Amazon to launch its first stores in Germany in 2020

The leading U.S retailer, Amazon, is known for its consistent efforts towards expanding business and catering to its valuable customers. In the spirit of that, Jeff Bezos, the founder and president of the online retail giant, announced on Saturday that Amazon intends to launch its first stores in Germany. He was also cited quoting that Germany currently marks the second-largest market for the U.S based online retailer.

Amazon’s Country Manager Refrained From Announcing A Schedule

According to a local German newspaper, Welt am Sonntag, the vice president for Amazon’s business in Germany, recently stated:

“The fact is that we know that customers shop offline and that they like variety.”

The newspaper, however, highlighted that Kleber refrained from divulging any further information regarding the company’s plans at this stage. The vice president also didn’t announce the schedule for when the stores are expected to be launched in Germany.

While Amazon’s online services are open to multiple locations around the globe, its stores are currently operational in the United Kingdom and the United States of America. The stores include Amazon Go food stores (checkout-free) and a grocery chain by the name of Whole Foods.  

During the interview with the newspaper, Kleber also announced that Amazon is currently focused on the widescale adoption of its Alexa voice-controlled devices to enhance the overall shopping experience for its valuable customers. He further added that the company has resorted to reducing the price for Echo Dot in order to accomplish this goal.

Amazon Wishes To Implement A Hand Scan For Payments

Amazon also made headline recently when it expressed plans of creating hand identities for its customers. The service was elaborated to work much like a simple hand scan. Each of the hand identities was supposed to be linked with the respective bank accounts of the customers. If the online retail giant succeeds in establishing such a system, customers will no longer be needed to carry their wallets, credit cards, or mobile phones in order to make payments. All they’ll have to do is have their hands scan and their bank accounts will automatically be charged for their purchase.

2019 turned out to be a rather eventful year for Amazon. On one hand, Amazon’s stock closed the year trading around 20% higher than the opening level, while on the other hand, the company lost a major Pentagon’s contract valued at $10 billion to Microsoft. While Bezos is actively pursuing appealing against Pentagon’s decision, things haven’t turned in Amazon’s favor so far.