[London, ENGLAND] Finally ending all the speculation,
Amazon.com confirmed on
Tuesday that it will launch its new French site,
Amazon.fr, on
Thursday morning.
The French site is Amazon’s third in Europe, following
the U.K. and Germany. It will be supported by offices in
Guyancourt and a distribution center in Orleans, although
French customers will have their queries handled via Amazon’s
pan-European customer service center in the Netherlands.
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s founder and chief executive,
expressed his thanks to all the French users who have
purchased books, CDs and other products from Amazon.com
over the past five years.
“With the launch of Amazon.fr, we’re making the Amazon
shopping experience — with our obsession on customers —
available to French-speaking customers everywhere,” said
Bezos.
Amazon now has a substantial presence in Europe with
sites already established in the U.K. and Germany. Not
only is Amazon.co.uk
the top e-commerce site in the U.K., Amazon.com remains
one of the most popular destinations for British consumers.
Diego Piacentini, Amazon.com senior vice president and
general manager, international, said the new store has
has been created for and designed by French people.
He said that for the first time, people around the world
will be able to gain fast, easy access to French literature,
music, film and culture.
“As with the universal Amazon focus on the customer experience,
we’ll provide vast selection, great prices, excellent customer
service and 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week convenience. This is
one further step in our plans to become a global merchandiser,”
said Piacentini.
Amazon is pursuing a varied strategy to maintain its top
spot in e-commerce, establishing a direct presence in
major markets while also investing in other retailers
which share a similar vision of “making shopping easier
and more convenient.”
Amazon’s has made investments in, among others, online
pharmacy Drugstore.com,
pet products retailer Pets.com,
Internet grocer HomeGrocer.com, and
discount sporting goods retailer Gear.com.
It also has minority interests in specialist gift retailer
WeddingChannel.com,
online consumer credit company
NextCard and
delivery service Kozmo.com.
