Amazon, which ushered in the era of online sales, will open its first physical store in Palm Beach County this year at The Gardens Mall.

Amazon is planning to lease space at The Gardens Mall in Palm Beach Gardens for a store called Amazon 4-star, a concept that takes the digital sales behemoth into a traditional bricks-and-mortar location, retail sources said.

Amazon 4-star carries top-rated products sold by Amazon that earned four stars or more. These items include consumer electronics, toys, games, books, kitchen and other home goods.

In addition to carrying a top rating, the rotating inventory of items may also include top sellers or popular sellers in a particular area. The store also serves as a platform for Amazon’s own tech devices, including its smart home accessories such as Alexa.

Amazon is slated to take the former Mayors Jewelry space at The Gardens Mall and be open by year end, retail sources said. A spokesman for the mall’s parent company could not be reached for comment.

The deal is a coup for The Gardens Mall, which like other malls is trying to create a broader range of interesting tenants and experiences to draw shoppers who have grown accustomed to online shopping.

>>PHOTOS: The Gardens Mall, through the years

In addition to The Gardens Mall, two other 4-star locations are in the works for South Florida. Both are in Miami-Dade County. One is at Lincoln Mall on Miami Beach, according to Amazon’s website. Another reportedly is in the works for Brickell City Centre in downtown Miami.

An Amazon spokeswoman did not respond to inquiries about The Gardens Mall, referring a reporter to the Amazon website and the list of announced stores.

Amazon’s arrival at South Florida shopping centers is ironic.

The online vendor started its business selling books, leading to the decline of booksellers such as Barnes & Noble and Borders. As Amazon branched out and began selling other items online, traditional retailers turned to e-commerce to sell goods.

This ushered in the wave of Internet shopping that has put a number of retail companies out of business, leading to massive shopping center vacancies nationwide. This includes South Florida, which has numerous shopping complexes.

With many retail rivals vanquished, Amazon is making its way into some of the vacancies it helped create, snaring prime space in key spots.

The first 4-star store opened in New York in September 2018. Since then, the company has slowly rolled out the 4-star stores nationwide. On its website, it counts 10 locations open and another 11 opening in 2020.

Amazon isn’t the only e-commerce company to open stores in shopping malls.

Other so-called digital native companies, such as UNTUCKit men’s clothing retailer and Warby Parker eyewear, also have begun taking space in malls. In Palm Beach County, both have stores at the Town Center mall in Boca Raton.

Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach also just revealed that UNTUCKit will open this year at the shopping, dining and entertainment center.

Dominic Delgado, senior director with Cushman & Wakefield brokerage, represents UnTUCKit and handled its deal with Rosemary Square, owned by Related Cos. of New York.

Delgado said digital retailers know that not all shopping can be done online, and that some customers still want the experience of shopping in person.

Creating a balance between online and in-person sales leads to greater success for a company overall, he said.

"These companies look across the country and see where they have X amount of sales online," Delgado said. "Once they hit a metric, they open a store. And every time they wind up opening a store, the online sales in that market and adjacent markets spike tremendously."

Orin Rosenfeld, a retail expert and president of Rosenfeld Realty Advisors, a real estate brokerage, agreed. He said a physical store is needed by digital retailers to compete with stores such as Walmart or Costco that can offer a range of products to in-person shoppers at very low prices.

What makes Amazon unique from other retailers is its ability to mine customers’ shopping habits for data on a range of products, and then use that information to suit a particular market, said

"I think it’s a fascinating meld of data and retail," Rosenfeld said. "They know from their online sales and all the data in your region and city what you’re buying and how much you’re buying, and will tailor everything accordingly."

Down the line, Rosenfeld expects Amazon will roll out its latest grocery store concepts in Florida as the grocery store wars continue to heat up.

On Feb. 25, Amazon announced the opening of a new, larger Amazon Go cashier-less grocery store in downtown Seattle, the company's hometown. The Wall Street Journal recently reported that Amazon also will open a new line of grocery stores separate from its Whole Foods Market chain. Amazon wants to sell less expensive products to consumers who might not want to shop at Whole Foods.

In other retail news...

In addition to UNTUCKit, Rosemary Square in West Palm Beach is adding three other tenants. All will open this year.

The retailers are Urban Outfitters clothing and lifestyle products, opening a two-story space this winter; YETI, a maker of outdoor products such as coolers and drinkware, opening in the spring; and Lucid Motors, a new luxury electric car brand.

By year-end, Lucid will open a 4,500-square-foot store in the former Mellow Mushroom restaurant location. It’s a high-profile spot at the corner of Okeechobee Boulevard and Rosemary Avenue.

Lucid’s first vehicle, dubbed Lucid Air, costs $60,000 and will be rolled out in April at the New York auto show. Lucid is led by Peter Rawlinson, former Tesla Model S chief engineer.

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