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Amazon.com is reputed for building its empire around the idea of selling products online. But in recent times the e-commerce giant has been seen taking a counterintuitive move toward establishing a physical business premise.

Amazon’s first bookstore was established in its hometown. While touting it as “a physical extension of Amazon.com,” the company located the bookstore in the University Village area of Seattle. According to Jennifer Cast, who was the vice president of Amazon Books at that time, the retailer applied its experience drawn from 2 decades of selling books online to create a store that combines the benefits of online and offline book shopping.

Unlike a standard bookstore, Amazon presents a different approach to book shopping. When it comes to deciding on what books to stock on shelves, the company uses data services such as Goodreads popularity ratings, sales totals, and customer ratings found on its website to perform the task, however, human book experts are consulted to curate the selection.

The stores also present information about an actual customer review and Amazon.com rating of each book. With the covers facing out, books in the stores are presented in a more attractive manner, unlike the way they are being stacked spine-out in typical bookstores. Additionally, the stores provide customers with the ability to demo Amazon devices such as Echo and Kindle.

Based on comments by a shopping mall CEO, rumors came filtering in that Amazon was planning to open over 400 physical stores, shortly after the Seattle opening. However, the remarks were later refuted when Sandeep Mathrani of General Growth Properties said that Amazon’s retail plans were not accurately represented.

Meanwhile, plans for a fourth physical location in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago were confirmed on Thursday. According to confirmed reports, these locations will serve as a place for customers to gain access to real-life books.