At times jeans tend to fit the waist but reject the thighs! A shopping experience that most people have experienced at some point of their lives. Well jeans are not the only clothes, it’s the entire concept of shopping. Be it physical or online shopping, many minutes or even hours can seldom measure how much those eyes have searched without respite or how many clothes those hands flipped. All for that right fit.
At the same, shopping at physical stores can be both helpful or uncomfortably pushy when the sales crew tend to overwhelm their influence forcing the shopper to purchase clothes different from what they had in mind. Amazon has decided to put a fullstop to that mass confusion over shopping with its upcoming clothing store.
Named Amazon Style, this brick and mortar clothing is set for establishment at an upscale shopping mall in Los Angeles, Southern California. This store has a mix of both physical as well as online shopping replacing the sales crew with that of technology. With e-commerce giant having its roots from household products to electronic gadgets and more, this is not particularly surprising, since it has most products covered.
Into the Store
The fact that only one sample of each item sold will be shown sets this brick-and-mortar clothes store apart from most IRL retail experiences. Customers can scan a QR code on an item they want and have it shipped to them in their size, either in a dressing room or at the checkout. Customers can request different sizes or colors using touchscreens in the dressing rooms.
The store floor will only display examples of the clothes that are available, thus shoppers may scan the item's QR code if they see something they like. Shoppers will be able to select the size or other details on their phone, and the item will be sent to a dressing room where all of the clothes they selected will be waiting for them.
This, in theory, solves a couple of issues. The first is needing to browse through a clothing rack in search of (or failing to discover) the correct size. It also removes the slightly inconvenient sensation of strolling around a store with arms full of items to try on.
When shoppers arrive at the dressing rooms, they will use their phones to join the queue, and a room will be ready for them. Inside, they will be greeted by name on a screen. On that page, shoppers will be able to continue shopping for clothes and request different sizes. When shoppers have to wait for someone to come around to buy them a bigger or smaller size, this could alleviate some of the awkwardness of shopping.
Of course, this is what Amazon excels at: Using invisible human labor to power shopping experiences that make it as easy as possible for you to spend your money. Those human contacts with shop employees that can be either beneficial or obnoxious? Unnecessary. A human recommendation's expertise? Imprecise and disposable. Amazon Style effectively Amazonizes in-person shopping by making it recommendation-based and relying on human labor just for tasks that it hasn't yet found out how to automate.
Of course, Amazon maintains that retail workers will be a key part of the Amazon Style shopping experience, and that the store will employ hundreds of people. While humans may no longer be the primary source of apparel recommendations, Amazon assures us that they will continue to be vital.
It may seem odd for the country's largest online retailer to invest in a physical location, especially at a time when many clothes stores appear to be suffering with the business model. However, there is a plan in place: 85 percent of retail purchases are still made in stores, according to the US Census Bureau.
Is Amazon’s Move Good or Bad?
With net sales of close to 386 billion dollars in 2020, Amazon is the largest e-retailer in the US. Amazon produced total net sales of roughly 110.81 billion US dollars in the third quarter of 2021, surpassing the 96.15 billion US dollars in the same quarter of 2020, according to Statista.
When it came to clothing shopping, 34 percent of millennial shoppers polled by Cowen analysts last year indicated they started with Amazon. About 17 percent indicated they began their search in multi-line stores such as department stores or warehouse clubs, while 15 percent said they began their search on Google. Even as traditional businesses reopened last year, Generation Z and millennial consumers remained reliant on Amazon, according to the researchers.
Younger shoppers and older shoppers' interests are driving most of the growth in internet buying. 51 percent of all Americans prefer to purchase online, according to BigCommerce.com, a privately held technology business that investigates and develops e-commerce software. Millennials (those born between 1982 and 2004) prefer to purchase online over in stores, with 67 percent preferring to do so. Online is preferred by 56 percent of Gen Xers (those born between 1965 and 1984). Millennials and Gen Xers spend approximately 50 percent more time (six hours) shopping online each week than their elders (four hours).
Amazon's ability to adapt, including its move into brick-and-mortar shopping, is one of the reasons for its huge success. Amazon has also grown its physical presence on university campuses and is testing grocery and convenience store concepts. In addition, Amazon just opened a new WeddingShop, which sells handcrafted things as gifts.
Trends in South Carolina show retail employment is still growing. “It is growing in line with the average growth rates in South Carolina. We have not seen any major downward trends in recent years in South Carolina. So I think right now retail activity in terms of employment growth tends to be paralleling what the state is doing overall,” explained Dr. Joseph ‘Joey’ Von Nessen, research economist at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina.
Price and convenience seems to be the biggest factors driving millennials to shop online, especially on Amazon. That is what has given Amazon its competitive edge. Amazon has been extremely good at satisfying the market demand for the tangible product — getting it to the customer quickly and getting them exactly what they want,” he says.
The pandemic threw the clothes industry and retail malls into disarray, making Amazon's decision all the more appropriate.