In major offline push, Amazon to roll out over 100 kiosks in malls by year end

In a major push towards offline retail in India, US-based e-commerce firm Amazon is planning to roll out over 100 kiosks in malls across the country by the end of the year.

The e-commerce firm aims to push the offline sale of its devices such as the Kindle ebook reader, the Echo speaker, and the Fire TV dongle. The Kiosks will give customers a first-hand experience of the devices. It will help customers to understand the devices through an assisted live demo.

The company is reportedly in talks with mall operators in Delhi.

It is looking for around 70-80 square feet of kiosk space to sell its devices. As per ET report, Amazon kiosks will be run by third-party franchisees.

This is not the first such attempt by Amazon. In 2017, it had set up kiosks in the country. At present, it runs four kiosks- two in Bengaluru and one each in Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Last week, Amazon rolled out fifth kiosks in Noida’s Logix Mall.

However, the development is in complete contrast with its US operation, where the e-commerce firm has recently closed about 80 popup stores.

Search engine giant Google had also opened over a dozen popup stores in Delhi and Mumbai to educate consumers about its products.

Ten days ago, Flipkart-owned Myntra had also shut two stores in Mumbai and Bengaluru.

The low offline revenues and high real estate rentals were the major reasons that led to the closure of the stores.