Amazon Counting on Pick-up With New Service

Amazon, which put fear in retailers’ hearts and hastened the demise of others by delivering to customers’ doors almost anything they desired, has been adopting more and more strategies from the official brick and mortar retailers’ handbook. The online giant hooked up with Kohl’s, initially to sell products there, and subsequently,  to facilitate its customers’  returns, whether the products were purchased at Kohl’s, or not. It even has taken a small stake in the department store chain. With retailers such as Walmart Inc. challenging Amazon’s core strength — logistics, and its free next-day shipping proposition for Prime Members — Amazon is fighting back. The Seattle-based ecommerce giant on Thursday said it is today launching Counter, a network of staffed pickup points that will allow consumers to pick up their packages in a store in a particular location in more than 100 Rite-Aid stores across the country. Amazon expects to roll out the service to more than 1,500 stores throughout the U.S. by the end of the year. The company said delivery to a counter location Is available for tens of millions of products sold on Amazon.com. and pickup can be used for items that are delivered same-day, two-day and standard shipping at no

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