Amazon Boosts Cashierless Initiatives With 2nd New York Store

In a bid to bolster presence in the retail space further, Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) has rolled out its second cashierless store, Amazon Go, in New York. Notably, the company opened its first Amazon Go store in New York City at the Brookfield Place shopping center.

The new 1,700 square-foot store is located at 300 Park Avenue in Midtown Manhattan and will operate Monday to Friday from 6 AM to 8 PM.

The latest store will stock ready-to-eat food items like salads, sandwiches, meal kits and other goods. Further, it will also offer brewed coffee and espresso drinks as well which also marks second of its kind.

Additionally, a self-service kiosk will allow shoppers to make coffee drinks on their own as per their preferences namely – mocha, latte and Americano.

The latest move strengthens Amazon’s physical presence, which is a major positive.

Further, the new store will accept cash from customers with the aid of a store employee.

We believe with the latest self-service kiosk and cash acceptance feature, and other facilities are likely to bolster customer traffic at the new store.

Expanding Amazon Go

The opening of second Amazon Go in New York bodes well for its aggressive expansion plans.

The e-commerce giant intends to take the number of its cashierless store, Amazon Go, to a record of 3,000 stores by 2021.

Further, the company latest inauguration takes it one step closer to 50 Amazon Go by 2019. Manhattan-based cashierless store marks the 13th Amazon Go location in the United States.

Amazon also unveiled its plans about the 14th such store which will be launched at Three Embarcadero Center in the financial district in San Francisco. Apart from this, the company is also gearing up to test its cashierless technology in bigger stores.

Growing proliferation of AI, machine learning (ML) and Internet usage are likely to aid growth of these kinds of stores.

We believe the company is well poised take advantage of the technical progress in the retail sector with the increasing number of Amazon Go stores and its innovative technologies.

Amazon.com, Inc. Revenue (TTM)

Amazon.com, Inc. Revenue (TTM)

Amazon.com, Inc. revenue-ttm | Amazon.com, Inc. Quote

Gaining Competitive Edge

Amazon, with its checkout-free grocery stores, has revolutionized the brick-and-mortar retailing.

Further, the expansion plans of Amazon are likely to provide a tough competition to the small and big retailers which are already reeling under its competitive threat.

Moreover, the company will continue to gain competitive edge against Walmart (NYSE:WMT) , Target (NYSE:TGT) and Kroger (NYSE:KR) which are also leaving no stone unturned to counter the threat from Amazon.

All the three retailers have joined forces with Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) to take on Amazon's cashierless concept. Kroger will leverage Microsoft Azure that serves as the most preferred cloud platform for Retail as a Service (RaaS).

Nevertheless, Amazon’s rapidly expanding Amazon Go stores are likely to aid presence in the retail market.

Currently, Amazon carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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