What's Epic Games' Strategy With the Online Store?

When it comes to online gaming stores on PC steam is pretty difficult to beat as it evolved to be more than a simple store. Steam is, in a way, a social media platform with an emphasis on buying/playing games and people love that about it. It went from a simple storefront to include chat, forums, workshop (mod support), streaming ... it's a behemoth of a storefront.

Epic store, in comparison, is quite light on functionality and they're trying to lure in shoppers by giving away free games every week. Everyone loves free games but how many people have actually purchased anything from that store? I doubt it's anywhere near what steam is making.

Steam has shown that an online store can be much more than just a place to buy game. Steam is a place for gamers to play games, chat, share, keep track of achievements... I'm not saying that the Epic store needs to be a copy of steam but it does need to bring additional functionalities to the table. We have to remember that EA, too, had an online store that only sold games and where is Origin now?