Yahoo – AFP, Thomas Urbain, April 2, 2016
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| Amazon has been making moves over the past few months to position itself as a force in the ready-to-wear fashion world (AFP Photo/Adrian Dennis) |
New York
(AFP) - Amazon has been making moves over the past few months to position
itself as a force in the ready-to-wear fashion world.
The
Seattle-based online retail titan has already revolutionized how consumers shop
and has been selling clothes for more than a decade.
In 2006, it
bought the site Shopbop and snapped up online footwear go-to Zappos three years
later.
But its
steps in recent months -- some overt and others more under-the-radar -- signal
that Amazon is speeding up its foray into fashion.
For one,
Amazon launched a daily, free half-hour online show on fashion in early March,
its first-ever live-streaming program.
It also
became the main partner of the fledgling New York Men's Fashion Week, which
held its second season of shows in January.
And the
giant founded by US entrepreneur Jeff Bezos has also begun airing "The
Fashion Fund," a reality show during which young designers face off
against each other in a competition sponsored by the Council of Fashion
Designers of America (CFDA) that organizes New York Fashion Week.
As for its
more muted moves -- these are visible on Amazon.com where new fashion labels
have popped up that, it turns out, have been trademarked by the tech giant.
The labels
Lark & Ro, North Eleven and Franklin Tailored have been registered by
Amazon over the past few months, according to data accessed by AFP on the
website of the European Union Intellectual Property Office.
After
focusing on clothes designed, made and sold by others, Amazon -- whose revenue
in 2015 passed the $100 billion mark -- is developing its own clothing lines.
When
contacted by AFP on the topic, Amazon declined to comment.
"I'm
happy to reach out once we are ready to share news and overall strategy
regarding our business," said a spokeswoman for Amazon Fashion.
"Amazon
has made apparel a priority," analysts with KeyBanc Capital Markets wrote
in a February research note after attending the MAGIC apparel trade show in Las
Vegas.
 |
Models
present creations by Indian fashion designers during the Amazon India
Fashion
Week Autumn/Winter 2016 finale in New Delhi on March 20, 2016 (AFP
Photo/Chandan Khanna)
|
'Plenty of
opportunity'
"Amazon
is being viewed as a strategic opportunity and partner" in the vendor
community they wrote, with some believing that "it can be a top three
customer for them in the medium-term."
Customers
appear to like what's in the works.
"There's...
the ability to have the world at your fingertips in one place," said
Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst at the NPD Group.
"Brand
sites or traditional retail sites have limited offerings. Whereas when you look
at Amazon, the offer of products is mind boggling," he added.
"The
ability to reach across so many brands, so many styles, so many sizes, so many
options, it gives a feeling of much greater opportunity to secure the product
that you want."
Amazon has
the potential to make a significant mark on the fashion world, according to
Cohen.
"There's
plenty of opportunity to better what has been done by the fashion industry,
from a basic, and also midlevel and even from a designer perspective," he
said.
Analysts at
the Cowen Group said in July that they expected Amazon to become the leading US
apparel retailer by 2017, ahead of Wal-Mart and Macy's.
They
forecast $27.7 billion in revenue next year and $52 billion in 2020 -- and that
in the United States alone.
On a more
international front, chains such as H&M and Zara also have reason to be
concerned.
If the
inauguration late last year in Seattle of a brick-and-mortar bookstore is
anything to go by, Amazon one day could decide to open ready-to-wear clothing
stores.
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