Amazon Set to Open its First High Tech Apparel Store in Los Angeles

In a blog post(Opens in a new window), the company details its vision for the new retail store with lofty sounding PR prose, but some of it does sound interesting. Possibly the biggest change in the shopping experience for clothing is there won't be racks on display with various sizes of a specific piece of clothing. Instead there will be just one sample, with all of the various options (sizes, colors, etc.) for it kept in the back of the store. Shoppers will have to install the Amazon Shopping app on their phone, approach a piece of apparel they are interested in, and scan the product's QR code. This will allow all the pertinent information to appear on their phone: what sizes are in stock and what colors, what other people have rated it, matching accessories, and so forth. From there the shopper can select to have whatever variant of the item sent directly to a fitting room, or have it sent to the front counter if they know they want it. This is where Amazon's warehouse technology comes into play, as behind the scenes its robots and human workers pick the clothing and have it sent to the fitting room for you. You can even shop for clothes on Amazon.com and have them delivered to the Amazon Style store, and return them on the spot if you don't like them.

Each fitting room has a personalized touchscreen display that you can use to request more items, browse other options, and basically do more shopping without having to go back into the store to find things. This is where the "personalized" nature of the shopping experience comes into play, as you have to be logged into your Amazon account to use the app, and by shopping in the store you're helping the company understand more about your shopping habits and style preferences. Amazon says in its blog post that as you shop, "machine learning algorithms produce tailored, real-time recommendations for each customer as they shop. As customers browse the store and scan items that catch their eye, we’ll recommend picks just for them. For an even more tailored experience, customers can share information like their style, fit, and other preferences to receive more refined recommendations."

Although its fun to anticipate Doomsday at the hand of Jeff Bezos and his plans for world domination, personally these sound like useful innovations in what is a pretty stagnant paradigm of the retail apparel store. Also, as someone who generally hates shopping for clothes, and does most of it online already, I actually appreciate the fact that I could just interact with QR codes and touchscreens for most of the visit, but that's just because I'm entering the phase of my life that's typically described as "crotchety."

For those of you who still appreciate a human touch, Amazon notes there will be employees inside these stores, and not just in the back working with the robots. According to the blog "Our employees provide customer service, deliver items to fitting room closets, merchandise the store to inspire discovery, help customers at checkout, manage back-of-house operations, and much more."

Finally, though the move to brick-and-mortar is a bit surprising given Amazon's pedigree, the fact that its investing in clothing is not a surprise really. As noted by GeekWire(Opens in a new window), Amazon displaced Walmart in 2021 as the #1 apparel retailer in the country, according to Wells Fargo Research. Just this one vertical nabbed Amazon a staggering $45 billion in revenue last year. Of course, some of that revenue might be due to Amazon manipulating search results to favor its own products, which is an allegation the company denies. Another factor could be Amazon's penchant for using its internal data to figure out what's popular, then copying it; a practice it's being sued for by the European Regulators. Also, its unclear how Amazon will fare in the rough and tumble retail world, especially amongst a mall full of retail staples(Opens in a new window) like Lululemon, J. Crew, Nordstrom, and Apple. In 2019 the company famously shut down(Opens in a new window) all 87 of its pop-up kiosks, which were placed in malls, Whole Foods locations, and Kohls stores.

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