E-commerce giant Amazon after gaining ground in the online market is now eyeing on the offline retail market and to do so Amazon will be launching about 100 mall Kiosks across India. The idea of launching kiosks in such a big number alludes to Amazons bigger plan of making an entry in Indian retail market, as per various media reports.
The American e-commerce company did a pilot on Kiosks two years ago in Bangalore and is currently running 4 such kiosks in India, two of them in Karnataka while one functioning in Mumbai and one in Ahmedabad.
Through new Kiosks Amazon will be selling its products such as Amazon Kindle ebook reader, the Echo speaker and the Fire TV dongle. The new kiosks are expected to arrive in the Indian markets by end of this year. Last year Amazon opened its fifth kiosk in Noida.
A kiosk gives first hand experience of the Amazon devices. Customers can use them and can experience, how that particular device looks, feels and functions in real. Along with this kiosks also function as a help desk for customers where they can ask their queries and other device related information.
A top mall executive said the Amazon kiosks will be run by third-party franchisees. Earlier this month, Amazon said it was closing more than 80 popup stores in US malls after years of trials with the concept.
Before Amazon, Google too experimented with its about a dozen kiosks in Delhi-NCR and Mumbai to showcase its Google Pixel 2 phones and give first hand experience of its features to customers.
Earlier in July 2017, Amazon got the permission by government to sell locally produced and packaged food items in India. Although, Amazon Retail India Pvt Ltd is yet to open a brick and mortar store in India but Amazon selling food products through Amazon.in.
