I am grateful for the opportunity to visit two Amazon shops in the US a couple of weeks ago, one in New York and one in Los Angeles. While I will have more to say about the shops and shopping experience at my newsagency workshops soon, I want to share today what I saw in relation to magazines.
The layout is not that different to what you see elsewhere:
It on a closer look that where you can see the online pitch. The stores exist primarily to facilitate online sales, rather than the other way around.
On the shelves are these signs, too.
This is how they approach the rest of the business. Simple, easily understood messaging. Like everything Amazon does, their approach to magazines is data driven. Their mix of titles is determined by online sales data, in the area surrounding the store. Their size gives them considerable power in their dealings with suppliers.
What Amazon is doing throughout their retail businesses is disruptive in several categories, including magazines. We are yet to see anything like this hit Australia.