Amazon’s 4-star store lands in Soho!
Amazon 4 star
Concept
Located in the SoHo district of the city, the 380m2 store, named Amazon-4 Star, sells the most popular and highest-rated items from its website.
It is not a pop-up store, and Amazon has announced its desire to stay at that location for the long term. This confirms, after its acquisition of Whole Foods and the successive announcements of rollouts of its non-cash convenience stores in the United States, that the firm is serious about investing in the retail sector.
In this new SoHo store, you can find a very wide range of products: original kitchen gifts such as a triceratops taco holder, books, board games, laptops, and of course Alexa equipped devices.
UnlikeAmazon Bookstores, “classic” and “Prime subscriber” prices are displayed on electronic labels to emphasise the benefits of becoming a “Prime” customer. Customers are also able to see the number of ratings received by an item, its average rating, as well as some reviews, posted throughout the store.
Amazon also placed a table at the centre of the store to present “frequently bought together” items, physically embodying the “bundle” category of their website. So you can buy the Amazon Fire tablet as well as its protective sleeve as a bundle, at a small saving on the total price.
Specific to New York, the SoHo store offers items frequently purchased online by New York customers. At the moment, the most popular items in New York are a cast iron frying pan, the new book by the actress Reese Witherspoon and a Black & Decker cordless vacuum cleaner.
Why visit the store
See Amazon’s best sellers
All the items on sale have received at least 4 star reviews from buyers. So these are the best products sold on Amazon in their different categories: you can find small appliances, toys for children, electronics and books.
Talk to salespeople about Alexa's possibilities
Salespeople have a strong in-store presence and have handheld terminals for accessing Amazon’s stock and website. They can help you order online, explain the store’s positioning, the Amazon Prime programme, the different products, and, most importantly, they can explain how to connect up your home with Alexa. There is also an Amazon service where a store employee visits your home to help you connect up your Alexa equipped intelligent assistant devices. If you want to subscribe to Amazon Prime in store, it’s only possible at the checkout.
See products from the Amazon Launchpad programme
Amazon Launchpad is a programme developed by Amazon designed to showcase innovative products by startups to millions of Amazon customers. Amazon provides marketing and logistical support to the programme’s startups, and thus accelerates the bringing to market of the objects and products developed by these companies.
In the store you can find a section offering products from this collaboration, that you can of course purchase.
Pay with your smartphone
As in its bookstores, Amazon only accepts payments by credit card, gift card or mobile app. Payment by credit card or gift card is the same as in any store: you swipe your card in a reader. For mobile payment, like the bookstore, you scan a QR code and show your phone’s screen to the salesperson. They will then be able to make the payment from your Amazon account, without using a credit card. Regardless of the method of payment, when you buy a product, you go to the middle of the store, and with the help of an employee, you use the tablets to pay. These are not self-service.
Check for errors on the electronic labels
Amazon uses in-store electronic labels which allow them to display real-time price changes for these products. The labels also display the reviews for each product.
The store is supposed to showcase the best products, that is, those that have a four star or higher rating.
Some products display different information: 3,5 stars, as shown in the picture below.
Live the experience in photos
