While most retailers are closing down their brick-and-mortar stores and opting to sell their goods online, Amazon is now moving in the opposite direction. The e-commerce giant announced on Thursday that it plans to open a new clothing store inside a mall in Southern California later this year.
The new store, called Amazon Style, will be the company's latest foray into the brick-and-mortar retail business. Amazon said that the new clothing store would be opened at Americana at Brand, a huge shopping mall located in Glendale, California. The store will be selling men's and women's clothes, shoes, and accessories.
Amazon is aiming to take on traditional clothing sellers, and experts said it might have an unfair advantage given the data it has on shoppers. Amazon said that it plans to use its data and advanced algorithms to give shoppers real-time recommendations as they scan the items at its store. Amazon also plans to launch an app that shoppers can use to customers their preference for style and fit, making their shopping experience much easier.
The shop will be roughly 2,787 square meters (30,000 square feet), similar to Kohls but about one-third the size of major department stores such as Macy's. However, it will have more than twice as many styles as regular stores since just one of each item of clothing will be on show, with the remainder stored in the back room.
Customers can select goods on display and scan a QR code to see sizes, colors, and user ratings at the store. Customers have the option of sending products to fitting rooms or to the store's counter. Customers can also use a touchscreen to order extra items once they've entered a fitting room.
Amazon overtook Walmart as the largest clothing seller in the U.S last year. The company began to outsell Walmart during the height of the pandemic as more people shopped for clothes online. The company currently sells more than 10% of all the clothes sold in the country.
Researchers from Wells Fargo estimate that Amazon's clothing and footwear sales in the U.S. had increased by 15% to more than $41 billion in 2020. This equates to a more than 11% market share of all clothing sold in the country.
Amazon has made a huge push into fashion in recent years with its own brands, and in September 2020, it opened Luxury Stores, an online retailer of luxury brands. Simoina Vasen, managing director of Amazon Style, said the store is a complete re-imagination of what a clothing store should do. He added that the store is meant to become a personalized space for customers, where they can shop and select products from an endless closet.
