Amazon’s latest store concept is designed to combine the personalisation of e-commerce with the immediacy of brick-and-mortar shopping.
The first Amazon Style store will open later this year at Americana at Brand, a lifestyle centre in Glendale, California. The approximate 30,000sq ft store, designed to offer a high-tech shopping experience, will feature women’s and men’s apparel, shoes and accessories. The assortment will feature “hundreds of brands” chosen by fashion creators and “feedback provided by millions of customers shopping on Amazon.com,” according to Amazon.
Not surprisingly, Amazon Style will distinguish itself from traditional clothing stores with high-tech flourishes. Most of the clothing will be out of sight and kept in the back of the store, with only one sample of each item displayed on the sales floor. The format will allow Amazon Style to offer more than double the number of products offered for sale in a fashion store of its size.
Using the Amazon Shopping app, customers will scan an item’s QR code to see sizes, colours, overall customer ratings and additional product details. With a tap, shoppers can have the item brought to a fitting room. If the customer doesn’t want to try it on, the item can be sent directly to the pickup counter.
Customers can continue shopping in the fitting rooms, which have touchscreens where they can browse more options, rate items, and request more sizes or styles to be delivered directly to the room within minutes. As customers browse the store and scan items, Amazon will leverage its machine learning algorithms to recommend tailored, real-time suggestions regarding other items they are interested in buying.
For a more tailored experience, customers can share preferences like style and fit to receive more refined recommendations. Shoppers can also view deals in-store that match their preferences, right in the Amazon Shopping app. Amazon Style will feature automated technologies and processes used in Amazon fulfilment centres for fast delivery of requested items to fitting rooms. Store associates will provide customer service, deliver items to fitting room closets, merchandise the store, help customers at checkout and manage back-of-house operations.
