California Apparel News

Best known for selling books and electronics, as well as its Kindle e-reader, Amazon.com Inc. has placed its focus on becoming a bigger player in the fashion business.

The Seattle-headquartered Fortune 500 company recently placed ad campaigns in glossy consumer magazines and hired seasoned fashion veterans as buyers for the apparel offerings sold in its Amazon Clothing Store. It’s another step in the company’s ambitious mission to offer the world’s biggest market of goods. Amazon commands one of the biggest online audiences in the United States. In December, digital business analytics company comScore Inc. ranked Amazon as America’s fifth-most-visited Internet site, right after Facebook.

But Amazon has also made an effort to build its brand offline. The e-commerce site took out a two-page spread to promote the Amazon Clothing Store in the March and April issues of Lucky. It also has been running ads for its ShopBop division in consumer fashion magazine Elle.

Amazon acquired ShopBop in 2006. Footwear e-tailer Zappos joined the Amazon portfolio in 2009.

In the past eight months, Amazon revved up its fashion business by hiring experienced buyers from traditional powerhouse retailers. One recent hire was Amy Glick, who spent more than 10 years at Nordstrom Inc. Former Barneys New York fashion director Julie Gilhart was brought on as a consultant to elevate Amazon’s merchandising mix. And Amazon buyers shop trade shows such as MAGIC, Agenda and the Los Angeles Fashion Market.

“Amazon is a key and vitally growing women’s retailer now,” said Liza Stewart, who runs her self-named Liza Stewart Inc. showroom in Los Angeles. “It’s working hard to establish itself as well as compete in being the ‘go-to site’ for fashion.”

The Amazon Clothing Store also sells men’s and children’s clothing. It currently offers a merchandise mix that rivals those at department stores. Brands range from contemporary to surf and premium denim. On Amazon’s shelves are Levi’s, True Religion, 7 For All Mankind, Lucky Brand, Splendid, Volcom, Quiksilver, Toes on the Nose, Hurley, J.C. Rags, Tavik, BCBG Max Azria, Betsey Johnson, Trina Turk, BB Dakota and Cynthia Vincent. Amazon also offers space for shops-in-shop. Retailers Karmaloop, Hot Topic, Pacific Sunwear and Tilly’s also sell fashions on the e-market.

The Amazon Clothing Store has come a long way since 2010, when fashion reporter Lydia Dishman recommended in a CBS News Moneywatch column that Amazon stay out of fashion. She critiqued Amazon for its poor display of clothes and counseled that wealthy consumers would prefer to buy clothes on Amazon’s Zappos and ShopBop divisions. “The retailer is going to need a major redesign to come up against the competition,” she wrote at the time.

Amazon is a market where brands must have a presence to be competitive, said Charlie Chung, vice president of sales for !iT Brand. “When Amazon came into the market, some had initial doubts on what Jeff [Bezos, Amazon’s founder] was doing in the apparel business,” Chung said. “But now, all recognize that Amazon is not just selling books or technology. … The girl who shops at Amazon is as equally as fashionable as the girl who shops at Nordstrom and Bloomingdale’s.”

Amazon’s business has been steadily growing for action-sports brand Ambig, said the Santa Ana, Calif.–based label’s president, Christie Vogt. Ambig started selling the retailer for holiday 2010. “It’s a full-price business,” she said. The brand does no sales or off-price business on the market. “They pre-book, and there is a good replenishment program,” she said about the retailer’s reordering program.

For some fashion showrooms, Amazon’s buying has been robust. At the Los Angeles–based Lit Studio showroom, Amazon is ranked in the top 10 retailers, said Sheila Smith Oliver, the showroom’s owner.

Growth is not always guaranteed, however. Megan Knisley works at Boston-headquartered Karmaloop’s Amazon shop.“While Amazon has a large amount of loyal shoppers, we’ve found growth via this channel to be quite stagnant,” Knisley said. “We’re seeing that our users prefer shopping via the Karmaloop site because we can provide the aesthetic and shopping experience they’re looking for.”

Amazon’s biggest advantage will be the millions of people who visit the site, said Ilse Metchek, president of the California Fashion Association trade group.

“They’re going to have eyeballs,” Metchek said. “Everybody goes to Amazon for one thing or another. There will be cross advertising. If you’re going to buy a book, they’ll show you the latest T-shirt.”

But traditional majors should have an advantage over Amazon in inventory, Metchek said. “If you’re looking for a little black dress, you’re going to Macy’s. Their inventory is deep.”

The e-tailer will also need to improve the shopping experience, said Chitra S. Dabas, an assistant professor of retailing at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. “They do a great job in selling the technology,” Dabas said of the e-tailer’s functionality.But the site needs to do a better job of making the product appealing, with the help of consumer reviews and videos.