In fast fashion news, dominating online retailer Amazon is rumoured to be starting production on a private fashion line. A development years in the works, Amazon has a ready-made consumer base with over 30 million items in fashion and accessories reportedly being stocked on the site over 2015.
Amazon is famous for monopolising online markets, with the site’s Kindle partnership being cited as reason for years of declining success for private booksellers. According to Investor’s Business Daily, Amazon Prime can boast presence in 38% of American households. If the retailer sets its sights on dominating the online fashion market, it will surely have no trouble finding fast success in its pre-existing customer base.
WWD is reporting that the retailer has advertised a handful of fashion-based positions, including “an entrepreneurial, analytical, and highly motivated [senior] sourcing manager to join our team to launch new high-quality products for our global customers.” What an Amazon fashion line would look like remains speculative, however the company’s ambitions in online fashion are only growing more explicit.
In a statement last year, Sergio Bucher, VP of Amazon Fashion Europe claimed “our aim is to make Amazon the best place to buy fashion online.” Over the last decade, Amazon acquired ShopBop and expanded its investment with MyHabit. It is also being reported that the company sponsored last year’s New York Men’s Fashion Week.
This is not the first we’ve heard of Amazon’s industry agenda. Last January, we reported that the retailer had acquired a 46, 000 square foot photography studio in Shoreditch, London. The space is to be used for garment shooting – modelled and flat-lay – to boost the quality of its online shopping experience.
Amazon has already seen impressive investment, partnering with international brand-names including Emporio Armani, Ted Baker and Vivienne Westwood over the last year. The website has also launched exclusive collections with notable British designers Osan and Solange’ Azagury-Patridge. An Amazon-branded fashion line is a predictable follow-up to these market advances, with the company experiencing considerable success with an Amazon-branded electronics range.
With a company so notorious for monopolising online markets formulating its own branded product, current online staples such as ASOS will surely be watching developments very carefully.
