Dive Brief:
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Amazon on Tuesday said its Treasure Truck shop on wheels will show up at Whole Foods Market parking lots nationwide, carrying "new offers and incentives," according to a press release.
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The trucks are packed with curated selections of food and merchandise, including meal kits, snacks, gadgets, electronics and apparel, including some items local to the place where a truck is parked on a given day.
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On Tuesday, the Treasure Truck offer included an instant pot that would garner shoppers a Whole Foods $10 off $40 purchase coupon, the company said.
Dive Insight:
After a debut in 2016 that kept its wheels rolling mostly in Seattle, Amazon last year expanded the mobile retail popup to other cities nationwide.
Amazon’s Treasure Trucks have a sort of festive carnival vibe, with movie tie-ins, participation by celebrities and live music. Amazon continues to tease out its upcoming stops rather than announcing much ahead of time. Shoppers who have signed up for the Treasure Truck's texts are notified that the truck is nearby and told what's for sale. They shop for items via the Treasure Truck app and pick up their purchases at the truck's location.
The trucks are more than fun, though, considering they provide the e-commerce giant with a physical retail option that is even more flexible than a pop-up. The effort also seems like a way to get more customers used to connecting with Amazon on mobile.
The trucks also highlight the company's vast merchandise assortment and another way to vacuum up information on shoppers' preferences. Jerry Hoffman, president of real estate services firm Hoffman Strategy Group, has called pop-ups in general "a living, breathing focus group."
"It tests your mettle in terms of how you get your brand into the market, tracking where your customers live, what kind of lifestyle profiles that kind of customer might have, and how you do the outreach," he told Retail Dive.
And that’s exactly the kind of information that Amazon lives for.
