InfoAnda - Amazon Leaps Into High End of the Fashion Pool

Pakistanis angry over detentions in Times Sq. case
Monday, May 24, 2010
ISLAMABAD – Relatives of three men detained by Pakistan for alleged links to the suspect in the attempted Times Square bombing say the men are innocent.
They

Taiwan denies boycotting Australian film festival
Thursday, August 6, 2009

AFP - Thursday, August 6TAIPEI (AFP) - - Taiwan's Beijing-friendly government on Wednesday denied boycotting an Australian film festival amid a row over the e

Merkel's support dips, regional ally resigns International
Thursday, September 3, 2009

By Sarah Marsh and Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Chancellor Angela Merkel suffered a double blow on Thursday as a senior party ally in east German

Minister seeks closure of anti-Berlusconi websites
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
ROME (AFP) - – The Italian government moved Tuesday to close down Internet sites encouraging further violence against Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who

Asian markets mixed after Wall Street rally
Wednesday, March 18, 2009

By ELAINE KURTENBACH,AP Business Writer AP - Wednesday, March 18SHANGHAI - Asia's stock market rally seemed to be running out of steam Wednesday, despite an

Marshals' order calls for Wesley Snipes to start sentence | 2 December 2010
Lady Gaga, RuPaul To Appear On Logo's "NewNowNext Awards" | 26 May 2010
Afghan outlook bleak as Taliban grabs territory | 12 October 2009

S.Korea heightens alert against cyberattacks | 28 January 2010

Forum Views () Forum Replies ()

Read more with google mobile : Amazon Leaps Into High End of the Fashion Pool

SEATTLE =97 Amazon is so serious about its next big thing that it hired three women to do nothing but try on size 8 shoes for its Web reviews. Full time. The online retailer is shooting 3,000 fashion images a day in a photo studio using patent-pending technology. And it is happily losing hundreds of millions of dollars a year on free shipping =97 and, on apparel, even free returns =97 to keep its shoppers coming back. Having wounded the publishing industry, slashed pricing in electronics and made the toy industry quiver, Amazon is taking on the high-end clothing business in its typical way: go big and spare no expense. =93It=92s Day 1 in the category,=94 Jeff Bezos, Amazon=92s chief executive, said in a recent interview. Though characteristically tight-lipped on bottom-line details, Mr. Bezos said the company was making a =93significant=94 investment in fashion to convince top brands that it wanted to work with them, not against them. The traditional retail world =97 and many major brands that want no part of Amazon =97 are gearing up to fight for their lives. =93It has the latitude to set prices and charge whatever it wants,=94 Sucharita Mulpuru, an analyst for Forrester Research, said of Amazon. =93That is a huge threat for brands.=94 Amazon has sold clothing for years. But recently it has focused on signing on hundreds of contemporary and high-end brands, including Michael Kors, Vivienne Westwood, Catherine Malandrino, Jack Spade and Tracy Reese, and it continues to prowl for more. On Monday, some of Amazon=92s muscle was on display as the company sponsored, and live-streamed, the Costume Institute Benefit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the accompanying exhibit. Mr. Bezos, the event=92s honorary chairman, said that he was advised by Anna Wintour, Vogue=92s editor, to wear a pink pocket square with a Tom Ford tuxedo (which is not available on Amazon). He did so. Amazon=92s decision to go after high fashion is about plain economics. Because Amazon=92s costs are about the same whether it is shipping a $10 book or a $1,000 skirt, =93gross profit dollars per unit will be much higher on a fashion item,=94 Mr. Bezos said, and it already makes money on fashion. While its MyHabit site, started last year, uses a flash-sale model to compete with Gilt Groupe, Mr. Bezos says the company=92s new effort is not about selling clothes at deep discounts but at prices that ensure that =93the designer brands are happy.=94 Amazon has not just size on its side but money. The company has about $5.7 billion in cash and marketable securities, and Mr. Bezos has long taken a stance that investing in the business is the best place to use it. The company can afford to do things that some competitors cannot, like hire a bevy of stylists for the Web site models or investigate replacing the plain brown shipping box with a fancier package for clothes. Until now, fashion has been one of the few categories that Amazon has tried to dominate without success. In addition to its own site, Amazon bought the shoe site Zappos.com for more than $1 billion in 2009, started the shoe site Endless.com and MyHabit, and bought the boutique Shopbop in 2006. But many brands stayed away because they said Amazon=92s site often looked too commoditized. =93It=92s not a place where you look at it and are like, =91Oh, my clothes look and feel really good,=92 =94 said Andy Dunn, founder of the men=92s fashion brand Bonobos, which does not sell through Amazon. Amazon hopes to fix that problem by going luxe. Mr. Bezos said Amazon.com=92s initial forays into the high end had helped raise apparel sales by triple digits. Amazon=92s considerable computing capability, for example, has been turned to fashion and the analysis of enormous amounts of shopping data. The company has also made a =93disproportionate=94 investment in photography, said Cathy Beaudoin, the president of fashion for Amazon. The photography studio, in Kentucky, can shoot more than two images a minute, allowing the company to post new items daily on the Web that were photographed hours earlier. Most of all, the company is working to improve its presentation, so far most evidently on MyHabit, which Mr. Bezos said represented where Amazon wanted to go with all of its Web design for fashion. Instead of static product images, for example, models spin and pose to show off the clothing. The model=92s body measurements and the clothing measurements are provided to help with sizing. And shopper-friendly advice =97 does the size 8 shoe run big or small? =97 is prominent. The ramp-up has created buzz as the company has hired models, stylists and makeup artists, started using customer data to personalize brand and size search results, and run the first advertisement campaign ever, in print and outdoors, for the Amazon clothing store. In the retail clothing world, fears are growing that few will be able to compete with a stepped-up Amazon. For some brands, the company=92s size alone makes an overture from Amazon difficult to reject. =93The amount of eyeballs and traffic and retail dollars that are generated through their Web site=94 is impressive, said Alex Bhathal, co-president of Raj Manufacturing, which makes licensed swimwear brands like Ella Moss. Amazon can also offer brands more attractive terms than many other stores. For instance, Amazon does not ask for =93markdown money=94 when items do not sell, or return unsold product to a brand, said Ron Friedman, an accountant at Marcum L.L.P. who advises brands like James Perse and American Rag. And to woo brands, Amazon is willing to make big buys. Jason Cauchi, the creative director of Dallin Chase, had been selling some merchandise to Amazon=92s Shopbop. Recently Amazon said it would buy items from the entire collection, which Mr. Cauchi said was a rare offer and difficult to refuse. A retailer like Amazon would typically pay brands a wholesale price for clothes, then set the retail price itself (although more powerful brands often mandate a minimum retail price). While brands sell some of the same items to different stores, they are increasingly developing exclusive colors or styles to avoid price-comparison issues. =93A manufacturer does not want to kill a business, and the best way to kill a business is to have the same product selling for less on Amazon,=94 Mr. Friedman, the retail accountant, said. But Mr. Bezos said that, despite having taken a low-price approach in other industries, Amazon would not in fashion. =93There=92s a sophisticated markdown cadence in the fashion industry that we think makes sense and we=92re basically following that established approach,=94 he said. There are many disbelievers, given Amazon=92s history in other industries. Mr. Bezos, moreover, has to deal with the fact that he is no fashion guy. Asked in the interview about the brands he was wearing, Mr. Bezos could not name the brands of his shirt or shoes, which he said he bought in New York years ago. The jeans, he said, were Prada (not available on Amazon); his blue =93Jeff=94 security badge was dangling from them.

Other News on Monday, 7 May 2012
Victorious French left reclaims the Bastille |
Socialist Hollande ousts Sarkozy as French leader |
Chinese tropical city highlights national income disparity |
Suspected U.S. drone kills two Yemeni al Qaeda men |
Armenian president's party set to keep power
Short party for Hollande after French election win |
Greek conservatives begin hunt for partners after vote |
Pakistan dragging its feet on Mumbai mastermind: Clinton |
Putin to be sworn in as president of divided Russia |
U.S. secretly released prisoners in Afghanistan: report |
China dissident Chen expects Beijing to allow U.S. trip |
U.S. hostage urges Obama to meet al Qaeda demands |
Clinton says India needs to do more on Iranian oil imports |
LG Electronics to launch Google TV in U.S. in late May: executive |
Payday loan firm Wonga to lend to small businesses |
Analysis: Infosys woes prompt calls for change at top |
Gree, DeNA shares dive on report of possible regulatory action |
Lenovo to launch mobile devices facility in central China |
George Lindsey, Goober in The Andy Griffith Show, dead at 83 |
U.S. wants urgent Iranian steps in nuclear talks |
Israel set for early vote as it ponders Iran challenge |
Karzai says civilian deaths could hinder U.S. pact |
Germany unmoved by anti-austerity votes in Europe |
Israeli court rules against Palestinian hunger strikers |
At least 32 Yemeni troops killed in militant attack |
Syria says many vote in assembly election, opposition denounces show |
Chirpy Angry Birds maker eyes IPO golden egg |
App designed to help parents find missing children |
Taiwan's HTC April sales fall on year, tick up from March |
Disney's The Avengers a winner for Paramount too: source |
Samsung Galaxy S3 smartphone unveiled
Amazon Leaps Into High End of the Fashion Pool
Greece at new risk of being pushed off euro
Bodies of missing Tenn. mom, Jo Ann Bain, and daughter found
Female Breasts Are Bigger Than Ever
AMD Trinity Accelerated Processing Units Now in Volume Production
The Avengers (2012 film), made the second biggest opening- and single-day gross of all-time
AMD to Start Production of piledriver
Ivy Bridge Quad-Core, Four-Thread Desktop CPUs
Islamists Protest Lady Gaga's Concert in Indonesia
Japan Successfully Broadcasts an 8K Signal Over the Air
ECB boosts loans to 1 trillion Euro to stop credit crunch
Egypt : Mohammed Morsi won with 52 percent
What do you call 100,000 Frenchmen with their hands up
AMD Launches AMD Embedded R-Series APU Platform
Fed Should not Ignore Emerging Market Crisis
Fed casts shadow over India, emerging markets
Why are Chinese tourists so rude? A few insights

USD EUR - 1 year graph		BlogMeter 1.01