to get the discount. To do so can seem sensible. For example, in the fall, the Soho store offered a KitchenAid stand mixer, which got a 4.5 star rating, for $429.99 but $299.83 with membership, the discount more than the $119 Prime annual fee.
The first Amazon 4-star opened during September of last year in New York’s trendy Soho neighborhood. Beyond the star rating, clearly Amazon focused on two key elements in developing the Soho store assortment— everyday general merchandise needs and lifestyle-oriented products for young urban shoppers. Housewares are heavily represented in the store, with areas of focus including dining, serving, cooking and cleaning. Still, the lifestyle element continually plays into the mix, so housewares displays have designations in the way of Cooks’ Tools, Bar and Party Supplies, and Quirky Kitchen Gifts.
Gifts are another 4-star Soho focal point. The store mounts product presentations such as Most-Wished-For, which includes products that are most frequently added to Amazon.com Wish Lists, as well as Frequently Bought Together, and Amazon Exclusives displays and even store-branded impulse items.
To further boost relevance for downtown New York consumers, the Soho Amazon 4-star store featured displays dubbed Trending Around NYC and Top Selling Around NYC that make it fun and easy for customers to shop.
See the gallery for a tour of the new Soho Amazon 4-star store.
Source: “Amazon Products” – Google News