When Amazon opens a new store, it’s never just about adding another retail location. The company’s recent launch of a beauty and personal care store in Milan (Amazon Parafarmacia & Beauty store, opened on February 12, 2025) offers fascinating insights into Amazon’s evolving retail strategy and suggests ambitious plans for the European market.
Beyond Digital: Why Physical Beauty Retail Matters for Amazon
Amazon’s choice to open a beauty store is telling. Beauty products represent a unique challenge in eCommerce: customers often want to test, try, and receive personal recommendations before purchasing. By tackling this challenge, Amazon addresses a critical weakness in its digital-first approach to beauty retail.
The Strategic Playbook Revealed
In a recent IDC Link, we discussed how Amazon’s new store prioritizes customer experience and personalization. Our visit to the store reinforced our idea of what Amazon is thinking:
- Rather than focusing on immediate sales through frictionless checkouts (like Amazon Fresh stores), this location prioritizes customer experience and brand building.
- The integration of “Place & Learn Stations”, interactive screens through which shoppers can access detailed product information, and a “Derma-bar”, where shoppers receive bespoke skin analysis and expert recommendations, signals Amazon’s understanding that beauty retail requires education and personalization.
- The carefully curated selection of premium brands suggests Amazon is positioning itself to compete with high-end beauty retailers, not just mass-market stores.
The Bigger Picture: European Market Expansion
The Milan store serves as a strategic launchpad for Amazon’s broader European beauty ambitions. By establishing a physical presence in one of Europe’s fashion capitals, Amazon is:
- Building credibility as the go-to retailer for the premium beauty sector.
- Creating a showroom for brands to expand their sales across its European online platforms.
- Developing a model that could be replicated in other key European markets.
Strategic Implications
Amazon’s physical retail journey began with Amazon Go in Seattle in 2018 and has been one of constant experimentation. The Milan beauty store reveals several key aspects of Amazon’s evolving retail strategy:
1. The company is willing to take a long-term approach, prioritizing customer experience over immediate sales.
2. The company is using physical locations as brand-building tools, not just sales channels.
3. Amazon is tailoring its retail approach to specific product categories rather than applying a one-size-fits-all solution.
We recently mentioned in a LinkedIn post how Amazon strategically leverages physical stores to compete with retail giants like Walmart in the U.S. market (as well as how Walmart is taking new revenue generation approaches from Amazon’s book). This beauty store opening represents another calculated move in the company’s evolving retail playbook.
What This Means for the Retail Industry
For other retailers, Amazon’s beauty store strategy offers important insights. The future of retail isn’t about choosing between physical and digital — it’s about understanding when and how to use each channel effectively. Amazon’s investment in an experience-focused beauty store demonstrates that even a (predominantly) eCommerce pure-play retailer recognizes the value of physical retail when used strategically.
The Milan beauty store is a window into Amazon’s thinking about the future of retail. As the company continues to evolve its omni-channel strategy, this store could serve as a template for how digital giants can effectively blend physical and digital retail experiences in specialized product categories.
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