Amazon is Talking About Opening Retail Stores in Germany – What, Again?
Over the past few years Amazon has repeatedly been queried by the press about opening retail stores in Germany. (I see I have written about this is December 2015 and December 2017, making this almost a biannual tradition).
Amazon is once again responding to questions about opening stores in Germany, and once again they are still thinking it over.
Amazon is considering opening stores in Germany, its second biggest market after the United States, the ecommerce company’s head in the country was quoted as saying on Saturday.
“The fact is that we know that customers shop offline and that they like variety,” German newspaper Welt am Sonntag quoted Ralf Kleber as saying in an interview, adding that he declined to give concrete details or a timetable.
What’s especially amusing to me is that this is the same guy who was asked this question in 2015 and 2017, and even though he gives the same noncommittal answer as before, for some reason this is huge news.
Folks, when I reported on this story last time I said we shouldn’t take the story too seriously because it didn’t feel like a firm plan. There has been no progress on Amazon’s plans in the past two years, so I see no reason to change my position.
Comments
Disgusting Dude January 6, 2020 um 4:38 pm
Isn’t Amazon’s second largest *book* market the UK?
It is a more mature ebook market where Amazon commands an even bigger share than the US and it is home to Amazon’s BOOK DEPOSITORY subsidiary.
The only way Germany compares is if you ignore ebooks and especially indies…
Oh, that’s right. That’s what the euro media always does.
Miss M January 6, 2020 um 5:46 pm
The article says nothing about the ‘*book*’ market, in fact the inference, as Nate posted, is they will be retail stores, so I don’t get your point. Aside from a little reverse-ADS/media bashing…
Nate Hoffelder January 7, 2020 um 9:03 am
Actually, books have price controls in Germany, raising the margin high enough that a bookstore might be worth Amazon’s time.
Disgusting Dude January 8, 2020 um 2:56 pm
Right.
And general merchandise they already sell as much as they need to.
And Amazon doesn’t like unions and German B&M is heavily unionized. They already have enough trouble with them.
Nate Hoffelder January 8, 2020 um 3:44 pm
Do you know what, you may have nailed the reason Amazon hasn’t opened stores there.