Amazon to close all its brick-and-mortar bookstores in U.S. and UK

Amazon is closing all of its brick-and-mortar bookstores, as well as its 4-star shops and pop-up locations, as the online retail giant reworks its physical footprint.

The Seattle-based company said Wednesday that the move, which affects 66 stores in the U.S. and two in the United Kingdom, will enable it to concentrate its efforts on Amazon Fresh, Whole Foods Market, its convenience concept called Amazon Go and its upcoming Amazon Style stores. Amazon Style, which will sell fashion and accessories, is set to open in a Southern California mall later this year.

The store, which will sell women's and men's clothing as well as shoes and other accessories, will open at the Americana at Brand mall in Glendale. 

Shoppers will get personalized recommendations pushed to their phones as they browse the new Amazon Style store stocked mostly with non-Amazon fashion labels, the company said.

"We remain committed to building great, long-term physical retail experiences and technologies and we're working closely with our affected employees to help them find new roles within Amazon," the company said in a statement.

It couldn't be learned immediately how many Amazon workers are being affected.

Amazon opened its first brick-and-mortar bookstore in 2015, two decades after it began selling books online and helped drive many traditional book shops out of business. Amazon's 4-star shops, which first made their debut in 2018, carry a limited selection of best-selling products from top categories that Amazon.com sells, including consumer electronics, toys and games.

The move comes as Amazon.com Inc.'s overall revenue growth is slowing as a result of supply-chain snags and labor shortages, and it's looking for new ways to reignite sales. 

Amazon also is raising its annual prime membership fee in the U.S. to $139 per year from $119. It's the first price hike for the Prime membership since 2018.

Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, said the bookstore strategy comes as a surprise. He said he believes it's an acknowledgement that the bookstores weren't delivering the returns Amazon was seeking.

Saunders said he thinks the main problem with Amazon's non-food stores is that they lacked a real purpose even though the merchandise was well-presented.

"They were designed for people to pop in and browse rather than as destinations where people would head on a mission to buy something," he wrote in a note Wednesday. Ultimately, he added, that wasn't good for driving customer traffic, especially in an era where people are visiting shops less.

The other problem is the retail assortment, Saunders said, describing it disjointed and unfocused in many locations.