Amazon has opened its first ever university campus product pickup point that sports a device-testing area for people to try out Amazon’s latest gadgets.
Open each day from 9am-9pm, the 3,500 square foot space, called Amazon@ASUC Student Union, is a fully-staffed room located in the Martin Luther King Jr. building at the UC Berkeley campus.
Above: Amazon Pickup Point: Devices
Image Credit: Amazon
Though Amazon’s roots are embedded entirely in the online realm, the company has increasingly sought to infiltrate the brick-and-mortar realm with physical pickup points for people who order things online, however, who may not be at home to take collection.
Amazon launched its first ever staffed campus pickup location last February at Purdue University, and Berkeley represents its fifth campus with staffed pickup points. However, it seems the Internet giant is now looking to gain further mindshare among the student population by cross-selling everything from Kindles and Fire tablets, to Fire TV dongles and set-top boxes.
Given the enrolment at UC Berkeley hovers around the 40,000 mark, this could prove a useful way for Amazon to lock students into the Amazon ecosystem. Indeed, not only do Amazon Student and Amazon Prime members receive free same-day pickup on more than two million items ordered through Amazon.com (though even non-members can still use the pickup service), however, when they turn up to collect the goods, they could be harangued to check out the latest ereader from Amazon.
Elsewhere in the online-meets-offline world, Amazon also recently launched its first ever physical bookstore, in a bizarre twist to the company’s ever-evolving story that has seen it contribute to the closure of a number of big-name bookstores over the years.
Amazon said it plans to launch two more similar experiences in 2016, one at the University of California, Davis; and University of Pennsylvania.