Amazon.com is opening its first physical clothing store on Wednesday, the latest brick-and-mortar initiative from the world’s largest online retailer.
Called Amazon Style, the shop is located in Glendale, California, near Los Angeles. The Seattle-based company has pledged to open stores only when it has something original to offer customers. In Style’s case, the new wrinkle is an app that lets shoppers scan codes on displayed items, which employees fetch in the right size or colour and then send to a fitting room or checkout counter.
Amazon has built a giant e-commerce business selling basic clothing items like packs of T-shirts. But it has had less success courting fashion brands, which have long baulked at counterfeits on Amazon’s third-party marketplace. The new store will sell brands including Lacoste, Levi’s and Steve Madden, according to the outlet’s website.
The opening comes two months after Amazon said it was closing dozens of physical bookstores, “Amazon 4-Star” stores and mall pop-up kiosks so the company could focus on its chain of Fresh supermarkets and such initiatives as Style.
Bloomberg
