Amazon Storefronts shows its becoming more mall than retailer

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• Amazon opened its new online store, ‘Amazon Storefronts,’ that allows customers to buy exclusively from small and medium-sized US businesses selling on the site.
• The new store has sellers from all 50 US states and across more than 25 categories.
• Amazon is “increasingly becoming more mall than retailer,” according to Nomura Instinet analysts.
• Watch Amazon trade in real time here.

Amazon is launching a new platform for small- and medium-sized businesses, and evolving itself from an online retailer to a shopping mall, Nomura Instinet says.

The online retailer on Monday unveiled its new online store, “Amazon Storefronts,” for customers looking to buy exclusively from US-based businesses. The new hub features 20,000 businesses across more than 25 categories like home, books, jewelry, electronics, and beauty in all 50 US states.

“Amazon Storefronts” will offer customers collections from third-party sellers that sell and ship themselves, sellers utilizing the “Fulfillment by Amazon” program, and sellers that have a direct retail traditional relationship where Amazon sells and ships the items. Each week, the store will display a video to help customers learn more about a featured US business.

“We’ve created a custom, one-stop shopping experience for customers looking for interesting, innovative and high quality products from American businesses from all across the country,” Amazon Vice President Nicholas Denissen said in a statement.

The “Amazon Storefront” feature shows the company is “increasingly becoming more mall than retailer, evolving as a collector of fees more so than a purveyor of products,” according to Nomura.

“The new ‘Store Fronts’ will highlight around 1 million products being sold by nearly 20,000 small- and medium-size biz across the U.S., as the company’s third party unit growth continues to outpace first party and continuing to broaden the size of sellers able to reach customers by tapping into Amazon’s growing market place scale,” Nomura’s team of  analysts led by Simeon Siegel in a note sent out to clients on Tuesday.

They have a price target of $1,990, and a “buy” rating for the e-commerce giant.

Amazon shares are up 62% this year.

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