Amazon will open its first clothing store this year: how will it work?

Amazon will open its first physical clothing store this year in California. Baptized as Amazon Style, it will have clothes from all kinds of brands, like a department store, and will offer a different shopping experience, with the possibility of paying biometrically or ordering new clothes without having to leave the fitting room.

The Americana at Brand shopping center in Los Angeles will be the location chosen for this new store, which will be ready in the coming months. Like other physical stores that Amazon has opened in recent years, such as bookstores or supermarkets, Amazon Style's strategy will be to take advantage of the information that the company already has on web users to have an inventory more tailored to the tastes of the buyers. Clothes from "hundreds of brands" will be on the shelves, many of which are available for purchase online.

The shopping experience will be somewhat different from that of a conventional store. The shelves will have QR codes to scan with your phone and get a list with the different color and size options.

This will make better use of the space in the store, by not having to display several sizes of the same garment. According to Amazon, these stores will be able to offer double the inventory of comparable stores thanks to this system.

The customer will be able to send the chosen garment in the size they need to a fitting room from their phone, and fitting rooms will also have a touch screen to order more items or different color options without having to leave the fitting room. Amazon will also suggest complementary garments based on market tastes and trends.

The stores will also serve as a distribution center for those who prefer to shop online. Customers will be able to request that Amazon send the clothing to a nearby Amazon Style store to try it on before buying.

Payment can be made from the application itself on the phone or through Amazon One, which allows registered users to pay simply by passing the palm of their hand over a biometric reader. This system is also used in some of the Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores that the company has opened in several US cities.

smart coffee shops

Can artificial intelligence improve the customer experience when entering a store? Consumers are constantly renewing themselves and, increasingly, they are looking for an experience that satisfies them after going through a coffee shop, for example.

In line with this, it is known that chains such as the renowned Starbucks coffee shop have been increasingly innovating in this regard. Now, the news broke that the eCommerce giant Amazon could partner with the chain to develop a new concept of smart cafes, as reported by Business Insider.

The e-commerce giant, which leads the online shopping market, has been growing in the field of physical stores. The above thanks to Amazon Go, a series of new generation stores that automates the processes of entry and exit of a store based on technology. For example, there is no presence of cashiers, but the payment is made automatically when leaving through an application. That is, it is not necessary to queue to pay.

"The new cafeteria would sell both Starbucks beverages and the food sold in Amazon Go stores," according to the media, in what would represent a joint business of both multinationals.

In this way, the new cafeterias would be equipped with Amazon Go technology. Drinks from Starbucks would be offered, as well as "baked goods and hot foods" from Bezos' signature. At least initially, yes, it would be necessary to use two payment applications, one from each company, although a unified app is not ruled out later.

More project details

The purpose of these smart cafeterias would be to eliminate the usual lines of these shops. This is how a leaked project document describes it, which is internally known as "Green", conceived as a modern store, which would have sofas, tables and spaces in which to enjoy the place and the goods that are consumed.

"Our plan is to launch a co-location store, where customers can enjoy prepared beverages from a Starbucks coffee and/or buy delicious food to go from Amazon Go, without having to wait in line," the letter details.

The first proposal of this initiative would have emerged in mid-2020, in the midst of a pandemic, although its current status is unknown. The plans included the launch of six cafeterias of this style by 2021, but this project was stopped.

The partnership could give Amazon new monetization channels for the technology, as its unstaffed Go stores remain largely unprofitable, according to two sources familiar with the matter who spoke anonymously to BI.

The eCommerce firm intends to continue increasing its presence outside the internet and allying itself with other giants is one of the strategies that it has been showing in recent times.

Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods, the models of inspiration

Amazon is testing "Just Walk Out" cashierless shopping technology, created for its Go convenience stores, in some of its new locations, where you only need to use your smartphone to make everyday purchases.

Two of them where it began to be implemented are Amazon Fresh and Whole Foods. The latter was acquired by Amazon during 2017 for US$13.7 billion in 2017. In the United States it had a great impact because it was considered a rival to Walmart.

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As for Amazon Fresh, it's very much a conventional grocery store, but with a variety of products that falls somewhere between small specialists like Trader Joe's and larger supermarkets. It has technological flourishes, including digital price tags and smart "Dash" shopping carts that count smaller purchases as customers navigate the aisles.