Amazon cooks up new offering with kitchen store

Amazon.com today stepped into the kitchen.

The online retail giant launched the Amazon Kitchen store, hoping to capture the online culinary market with cooking accessories, products, recipes and tips. The store can be accessed through a kitchen tab on Amazon's main page.

The move comes as the retailer forges ahead to become an online shopping portal offering customers everything from cars and home improvement tools to software, toys, books and music.

The company also links to third-party merchants, giving them access to Amazon's vast customer base. Companies on its zShops and auctions site include Drugstore.com, which provides health and beauty products, as well as independent merchants. Amazon also has links to luxury goods retailer Ashford.com and others.

Last week, Amazon saw its share price fall after it reported that first-quarter losses widened by more than 200 percent. The company continues to look for ways to tap its massive customer base.

Shares of Amazon dropped $1.07, or almost 2 percent, to $58.86 this morning. The stock has traded as high as $113 and as low as $40.80 during the past 52 weeks.