Amazon Fashion opens a London pop-up store (Credit: Amazon).Amazon
E-tail monolith Amazon (it’s 2017 revenue came in at $177.9bn, a rise of 31%, while profit hit $3bn, against $2.4bn in 2016) may be the brand most likely to cause ripples of unease among other retailers when it comes to feeling the competitive burn on convenience and technological prowess, but it arguably wields significantly less fear factor when it comes to the just-as-critical appetite for expertise, experience and the credibility that comes from curation (a.k.a. cool). Clearly, this isn’t news to the brand itself - evidenced by the launch of a week-long fashion pop-up in central London this week, featuring physical products, trend discussions and live music. But with so much of brand land exhibiting experiential fever, where every retailer and its aunt are talking turning stores into venues, how enticing is this recipe and to what extent has its sky-high digital nous taken its interpretation to greater heights?
The answer, this time, may not be nearly enough; a missed opportunity worth reviewing against the backdrop of its other bolder achievements which have also have bigger learnings for other players. It’s been billed as the first Amazon store of its kind in Europe, described by the brand as, “a big learning experience for us to understand how Amazon fashion translates in physical retail,” wherein perhaps lies the issue: too much focus on post store learnings potentially resulting in a deficit, in this case, on the actual experience itself . Not to mention a seemingly un-nuanced understanding of the varied topography of fashion.
Based on Baker Street, which is close to the mainstream shopping Mecca Oxford Street but not renowned as a hive of retail buzz, the relatively unremarkable looking store will host events including denim customisation by Pepe Jeans, beauty trend discussions with British Vogue’s Beauty & lifestyle director Jessica Diner and yoga sessions from Deliciously Ella founder Ella Mills - a vastly successful English food entrepreneur most famous for inadvertently propagating the clean eating movement. Live music from young British singer-songwriters including Tom Grennan and Nao, who are the least known and thus exciting of the lot - a less flippant observation than it may sound considering the relentless need for discovery and newness on which retail, and particularly fashion retail, ultimately thrives.
Amazon Fashion opens a London pop-up store (Credit: Amazon).Amazon
The fashion is scheduled to change every two days - a shrewd nod to that penchant for change including drop culture (consignments of items that aren’t restocked, adding to the shopping frisson), but the curatorial thinking behind the collective of labels trails a more mechanical, dispassionate path. It’s got a mix of its own labels, Truth & Fable, FIND (Amazon’s women’s and men’s ranges, respectively) plus luxury American megabrands Calvin Klein and Tommy Hilfiger, British beauty label Meraki and U.K. fast fashion brand New Look - a group that may look good on a paper as regards balancing out market levels (a little something for everyone) but could just as easily translate as a random mélange that’ll be hard pushed to hit home in any particular fan corner .
That push on its own product and a less than innovative approach to store design including in-store tech is flagged by Karinna Nobbs, futurist at British creative technology agency Holition and affiliate fashion professor at European business school, ESCP Europe: “The surprise for me is that it doesn’t feel customer-focused; it feels very much about getting data to create better solutions which effectively means there’s no value for the customer at present. The denim customization is the only aspect that truly seems ‘added value’ and while the talks are certainly a positive thing, with all the data Amazon has it seems like a missed opportunity not to be including something like real-time trends visualization, or even something more personalized.”
Technologically, the store is relatively simplistic bearing in mind the brand’s ground-breaking forays into physical retail with its Amazon Go stores - fully automated grocery stores (initially launched at its Seattle HQ in 2016) where traditional checkouts were replaced with advanced visual recognition and tracking technologies and a smartphone app allowing shoppers to experience the entire journey without even needing to hold their smartphones in their hands. Here, shoppers can buy as usual (taking items away with them) or use what’s it’s referring to as the Smilecode tech on Amazon’s mobile app to scan codes on product tags, which takes them to a product page to purchase. So far, so sadly non-futuristic. Most underwhelming of all it’s been reported that to gauge responses to the experience shoppers would be asked to fill out a questionnaire. Digital at least, one hopes.
Amazon's Christmas 2017 pop-up in collaboration with Calvin Klein (Credit: Amazon).Amazon
It’s a pretty big comedown after being dazzled by the likes of the brand’s Christmas 2017 pop-up in NYC (another partnership with Calvin Klein) that featured its smart Echo speakers in fitting rooms, allowing shoppers to ask questions about product, control lighting and play music, as if talking to a mate. It also had the Echo Show (Echo + a video screen) in its lounge area linking to a sister pop-up in LA - pushing the premise of tech as a unifying source of communal fun rather than the sorry driver of remote, solo, nerd-only activities. Gimmicky? Perhaps. But it was also a highly tangible show of Amazon’s commitment to pushing cutting edge technology with a consumer-centric, experience heightening flavor.
Or, similarly understanding that even the most powerful e-tailers can benefit from physical touchpoints, in November 2017 it popped up with a premium bar in Tokyo (not so innovatively named Amazon Bar). Echoing its fashion push and supporting its own sommelier phone-call service launched in 2016 it was designed to familiarize Japanese drinkers with the brand’s e-commerce offer, spotlighting a more premium perception of itself. It boasted 5,000+ bottles of liquor, wine, beer and sake sold on its Amazon’s Japanese e-commerce site and bar-based tablets for ordering drinks where people received recommendations based on their taste preferences and mood rather than using a traditional menu.
The Amazon Bar, Tokyo (Credit: Amazon).Amazon
When it comes to seducing fashion’s notoriously fickle audience (note the hefty wooing time when it launched its Amazon Fashion photographic studios in East London in 2015, repositioning itself via British fashion bible Dazed & Confused) there's plenty to do. Stylist Julia Brenard, formerly a fashion editor at UK Vogue and British Harper’s Bazaar suggests it may benefit from a closer focus on its mid-market consumers. These, she says, are certainly seeking innovative retail formats alongside their style fixes. But a closer connection is key: “I think Amazon still has to build its reputation as being a place for fashion consumers, but it’s certainly there to play for. The luxury market is tough to crack and highly competitive, but the mid-market is very lucrative at the moment and consumer interaction, with integrity and excitement, will be essential in helping them build a fashion retail brand.”
Interaction with excitement, there's the homework.
Amazon Fashion photographic studios, Hoxton, London (Credit: Amazon).Amazon
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