Photo Courtesy: Amazon
Buying purses and other items online can be difficult. Conflicting, paranoid thoughts may run through your mind such as, “Which color looks better in person?” ” Which size would feel more comfortable?” ” Is the stock picture an accurate representation of the real object?” Luckily, Amazon recently announced that they are developing a new service that will allow shoppers to try on fashion items at home, with free shipping both ways – talk about stress-free shopping!
Credit Suisse is particularly optimistic about this new facet of Amazon’s services as it follows a successful model used by European company, Zalando. Reportedly, Nike has partnered with Amazon to sell their activewear exclusively on the online shopping website. Other brands are sure to follow suit.
Photo Courtesy: Amazon
After picking out items online, the box will ship directly to your home with a return label included, so returning is easy and free of hassle. Amazon will tempt the buyer with a 10% discount for the purchase of 3-4 items and a 20% discount if you decide to purchase all of the items in your shipment. The buyer will have seven days to try on the items and make a decision.
One of the biggest questions about Amazon is whether it will develop its brand in a way that can attract higher end companies as partners. Hermès, Chanel, and other luxury brands we know and love have abstained from allowing their customers to shop for their items online (Read: Luxury Retail Between a Rock and Hard Place).
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Forces such as millennial preferences, exclusivity of goods, and the general desire to have your company’s brand name retain a high-status has put pressure on luxury brands who fight to stay true to their traditional modes of distribution such as brick and mortar stores and limited stock.
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However, not all luxury brands have seen a partnership with Amazon as detrimental. Gucci, Burberry, Stuart Weitzman, Marc Jacobs, and Versace all have items available on the website. Could Amazon Wardrobe function as a way to turn Amazon into an online department store? Would the competition for other brands be too immense?
With their recent acquisition of the upscale grocery store, Whole Foods, and even their production of Oscar-winning films like Manchester by the Sea, maybe Amazon will branch out and soon attract more luxury brands to sell on their site…
What are your thoughts? Feel free to share them in the conversation on BopTalk.
Read related articles below:
Luxury in the Age of Millennials
Top 10 Most Digitally Savvy Brands
Luxury Retail Between a Rock and Hard Place
Handbag Shopping – Does More Browsing Increase Satisfaction
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Updated: July 9th, 2017
Comments
1 Responses to “Amazon Prime Wardrobe: An Online Shopping Revolution?”
Doesn’t it all boil down to personal credit limit? As in decades before with traditional shopping/card limits, what determines viability of having multiple items shipped for purposes of in home selection is all and only about credit worthiness: can the quick-click shopper be held financially accountable for the entire array they order?
Free shipping/ free returns has existed for years. this method of shopping, for broad selections and sending back what one doesn’t want, has been practiced by those with adequate credit limit for years. Many companies have long also issued instant credit or exchanges, all part of the same transaction.
Amazon is just putting a big Amazon-sized label on a long held practice by higher end online stores.
As far as the millennial demographic obsession is concerned; fact is, although they spend disproportionally on selves alone (as for the most part they have no one else for whom to provide) their income/spending power does not come close to the incomes of the older named generations (tail end boomers, X and so on) therefore not only is their much lauded taste an issue; their capacity to generate high dollar credit limits to cover all those Birkins they might wish to consider all at once is the real clinker. …heaven forbid it’s for one time clandestine use n return tricks…. let’s call that risk for what it is.
This business model relies on tried and true older shopping generations with long held, high dollar credit histories- and I imagine that’s the problem here, given that all marketing is skewed to the mills, or as I call them, the Trend Gen