Amazon's Latest Foray into Fashion

Last year, fashion and apparel brands found themselves in a world of panic. A massive shift online due to the pandemic left brands without an eCommerce strategy dead in the water. Even those who had some online presence were forced to do some major reprioritization as an unprecedented surge of customers turned to Amazon for their apparel purchases.

While 2021 may bring about some rebounds in brick-and-mortar retail, the ability to sell clothing online has become a must for fashion brands looking to survive in the new era.

Of course, the shift to online shopping wasn’t completely out of the blue. For years online fashion sales have been steadily ticking upward.   

Online shopping accounted for 38.6% of total U.S. apparel sales in 2019, up from 34.0% of total U.S. apparel sales in 2018 and 29.9% in 2017.

And in 2020, Amazon made a series of moves demonstrating how keen they are to disrupt the fashion industry and take advantage of apparel’s online surge.

Last May, Vogue and the CFDA announced a partnership with Amazon Fashion to help support small and medium-sized businesses during the pandemic, an initiative titled, "A Common Thread." Amazon distributed grants among eligible U.S.-based brands that applied for them earlier this year.

Following that announcement, Amazon launched a new storefront called Common Threads: Vogue x Amazon Fashion, which stocked pieces from some of these fashion businesses and allowed them access to not only a large customer base but also their fulfillment network. 

Closer to the end of the year, Amazon Fashion hired former Vogue digital creative director Sally Singer as the head of fashion direction.

Amazon has even shown interest in the apparel industry’s crown jewel: luxury fashion. 

“I would guess that somewhere near 100 percent of our existing customers are on Amazon and a huge percentage of those are Prime members,” Alex Bolen, chief executive of Oscar de la Renta, Amazon’s Luxury Stores' first partner, said to Vogue in September. “For me to get more mind share with existing customers in addition to getting new customers — that’s the name of the game.”

That brings us to Amazon’s most recent announcement of Made for You, a service that gives customers the chance to create custom T-shirts that fit their exact measurements. 

Companies that have similar services have customers use their phone to scan and measure their body from an app, in contrast, the Amazon service has customers provide their height, weight, body style, and two photos for them to craft the perfect fit. 

With this new program, Amazon proves that it can leverage its capacities in technology, data, customer engagement, and fulfillment to cement themselves further in the world of fashion.

Sources:

-Digital Commerce 360 Online Apparel Sales US

-Digital Commerce 360 eCommerce during Pandemic in Charts

-The Verge

-Business Of Fashion

-New York Times