Amazon to open pop-up stores nationwide

The temporary stores, whose total could reach 100 next year, will showcase and sell the company’s devices, particularly its Echo home speaker, the report said. Amazon Books, which has two stores open, is being run by its retail team, while the pop-ups are operated by its device team.

While the vast majority of its business is transacted online, Amazon has been expanding into the brick-and-mortar world recently.

The company has likewise quietly launched a microsite supporting the pop-up initiative and showing that Amazon already has 22 locations.

Amazon appears to be rolling out private-label devices that emulate some of those from third-party vendors that are top-rated, according to Bloomberg News.

Pop-up shops, in retail terms, are open-air stores in malls and shopping centers that stay for a short time before moving on to a different location. They plan on opening 30 by the end of the year and have 100 of them by late 2017.

Amazon still hasn’t closed its Westfield Mall location, despite the short-term nature of pop-up stores. But they offer a new way for the company to boost its brand awareness and to drive sales, both at the stores and on its website. Tech gadgets usually require very little space and when a store is devoted to those specific types of products, it can usually make bank off the internet or in tiny stores like the ones Amazon is building across the nation. The Amazon pop-ups are officially a solid business venture for the online retail giant and consumers can expect to start seeing them in all of the major markets in the near future. As The Christian Science Monitor’s Jason Thomson reported in May, many online stores are seeking to grow their physical presence. The Echo and its companion, Alexa, are some of the electronics featured at Amazon pop-up stores.

And still, Amazon continues to “not announce” the launching of these pop-ups.