Amazon Primes The Fashion Pump With Luxury Stores

It’s not exactly a Prime Day announcement, but Amazon at least saved something to counter the Walmart+ launch on Tuesday. Today (Sept. 15) marked the launch of Amazon’s long-rumored Luxury Stores, which it is billing as a “new shopping experience offering both established and emerging luxury fashion and beauty brands.” The new feature of Amazon Fashion will launch with Oscar de la Renta’s Pre-Fall and Fall/Winter 2020 collections.

While it had been in the works since before the pandemic, details were just confirmed Tuesday about the inner workings of Luxury Stores. It will be available in the Amazon app by invitation only. It will feature an interactive widget “View in 360,” which allows customers to explore products in 360-degree detail. Collections will be sold directly from participating brands as a “store within a store” experience, with each brand independently choosing inventory, selection and pricing.

“We are always listening to and learning from our customers, and we are inspired by feedback from Prime members who want the ability to shop their favorite luxury brands in Amazon’s store,” Christine Beauchamp, president of Amazon Fashion, said in a press release. “We are excited to offer luxury brands the services and technology to build an inspiring, elevated customer experience. It’s still Day One, and we look forward to growing Luxury Stores, innovating on behalf of our customers, and opening a new door for designers all over the world to access existing and new luxury customers.”

At least at launch anyway, Luxury Stores will be available only to U.S. Prime members. Invited shoppers will also they receive early access to the Fall/Winter 2020 collection, which is currently only available in Oscar de la Renta’s boutiques and website. To entertain and engage invited shoppers, Amazon and Oscar de la Renta collaborated on a launch video, starring Cara Delevingne.

Prime members that did not yet receive an invitation via email can request an invitation by visiting amazon.com/LuxuryStores. Over time, Luxury Stores will extend invitations to more shoppers and add more brands.

The company has also tried to ply the fashion trade this week through a storefront created in partnership with the British Fashion Council. Set to debut with London Fashion Week, the Amazon Fashion x London Fashion Week storefront will include 12 emerging British designers who are appearing on Amazon for the first time.

“Fashion has been one of the toughest categories for Amazon to crack,” says Vogue Business. “But with fashion under pressure by the pandemic, Amazon — similar to Google, Facebook and Alibaba — sees an opportunity to position itself as a partner to brands that need to diversify distribution and attract new customers. The storefront is part of “Amazon Fashion Connects”, a new effort to build relationships with new and established European designers. Through the initiative, Amazon recently sponsored Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Madrid, including live-streamed fashion shows and collections immediately shoppable on Amazon. Earlier this month, Amazon hosted a conference for US sellers in which it announced that it would be investing $100 million to support small businesses this year.”