Amazon to Open ‘Smart Home’ Spaces in Kohl’s Stores

Menomonee Falls, Wis.--Amazon is taking the shopping experience for its smart home products offline.

For the first time, the e-commerce giant is offering the opportunity to shop its devices in store by opening dedicated Amazon “smart home experiences” in Kohl’s stores.

The opening of these spaces marks yet another entry by Amazon into the brick-and-mortar space. The company recently acquired grocery store chain Whole Foods, has nine Amazon Books stores with another four in the works, and one Amazon Go grocery store.

The shop-in-shops will open in 10 select stores in the Los Angeles and Chicago areas starting in October, just in time for holiday shopping.

The 1,000-square-foot spaces will offer a variety of smart home products from the e-commerce giant, including Amazon Echo, Echo Dot, Amazon Fire TV and Fire tablets, among others.

Designed to provide an interactive and hands-on experience to shoppers, the dedicated spaces will showcase how smart home products, many of which are powered by Alexa, can help “modernize and simplify home management, entertainment, security and more,” Kohl’s said in a press release. Consumers will be able to touch, feel and interact with devices before they buy.

Amazon sales associates with knowledge of the company’s devices and smart home products will staff the shop-in-shops.

Shoppers also will have the ability to schedule a visit to their home from one of the Amazon experts to evaluate their needs and install products, and to take advantage of Amazon Home Services, which offers access to vetted local service professionals for everything around the house, from cleaning to plumbing.

Kohl’s declined to share additional information regarding exact store locations or future expansion for the Amazon smart home experiences areas.

“We believe in the power of our store portfolio and know that our future as a best-in-class omnichannel retailer will be driven by how inventive, compelling and unique we can make our store experience,” said Michelle Gass, Kohl’s chief merchandising and customer officer. “Kohl’s and Amazon share a customer obsession, and we’ve joined together to leverage each other’s strengths and deliver a great experience customers can only find at Kohl’s.”