Earlier this year, we learned that Amazon plans to open mini-stores filled with clothing, housewares and electronics, and facilitate an easier return and replacement system for its customers. Additionally, those stores may have Amazon’s own private label clothing line, high-tech locker rooms and other amenities, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The idea here is that Amazon could look to reinvent the whole department store experience. To help you buy and find clothes with app suggestions, QR codes and even high-tech locker rooms for easy and efficient use.
Imagine walking into a store, scanning QR codes for anything you want to try, then asking an employee (or possibly a robot) to bring them to your room. From there you can try them out or use a touchscreen inside your room to suggest new sizes or a color change.
Then, in typical Amazon fashion, depending on what you choose, the app will offer other options similar to what others have purchased. This information is subject to change and is only rumor at this time. That said, the company is not new to trying different approaches. A few years ago he sold the Echo Look camera, which was designed to go into a closet and give you fashion and other tips.
The first rumors about Amazon department stores began to circulate earlier this year. Suggesting that the online giant wanted to open “mini department stores” with an area of around 30,000 square feet, roughly the same footprint as a Whole Foods or a Kohls.
Amazon still hasn’t confirmed anything from a distance about the aspirations of its department stores, but with the speed with which it is opening small retail stores and other stores, it wouldn’t surprise us to see this happen eventually.
