Founded in 1994 and earning a mere $20,000 per week, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos turned his garage based operation into a billion dollar “Everything Store” that has greatly impacted today’s digital and retail world. Unfortunately, the popularity of Amazon and other e-commerce sites have negatively effected traditional Brick and Mortar retail. For example, if a consumer knows exactly what product he or she needs, he or she would most likely prefer ordering that item from home thorough a smartphone as opposed to leaving the home, jumping in the car, sitting in traffic, and standing in a long check-out line. Online shopping has given consumers a new found convenience. As a result, Brick and Mortar foot-traffic has declined by 50% over the past 5 years, while Amazon has seen a 97% increase in sales in 2015. internal factors such as a drop in customer experience and external factors such as shifted trends have also played a role in “The Great Retail Apocalypse”.

-Amber Lyons

Image by The Telegraph

One of the few factors that has saved physical apparel retailers is the customers’ ability to step into the fitting room and try on the item prior to purchase. However, the popularity of online shops has recently developed monthly subscription boxes such as Stitch Fix, Bombfell, and Letote, giving shoppers the best of both worlds — the convenience of online shopping along with the “try before you buy” freedom.

The online retail superstar itself joined this trend by launching Amazon Prime Wardrobe. The major factor that sets Amazon’s new service from the Stitch Fixes of the e-commerce world is that the consumer has a choice of which items he or she would like to try. Select apparel and accessories include Hugo Boss, Calvin Klein, Adidas, Theory, and many other renowned brands. How the process operates is the shopper will select a minimum of three and a maximum of 15 items to include in their personalized box and will be eligible for a 10% discount if he or she decides to purchase three or four pieces from that box and 20% for keeping five plus. Understandably, the return time is seven days (which is more than enough time to decide) and includes a prepaid return label.

Hence the name, the Amazon Prime Wardrobe is exclusive to Prime users. Approximately 80 million Americans hold this membership, meaning those estimated 80 million have the potential to switch from “trying on in a stuffy department store dressing room” to “trying on from the comfort of their own home”. Plus, this will be another incentive to sign up for the Prime Account.

Although the release date has not been announced, users can sign up to the email list for updates on the launch.

-A.L.