Amazon Books Is Not About Books
By Daniel Van Oudenaren
After killing off hundreds of brick-and-mortar competitors through online sales, Amazon has decided to open physical bookstores. There would be more irony in this decision if it weren’t for the fact that the new stores are not really about books — they’re about selling other Amazon services, especially Prime, a club for Amazon’s most loyal customers.
When I visited the company’s new Austin location, I was pitched a Prime membership within seconds of walking in the door. A saleswoman explained the program’s benefits: how one price applies to Prime members, while another applies to everyone else. Non-Prime members are charged up to double the price of Prime members.
After wandering through the front part of the store — Amazon dedicates most of its storefront space to electronic products, especially the Echo — I found my way to the back where most of the book inventory is kept. There aren’t any prices on the books. Customers instead are invited to use a smartphone to scan a book’s bar code, which pulls up an information page where Prime and non-Prime pricing information is displayed alongside reviews, ratings, and related products.
In this way Amazon aims to pull customers’ focus off of the product itself and shift their attention back to the online space where the company feels most at home. Forcing customers to use an app to check prices also helps feed Amazon’s hunger for customer analytics. Any time an Amazon customer who already uses one of the company’s apps scans an item at one its physical retail locations, this is an opportunity for Amazon to update its record of customer interests. This in turn enables more accurate automated product recommendations and pitches.
During more than an hour spent visiting Amazon Books in Austin on two separate occasions, I witnessed only one customer reading an actual book. Others were busy checking prices on their smartphones, browsing the book covers and electronics, or chatting with sales clerks.
For old souls who happen to wander into an Amazon Books without a smartphone, there are one or two scanners available for checking the price of items. A screen will helpfully display how much a product costs for Prime and non-Prime members, respectively.
Prime is an important program for Amazon not only because it provides recurring subscription revenue from millions of customers, but also because it ‘primes’ those customers into making further online purchases. The program aims to convince subscribers that they save more money the more they purchase.
Prime is the real moneymaker for Amazon. The new physical stores are merely marketing displays aimed at leading people into habitual online buying. This is highlighted by the fact that the company does not accept cash payments at its physical stores. By rejecting cash payments, Amazon enhances analytics on existing customers and forces every new customer to make a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ choice for Prime, which is offered at the point of sale.
“The ideal Amazon Books customer never comes back.”
Amazon Books has no cafe, only a very small children’s area, no chairs, couches, or tables, and no other social spaces. This is unconventional for a bookstore and it suggests that Amazon is disinterested in stepping into the traditional booksellers’ role of serving not just as retailer but also as meet-up spot, salon and study space. Whereas traditional booksellers profit from customers who idle in the store and frequently return, the ideal Amazon Books customer walks into the store, signs up for Prime, and never comes back.
The habits of mind that contribute to the profitability of traditional booksellers — reading, browsing, and in-person book discussions — are not the habits of mind that contribute most to the profitability of Amazon. The company has many other ways of making money from its most loyal customers, none of which have very much to do with books: Prime Video, Amazon Music, Echo/Alexa, Amazon Shopping, Amazon Fire TV, Twitch, etc.
If you happen to visit an Amazon Books, what you’ll likely see is customers staring at books through their smartphones. This is an iconic metaphor for how Amazon has used books in its rise to power. Amazon Books purports to be about books and culture, but what it really is doing is drawing our attention to something else entirely: Back to our devices, back to our distractions. Go ahead and buy one, two, maybe even three books. Then be sure to check your phone for new offers.
Amazon started as a bookstore. But it has made America a more deeply illiterate and more distracted society.
Originally published at https://www.honestaustin.com on September 12, 2018.
