Amazon is opening its first physical bookstore tomorrow

Now, the online retailer is both beating them and joining them, with the opening of its first physical bookstore today in Seattle.

Each book in the 5,500 sq. ft. store will be displayed facing outwards, rather than spine out, and have placards beneath them showing their Amazon.com rating and customer reviews taken straight from the online site.

With the move, Amazon begins selling books alongside other physical book sellers, businesses that have bemoaned the behemoth’s ability to undercut bookstores’ revenue by offering books at a discount. The press release says, “Products across our Kindle, Echo, Fire TV, and Fire Tablet series are available for you to explore, and Amazon device experts will be on hand”. If it’s popular online, Amazon will sell it at Amazon Books.

Amazon Books’ prices are the same prices as appear online.

In the past, Amazon.com tried various steps to offer temporary physical stores to its customers that include order pickups, return counters and Amazon Lockers across shopping malls and different locations around the country. The Amazon book store will carry as many as 6,000 titles.

The store won’t be limited to just books either.

Amazon Books will be open every day of the week except for holidays and can be found in the city’s University Village.

For years, it could undercut physical retailers on price because it didn’t have brick-and-mortar locations.

Amazon encourages what other stores fear – having customers browse there and then go online to buy.

According to Cast, customers will have a different experience at Amazon Books.

Cast said the company wanted to put each author’s work on display.

“It’s data with heart”, says Jennifer Cast, vice president of Amazon Books.

Now that Amazon has opened its first bookstore, another next question is, will there be more? “We’re certainly excited about this one”.