Amazon Grows its Physical Presence

Earlier in 2016, Amazon opened it's first ever physical bookstore in Seattle, a surprising move given the demise of renowned bookstore chain Borders once Amazon disrupted the space with it's online alternative.Amazon have successfully followed up their bookstore with 21 pop-up stores to sell some Amazon hardware in shopping malls such as Kindle readers, Fire TV sticks and Echo speakers. According to Business Insider, there could be as many as 30 locations by the holidays giving Amazon’s management the confidence to develop a physical store program.Amazon also plans to open 20 brick-and-mortar grocery stores over the next two years, and the online retailer believes the US market has room for up to 2,000 of its Amazon Fresh-branded grocery stores over the next decade using their order online, in-store pickup model.Many see this as a move to compete with the impending arrival of Lidl and Aldi, the European discount retail chains who control a large percentage of Europe's grocery market and who plan to enter the U.S. over the next two years. Read more here.