As fashion struggles worldwide, is this Amazon’s golden opportunity to play saviour and gain market share or will its utilitarian credentials keep it from breaking through?

Over the years, Amazon has made attempts to break into the fashion market, launching its Prime Wardrobe service in 2017 and hosting fashion pop-ups in the UK in 2018. It also recently announced a collaboration with Vogue and the British Fashion Council to help propel struggling designer labels amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Amazon Prime Wardrobe

Amazon launched its Prime Wardrobe service in 2017 

And in the US Amazon has announced a ‘fashion summer Sale event’ on June 22 to “jumpstart” sales post Covid-19, which will run for seven to 10 days.

Amazon’s fashion arm has been steadily growing in keeping with the retailer’s overall growth rate for the past few years.

Fashion currently makes up an estimated 21% of Amazon UK’s revenues, according to data from Edge by Ascential. In terms of market share, GlobalData figures show that Amazon UK had 1.7% in 2019, and this is expected to grow to 2% this year.

“Amazon has built up its reputation as a functional, fast, practical and useful retailer – which doesn’t really go hand in hand with fashion”

Sofie Willmott, GlobalData

However, in a saturated and struggling fashion market, and with Amazon’s typical customer looking for convenience and utility, the retail titan still has some way to go before it becomes a force to be reckoned with in this sector.

“Amazon has made progress with its fashion ambitions,” says GlobalData lead retail analyst Sofie Willmott.

“It’s been doing loads more editorial content over the last few years, partnering with influencers, but it does still have a long way to go.

“Partnerships like the one with the British Fashion Council and Vogue will help, but it’s hard as Amazon has built up its reputation as a functional, fast, practical and useful retailer – which doesn’t really go hand in hand with fashion.

“People looking for fashion want inspiration and to be tempted to purchase because the retailer is promoting great style and sells itself as an authority on fashion – both of which are going to be hard for Amazon to achieve as it needs to drastically change consumer perceptions about its image. 

“Amazon also has major competition, who are way ahead of it and know their customer base.”

Willmott cites brands such as Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing and Asos, who all have a key target consumer guiding their marketing strategy and merchandising. Amazon, and hence Amazon fashion, has a vastly varied audience.

“It’s not as easy for Amazon as it needs to have broader appeal, but then it’s in danger of becoming similar to someone like M&S, who tries to appeal to everyone and ends up not appealing to anyone,” she concludes.

“Brands may have more confidence selling on Amazon if it develops storefronts to almost convince shoppers they’re not buying from it”

Chana Baram, Mintel

Amazon’s website is also unlikely to inspire confidence in the fashion-forward or designer-led shopper. Mintel senior retail analyst Chana Baram thinks that, to succeed in the fashion world, the etailer will need to differentiate its fashion section from its other categories with branded storefronts.

“I do think it changes things a lot when you go on Amazon to buy something from a nice brand and you see a webpage that looks more enticing, almost forgetting you’re on Amazon,” she says.

“Retailers and brands may have more confidence selling on Amazon if it develops these storefronts to almost convince shoppers they’re not buying from it.”

Willmott concurs that the website “isn’t the easiest place to shop for clothing”, with a lack of trend categories, inspirational content and product filters to help guide the shopping experience. Branded storefronts could also help Amazon with the issue of counterfeit goods, she adds.

Amazon does operate a number of own-brand clothing lines, including streetwear brand Find, activewear range Aurique and occasionwear label Truth & Fable, but these remain fairly unknown in the fashion market.

Aurique Amazon

Amazon operates some own-brand lines, such as Aurique

Willmott believes this may be due to a lack of marketing and clear brand identity, but she also thinks that promoting these brands would not fit in with Amazon’s functional reputation regardless. In that case, the etailer may be better off strengthening its ties with more established fashion partners.

Incidentally, with the impact of coronavirus leaving them out in the cold, some retailers and brands will be turning to partnerships with Amazon to help them reach new audiences. While both Willmott and Baram agree that there’s little chance of Amazon purchasing any struggling fashion brands, as Boohoo did with Karen Millen and Coast, they both believe that the pandemic has provided Amazon with new scope to up its fashion credentials and relationships.

Asos chief executive Nick Beighton said that brands who were formerly reluctant to join the fashion platform were now entering into “exciting conversations” to come on board, suggesting that Amazon could also benefit in this way.

“Covid has definitely provided Amazon with some opportunities to leverage its platform to help both small and big brands who previously had little presence online or need some help,” says Baram.

“Amazon’s partnership with the British Fashion Council is a very interesting move as it is more luxury and fashion-focused, and has quite high price points relative to the average Amazon product. It will help smaller brands who previously would have been very happy doing D2C sales, but are now desperate to turn things around.

“Turning to someone like Amazon to help works in its favour – a smaller brand that wants its name out there would have access to millions of Prime members.”

“This could be an opportunity for Amazon to become more fashion-led, but it will need to take its time to change the customers’ mindset if it’s going to really appeal to a wide demographic”

Chana Baram, Mintel

With millions of pounds worth of excess stock in the fashion market, and traditional outlets like TK Maxx no longer accepting new inventory according to The Business of Fashion, it seems likely that retailers could turn to Amazon to offload unsold items.

But while this is likely to be a short-term boon for the ecommerce titan, it will not resolve Amazon’s underlying image issue.

“I think selling on Amazon is an option brands could take, but it won’t be the only one and it won’t be something brands will be able to rely on as there are lots of other initiatives around,” says Baram.

“This could be an opportunity for Amazon to become more fashion-led, but it will need to take its time to change the customers’ mindset if it’s going to really appeal to a wide demographic. Fashion is a crowded market already, but at the end of the day it is Amazon.”

Amazon is seemingly making small steps towards its lofty ambitions, which will be aided by the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on fashion brands worldwide, but it clearly needs to make some changes to its website if it is to become a credible fashion outlet.