This Wednesday, May 25, Amazon opened its very first physical store for the sale of clothing. Called Amazon Style and located near Los Angeles, California, the establishment uses innovative technology in the world of retail.
Amazon Go, Amazon Fresh… and Amazon Style
Amazon Style isn’t the e-commerce giant’s first physical store initiative. In addition to owning the organic grocery chain Whole Foods, Amazon also has Amazon Go stores, where customers can go and shop without human intervention.
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In addition, the company has also launched Amazon Fresh, a fully connected grocery store which has also been exported to London. With Amazon Style, however, the firm is embarking on an area in which it is not necessarily very recognized: fashion. Indeed, Amazon has had less success with fashion brands, which have long been wary of counterfeits in its third-party marketplace.
Thus, clothing from brands such as Levi’s, Tommy Hilfiger and Champion will be available in the Amazon Style store.
Amazon Style technology
This store was created with one idea in mind: to minimize the hassle of trying on clothes, like the mess that tried on but not bought items can cause. With this in mind, each garment has a QR code that customers can scan to compile a list of items they want to try on in a fitting room or have a salesperson directly pick them up in the right size or color to then buy them.
This saves having to carry a bunch of items. Customers can also choose clothes from Amazon.com, have them delivered to the store to try them on, and return an item on the spot if it is not to their liking. The fitting rooms look like a real personal space; they are equipped with a touch screen allowing customers to request new items to try on without having to travel. Sellers can prepare a booth according to anything requested by the customer and notify them when it is ready.
Once at checkout, customers can use their Amazon account to pay the bill.
A device marketed later?
It is possible that the technology deployed by Amazon in Amazon Style will subsequently be sold to other brands, as is currently the case for the Just Walk Out device. The latter equips Amazon Go stores and has since been put on sale by the e-commerce giant. Moreover, stadiums, cinemas and even airports want to incorporate it.
If customers are satisfied with Amazon Style stores, and the method used inside provides them with an improved and optimized shopping experience, no doubt other retailers will seek to obtain this technology; remains to be seen if Amazon will actually want to market it.