Amazon to open 10 stores across the UK

Amazon Clicks and Mortar pop-up stores will showcase major brands' products sold on the Amazon website

Online commerce giant Amazon is planning to open ten ‘pop-up stores' across the UK, offering a range of goods for sale, as well as Amazon lockers for buyers to collect or return goods.

In addition, the stores will also provide a shop window for some of the many companies that use Amazon or fulfilment.

The first ‘Clicks and Mortar' store opens today in St Mary's Gate in central Manchester, with further stores planned for Wales, Scotland, Yorkshire, the Midlands and the South East.

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The scheme is part of a one-year pilot in association with Enterprise Nation. Amazon estimates that up to 100 brands will be given their first UK High Street presence via Amazon's chain of shops. Brands showcased will include Swifty Scooters, Torro Cases and Altr for Men.

Emma Jones, founder of Enterprise Nation told The Guardian: "Our intention is to help small businesses succeed by combining the best elements of online and high street retail. This new concept will provide small businesses with the space, technology and support to experience physical retail for the first time."

Amazon's decision to open-up some pop-up stores across the UK comes after eBay last month opened one in Wolverhampton, show-casing wares from 40 of its more significant partners.

In addition, Microsoft's first UK store is expected to open in central London by the end of July, Raspberry Pi recently opened a store in Cambridge and, of course, Amazon already owns Whole Foods, which today has seven stores across London.

However, it is still open to question whether it will roll-out its Amazon Go checkout-free retail concept more widely, following the opening of a pilot store in Seattle, Washington in January 2018.

It comes after the company denied plans to purge hundreds of small retailers from its warehouses, shifting them towards its Amazon Marketplace instead in a tidying-up exercise that would enable it to drive better deals from major brands.

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