Louis Vitton, Gucci, and Prada are some of the best known luxury fashion stores. Amazon, once known as a bookstore, is now hopping on the luxury brand train with a destination to money. Luxury fashion doesn’t just mean quality products, but it also means having a luxurious experience while shopping. When you shop luxury store websites, you don’t get a small bottle of water and a warm hand towel at the entrance. Instead, the luxury part of the Amazon shopping experience is in the big brown box plopped on the concrete outside your house.
Luxury stores are using Amazon as a stepping stone to customer outreach. According to The Verge, “[Amazon] will also supply brands with the digital equivalent of fancy shop windows, giving them the option to display their clothes in interactive 360-degree views. This interactive feature will begin rolling out with select garments at launch, allowing customers to explore styles in 360-degree detail to better visualize fit, and making shopping for luxury easier and more engaging.”
Now, you can buy your shampoo, dog food, and a Prada bag all in one convenient place. There is a catch, though; Amazon wants more shoppers, so only Amazon Prime members who are invited or can request an invite to scan through the luxury clothing. Some brands will not be willing to give up their customers though.
“Nike stopped all direct sales through Amazon because they wanted more direct and personal relations,” the BBC reported.
Since the pandemic, it has been hard to connect with customers and get personal interactions, whether it be in stores or while trying on clothes. Alex Bolen, the CEO of Oscar de la Renta, believes that online shopping will grow during the pandemic and make them feel more comfortable socially.
“It just made sense to reach customers where they were,” Bolen told Vogue in a September 15, 2020 interview
The fashion industry needs to continue to work together as a community to problem solve ways for business to stay alive together during a pandemic.
“For me, getting more mindshare with existing customers ,in addition to getting new customers — that’s the name of the game. We want to be able to talk to [a customer] wherever she’s comfortable shopping,” Bolen said