Amazon into Apparels

Authors

Authors: Pradip Ranjan Sinha,
Associate Consultant,
ICMR (IBS Center for Management Research).

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Pros and Cons Contd...

The need for books is not usually immediate i.e., consumers may not bother waiting for some extra days in case of a delay in delivery, but it's not the same in the case of apparels. A delay in delivering the apparels may lead to loss of customer in future. Moreover, the two most important problems that prevent people shopping for clothing online are they are unable to try on clothes for fit and unable to feel clothes for the quality of clothes. Further, apparels reflect character of an individual and consumers select the basic fit only after a few trips to the trial room. It's not easy from a customer's point of view to just watch the item on the website and order it. The fear of not getting the same color, size, and quality, as is projected online will always be there in the customers mind. So it will not be that easy to sell apparels as it was in the case of books and CDs.

Amazon will be facing a lot of stiff competition from various other leading players like Wal-Mart and Sears in selling apparels and it may miss the physical store in this battle of selling apparels online. Moreover there is always the possibility that the suppliers come up with their own websites, as they came up in the case of books. Some people may find it a lot easier to browse through these websites rather than browsing through Amazon.

Future Outlook

Selling apparels online may have advantages such as better inventory management, low set-up cost and so on, but there are many challenges. The challenge lies in building faith in technology where the customer feels at home or rather at store. The challenge is to create a brand that customers can relate to and are confident of without the fear of ordering silk and getting linen instead. The strength of Amazon's brand will undoubtedly draw consumers to its new apparel section, but the long-term success of its apparel store will depend upon Amazon's ability to add value as an aggregator. If Amazon simply lists products and retailers, without building any value-added functionality (fit tools, as for example) it will not drive the incremental online sales that keep its partners and customers engaged after the initial enthusiasm. "A lot will depend on the execution; it will depend on having great-brands, offering discount incentives and product graphics" says Kate Delhagen, an analyst at Forrester in her article about the future of Amazon into apparels.

References

1. www.amazon.com
2. www.amazon/apparel.com
3. www.USATODAY.com-Amazon looking for a perfect fit with online clothing stores(November 08, 2002)
4. www.internetweek.com-Amazon taps more E-tailing partners, launches Apparel stores (November 07, 2002)
5. www.CNET.com Amazon.com launches apparel and accessories store-source-business wire (July 11, 2002)
6. Dataquest (June 15, 2000)
7. Annual reports of amazon.com for the year 2000-01.
8. Amazon.com: Marching Towards Profitability - case number: EC-25, July-2001 of Graduate School of Business, Stanford University.