Amazon Opens Screen-Filled Bricks And Mortar “Parapharmacy” Store In Milan

February 25, 2025 by Dave Haynes

Online shopping and fulfillment giant Amazon has opened its first bricks and mortar store in Italy – a health and beauty store in Milan’s city centre filled with screens.

The Amazon Parafarmacia Beauty store opened Feb. 12th, featuring a “curated” selection of beauty and personal care products from brands including Eucerin, La Roche-Posay, Vichy, Avène, Bionike, Rilastil and CeraVe.

“We’re thrilled to announce the opening of Amazon Parafarmacia Beauty in Milan, a physical store that further enhances and innovates our customers’ shopping experience featuring a curated selection of beauty and personal care products. We’ve designed this store to bring us one step closer to our customers and to deliver an innovative experience, merging cutting-edge technology with expert advice,” says Giorgio Busnelli, VP of Amazon’s Consumer Goods in Europe. “Thanks to this opening, we will be able to expand our online beauty and personal care product offerings across Amazon’s stores in Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and the UK throughout the year. This broadened selection reflects our dedication to meet the diverse needs of our customers, both at our physical store in Milan and online in Europe.”

The two main zones of the store both use a lot of digital.

• Main Gallery: The central hub of the store showcases a wide selection of beauty, personal care, and dermatologically-recommended products from trusted brands. ‘Place Learn Stations’, feature interactive digital displays, allowing customers to learn more about products; these screens play educational videos about select items when placed on a designated tray. The videos provide details on ingredients, usage, or other product-related information. Organized shelving displays and electronic shelf labels make it easy for customers to explore different brands, products, and categories.

• Derma-bar: An experiential area where customers can receive complimentary digital skin analysis using technological features and product recommendations from beauty experts. Using digital tools, customers obtain a comprehensive report on their skin type and condition by having their skin analyzed at one of three digital skin analysis stations. Beauty experts then provide product recommendations based on the results. The derma-bar also features try-on stations to sample products.

The Parafarmacia handle references how this is not a traditional pharmacy that can fill prescriptions. This store instead has on-site pharmacists who can guide shoppers on non-prescription, over-the-counter medications that might, I guess, do the job.

I like the look of the store and the use of screens at every merchandised stall (or whatever the proper fixture name might be). It is a bit reminiscent of screens over the locker/dressing areas on big-time US college football programs.

No idea about the tech solution or who put it in. M-Cube, maybe?

This retailing expert, Jack Stratten, had mixed feelings about a store that looked really nice but was, his description, utterly soulless.

I visited the Amazon pharmacy in Milan, and the best way to describe it is that it’s like the store that ChatGPT created.

What I mean by that is that, just like when you create something with gen AI, it’s surprisingly good but also utterly soulless.

Everything looks good. The vast number of screens play relevant ads. It’s bright and spacious. The tech works. The product mix is interesting enough.

But it’s devoid of creativity, energy, life – and all the imperfections you expect from a newly opened store. Importantly, it’s also devoid of meaning.

I spoke to the staff (who were lovely), and asked them what Amazon was aiming to do with the store. They laughed and said they have no idea.

This is an A/B test. A data collection exercise like all their stores. Dystopian as it seems, a business as big as Amazon can A/B test by opening physical stores in significant retail locations like Cadorna, Milan.