Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has pledged to double down on the company's brick-and-mortar store business.
He told the Financial Times that the e-commerce giant plans to "go big" on its physical retail business from 2023.
- Amazon has yet to disrupt the grocery sector in the way that competitors feared it would when it acquired Whole Foods for $13.7B in 2017.
- Revenue for Amazon's physical store division has only grown by 10% since the acquisition took place.
- Jassy
told the Financial Times that Amazon's grocery business is "still in
the early stages" and that he plans to ramp it up in 2023.
- In
some of its physical outlets, Amazon has rolled out "'just walk out"
technology, which allows customers to select items and leave without
going through a conventional checkout.
- Retail Analyst Neil
Saunders is doubtful that Amazon's technology is sufficient to attract
customers away from more established grocery outlets.
- "They've
got 'just walk out' technology; they've got smart carts. Great, really
interesting," noted Saunders before saying, "how many customers say,
'Hey, I'm going to shop somewhere because they've got a smart cart?' No
one."
