Amazon into Apparels
Article by
- Pradip Ranjan
Sinha ,
Associate Consultant,
ICMR Case Studies and Management Resources.
AbstractThe secret of successful retailing is to
provide what customers want. Customers might need a lot of things. They need a
large collection of good quality merchandise at the lowest possible price,
guaranteed satisfaction for every purchase, friendly and quick service and most
importantly a pleasant shopping experience. Amazon hopes to cash in on these
strengths through its apparel diversification.
The king of online sales of books, CDs, DVDs, videos and many other items now
wants to be the place to shop for jeans, shirts, shoes and sweaters. Amazon has
come up with an apparel and accessory store in November 2002 in partnership with
more than a dozen branded companies, like Reebok, Adidas, Gap, Nordstrom, Old
Navy, Dockers, Hugo Boss, Target, Tommy Hilfiger. In addition to these, it has
also tied up with many other leading apparel companies to offer more than 400
popular brands through its latest venture. But, is Amazon trying to spread
itself too thin?
Business for the Times
The move of Amazon into apparels came at a
time of increasingly strong growth for online apparel, one of the biggest
upcoming retail categories in e-commerce with expected sales of US $5.2 bn this
year up from $4.4 bn last year. With the apparel store in Amazon's fold, customers can now shop the Amazon
wayi.e., in one convenient place with easy-to-use shopping cart for well-known
apparels, shoes and accessory's including kids and baby apparels.
Launched in
the holiday season of 2002, the Amazon's apparel store provides the customer
with all the necessary tools and helpful information, such as customer review
and rankings, similarities and lots more, giving them the benefit of the Amazon
experience. The company is doing everything to make it
click with the customers. It has also come out with some introductory offers and
promotional certificates to attract customers.
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The company made an all out
effort to educate the customer on its apparel store and as a result customers
have come to expect, such typical Amazon information such as customer reviews
and rankings and more. Jeff Bezos, Founder and CEO of Amazon.com, in a press
release after the launch of the apparel and accessory store said, "This is now
the easiest way for Amazon.com's tens of millions of visitors every month to
find and buy apparel and accessories from over 400 millions brands." He also
emphasized by saying that "Our goal is to provide complete apparel selection and
offer it the Amazon way with easy navigation single shopping cart, your
ordering and payment information already on file and lots of helpful information."
Why Apparels?
Amazon has diversified into many businesses, since its inception. So the
question here is not about diversification. The question here is, why did they
choose apparel sector as their next diversification.
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