Having shifted the world toward online buying, Amazon's physical bookstores may have you scratching your head — until you consider the "amazing" branding, analysts told CNBC's "Closing Bell" on Friday.
"It certainly makes sense from a branding perspective," said Daniel Kurnos, analyst at Benchmark. "This is about showroom-ing. They can highlight their product line-up as they continue to battle for living room share."
Amazon is planning three more physical bookstores, expanding its current Seattle offering to Chicago, San Diego and Portland, the Financial Times confirmed on Thursday. The company, which has early roots as a book e-tailer, uses its Seattle store to sell both books and Amazon electronics like Kindles, Fire TV and Echo, the Financial Times said.
The stores could help Amazon get more consumer data and acquire subscribers to its membership service, Prime, according to Alasdair McLean-Foreman, CEO of Teikametrics, which provides e-commerce data analytics tools. He said hardware showcased in the stores, like Kindle and Fire, bring the "stickiest, most profitable" consumers into the Amazon ecosystem.
"I think it is an amazing move," McLean-Foreman said.