Coming more than full circle in its disruption of retail, Amazon is wading into the world of clothing stores with a 30,000-square foot shop in an upscale mall in suburban Los Angeles.
Amazon Style promises to give consumers a "seamless and elevated shopping experience," the Seattle-based company announced Thursday in a blog post.
Shoppers will use QR codes to see various sizes, colors and product ratings and will be able to send clothes to the fitting room or checkout counter with the touch of a button. Touch screens in fitting rooms will let shoppers request more items without having to leave.
After the industry endured years of store closures and the pandemic set off flurries of big-name bankruptcies and pushed online shopping to new heights, Amazon and other brands are reconsidering the value of storefront retail. More than 5,080 new stores opened across the country last year, barely edging out the number that shuttered for the first time in five years according to Coresight Research.
The Amazon Style store will be in The Americana at Brand mall in Glendale, Calif., sometime later this year.
After trying out bookstores, convenience stores and groceries without major success, Amazon is turning to fashion: In 2020, Amazon eclipsed Walmart to become the nation's top-selling apparel retailer, according to research from Wells Fargo. Amazon does not break out apparel sales in its financials, but Wells Fargo projected that its U.S. apparel and footwear revenues would surpass $45 in 2021.
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(Amazon's founder and executive chair, Jeff Bezos, owns The Washington Post.)
Despite claiming the top slot, Amazon has yet to achieve the kind of dominance it desires in fashion, according to Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail. Consumers' preference for clothes shopping in-person has disadvantaged Amazon.
The new store is an "experiment," Saunders said, to determine whether it can broaden its customer base, capture some share from physical retailers and learn more about buying behavior. Aside from its more than 500 Whole Foods locations, Amazon is currently investing in about 90 stores across the country under such banners as Amazon Books and Amazon Fresh, according to the National Retail Federation.
Regardless of whether Amazon rolls out more stores nationally, the foray "should worry other apparel retailers, especially department stores," Saunders told The Post in an email, because it's yet another competitor entering a crowded space. "And this one has a lot of data on customer preferences and needs."
Still, Saunders said, Amazon's success will hinge on execution, and the Seattle-based giant has struggled in the past to create compelling in-store experiences. In fashion, Amazon will need to "think very carefully" about curation and personal service.
So far, it seems that Amazon Style is leaning into tech and endeavoring to "reimagine" storefront retail rather than harness the power of tactile shopping. Most inventory will be kept in the back, with just a single version of each item displayed on the floor; customers will request items through the Amazon Shopping app, which uses the same technology as the company's warehouses. But the store will still be staffed by employees who will focus on customer service, from delivering clothes to managing checkout.
Amazon says its algorithms will spit out real-time recommendations as shoppers keep scanning items that they see. Shoppers can also fill out an online survey of their preferences for style and fit.
"You'll find everything from the $10 basic to the designer jeans to the $400 timeless piece," Simoina Vasen, managing director of Amazon Style, told CNBC. "We want to meet every budget and every price point."
The store will be about 30,000 square feet, similar in size to a Kohl's, but about one-third the size of other department stores like Macy's.
Wells Fargo forecast in March that Amazon's clothing and footwear sales in the U.S. increased by about 15% in 2020 to more than $41 billion. That's about 20% to 25% above Walmart and 11% to 12% share of all clothing sold in the U.S.
Amazon has been making a big push into fashion in recent years through its own labels and in September 2020, it launched an online shop called Luxury Stores.
Neil Saunders, managing director of GlobalData Retail, cautioned that Amazon's success depends on execution.
"Traditionally, it is not all that good at creating a great in-store experience," said Saunders. "It tends to be very solid at technology and operations but can fall short on spirit and soul -- both of which are particularly important in fashion where consumers love inspiration, curation, and personal services. "
Information for this article was contributed by Anne D'Innocenzio of The Associated Press and by Taylor Telford of The Washington Post.