Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN - Free Report) is gearing up to become a major retailer in the U.K. grocery market. The company has plans of opening checkout-free grocery store, Amazon Go, in the country.

Reportedly, the U.K. Intellectual Property Office has approved the e-commerce giant’s application to trademark the slogans, “No Lines, No Checkout. (No, Seriously.)”and “No Queue. No Checkout. (No, Seriously.)”. Also, the European Union’s equivalent agency is reviewing a corresponding application.

If everything falls into place, U.K. will be the second country after the U.S. where Amazon will be going the brick-and-mortar way. The company has also been making efforts to open a no-cashier convenience store in India.

Notably, the company’s first brick-and-mortar store, Amazon Go, was expected to open in Seattle by the end of March but things got delayed due to technical problems. In fact, it is still at a primary stage and Amazon might face more uncertainties related to its execution, which could further delay in the opening of the store.

Coming to the price performance, shares of Amazon underperformed the Zacks categorized Electronic Commerce industry in the last one year. While the industry gained 46.1%, the stock returned 37.8%.

What is Amazon Go?

Termed as Amazon Go, this no-queue-checkout-counter grocery store is going to be a boon for customers who are too worn-out to stand in long queues at physical cash counters or are baffled at complicated self-checking counters.

This convenience store will offer all kinds of perishable items and grocery essentials as well as drive-up destinations where subscribers can pick up their orders and have them delivered to their cars. All that's required is the installation of the Amazon Go app on one’s cell phone.

This Just Walk Out technology uses machine learning and cameras to automatically detect products picked up. Once the shopping is done, one can simply leave the store. After a while, money will be charged online from the Amazon account of the customer.

Bottom Line

Amazon’s accelerated move into the offline market makes sense as competition in online retail is heating up. Traditional retailers have always given the strongest competition and a number of them are running e-commerce sites as well.

Additionally, the increased use of Internet in both developed and developing economies is attracting other players to the space. While affiliation programs are being used by big players such as eBay (EBAY - Free Report) , several smaller companies could also find their own niche.

Given that Amazon’s first mover advantage is likely to moderate over time, and some market share erosion seems inevitable, counter strategies are essential.

Amazon is also gearing up to tap the offline market if ever online retail bottoms out. The e-commerce giant plans to open brick-and-mortar stores with merchandise like grocery and other items as well just like it did with books.

Amazon.com, Inc. Price and Consensus

Amazon.com, Inc. Price and Consensus | Amazon.com, Inc. Quote

Currently, Amazon has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Other better-ranked stocks in the industry are Mercadolibre, Inc. (MELI - Free Report) and PetMed Express, Inc. (PETS - Free Report), each carrying a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Mercadolibre, Inc. delivered a positive earnings surprise of 26.74%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.

PetMed Express, Inc. delivered a positive earnings surprise of 9.32%, on average, in the trailing four quarters.