Amazon Adds Subscription-Based Boxes
FACTS
- Amazon adds a service called Personal Shopper by Prime Wardrobe for shipping clothes to customers’ home address in boxes.
- This option is only meant for Amazon Prime members in the US (over 100 million customers), and costs $4.99/month.
- Each month, a personal shopper working for Amazon prepares customised clothing boxes. The customer only pays for the clothes he chooses to keep and sends back the other items at no extra cost.
- Process:
- Setting up a customer profile: customers fill out a form listing their fashion choices, morphology and budget;
- Each month, they can customise their style for specific occasions;
- Their option is summarised and they choose 8 articles maximum to be shipped to their home address;
- A 7-day delay applies to try on the clothes and deal with potential returns.
- This service is available via the Amazon Shopping App (in iOS or Android).
CHALLENGES
- Amazon further focuses on customer satisfaction. With this initiative, the US giant takes another step in the fashion industry. They already came up with a Prime Wardrobe option, and want to provide their customers with a customised purchasing experience.
- Amazon challenging industry players. Amazon directly challenges Stitch Fix in the US. This player features boxes for $20/month, and also includes men’s and kid’s clothing boxes, while Amazon only features women's clothes, for now.
MARKET PERSPECTIVE
- Despite an edge in terms of subscribers, this service is taking time to take off, but Amazon stays they will be adding an option for men in the near future.
- In France, start-ups such as Lookiero or Clic and Fit sell similar clothing boxes. Others (Le Closet, for instance), launched rental offers for clothes.
- IN the US, the retailer Urban Outfitters also started featuring a subscription-based leasing offer for women’s apparel, letting their customers rent up to six articles for $800.