The Amazon Pop-Up Stores were stand-up kiosks that operated inside malls and were stocked with devices like Echos, Kindles, and other tablets which were made or promoted by Amazon themselves. All the outlets were under the Pop-Up Kiosk Program, and the objective of this particular project was to garner better and authentic customer feedback on new products. At one point, the Amazon Pop-Up Stores were Amazon’s main effort at bringing an offline shopping experience to its users.
The primary cause of shutting down the 87 kiosks across the US was Amazon’s further expansion into the brick-and-mortar space. Amazon’s Pop-Up Stores had a substantial presence in Whole Foods and Kohls, but once Amazon acquired Whole Foods, they had more lucrative plans to work on.
The official statement said that “After much review, we came to the decision to discontinue our pop-up kiosk program, and are instead expanding Amazon Books and Amazon 4-Star”. In another statement, Amazon announced plans to open 3000 Amazon Go Stores based on a cashless model. At the same time there were plans to open a brand new chain of grocery stores that would work separately from the Whole Foods retail network.
With all of this in mind, it seems that Amazon outgrew the kiosk model and is ready to gain entry into bigger brick-and-mortar retail spaces with a more significant product portfolio.
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