13 ms·
Amazon Prime Wardrobe lets you try on and return clothes free
- pizzetta 9y agoHow does this differentiate from the offerings of other clothiers like TrunkClub (which is a Nordstrom's acquisition)? Perhaps because it's not a subscription model in the way TC works, people feel less pressure to keep something?
- wonder_bread 9y agoI think the 10-20% discounts based on keeping 3-5 items is one point of appeal. Also the fact that you are the one choosing the items in the box as opposed to having a "stylist" choose them for you could be considered appealing (depending on the person).
- VikingCoder 9y ago> How does this differentiate from the offerings of other clothiers like TrunkClub (which is a Nordstrom's acquisition)? ...because it's Amazon. No, seriously. Having a feature working somewhere on the internet, is totally different from having it working on Facebook, Google, or Amazon. Usage goes through the roof, because people already know and trust those behemoths.
- wonder_bread 9y ago^Also true
- wonder_bread 9y agoNot a good day to be Stitch Fix... Classic Amazon/Google move, take away the easy appeal and marginalize the growing competitor, forcing them to innovate if they're going to find a role.
- Eridrus 9y agoI don't think this will have much of an impact on Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix's proposition isn't free returns - plenty of places sell clothes online with free returns - Stitch Fix's appeal is that they will do the work of picking out potential items for you so that you don't have to comb through hundreds of items to find what you want. It mostly just seems like Amazon is bringing free returns to the low end of the market.
- jawns 9y agoBear in mind that Amazon already has all the pieces in place to offer ML-driven recommendations, and I would be surprised if it didn't offer that option once this gets out of beta. It's possible ML-driven recommendations may surpass the recommendations of StitchFix's "personal stylists" in terms of accuracy. And unless "personal stylists" is just a market-facing name for "algorithms," ML-driven recommendations by Amazon would certainly surpass StitchFix in terms of efficiency and operating costs.
- claytonjy 9y agoYou might be surprised how much data science drives StitchFix; I sure was when this came out recently: http://algorithms-tour.stitchfix.com/ http://algorithms-tour.stitchfix.com/
- wonder_bread 9y agoWow. It doesn't tell you fully how they actually do it, but I'm still a little surprised they put that out there
- bebna 9y agoThe question unanswered is: What are the limits? - Can I have a box each week? - How many items can I put in the box? - Do they need to be washed until return? Why buy, when I can get free ones every week for a fee I already potentionally pay?
- rootsudo 9y agoThis is one of the things I miss most of the USA, ability to return anything, especially clothes. In most of Asia, and maybe around the world. There's no return policy. It sucks.
- yulaow 9y agoIn EU you have 14 days to return anything bought online without giving any reason, and seller must refund you as soon as it gets the items back. Some give more weeks, but 14 days is the legal minimum.
- jononor 9y agoHowever there is no requirement that the return shipping is free (nor the original shipping ofc).
- yulaow 9y agoIf you ask for express delivery nope, yes for standard This refund must include any shipping charges you paid when you made your purchase. However, the trader may charge you additional delivery costs if you specifically requested non-standard (express) delivery. [http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guarantees-returns/index_en.htm http://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/consumers/shopping/guar...]
- ProblemFactory 9y ago
- berberous 9y agoOther than the discount for keeping multiple items, I'm not sure what's so special about this. You can order a box of clothes from most major retailers, with free shipping and free returns, and with usually a 30+ day return policy. Here, you only have 7 days to return.
- Sorry_Rum_Ham 9y agoNo upfront cost is going to be a big selling point. It's the same thing Jack Threads has been doing for some time with massive success.
- TulliusCicero 9y agoSeems like this really simplifies the experience, letting you send clothes back in the same box and with a prepaid shipping label. It feels like it's set up to make returning substantial numbers of pieces of clothing more normal and expected. I'm guessing at other retailers with a free shipping/return policy, they'd frown on very high return rates.
- maccard 9y agoI'm in the UK, and ASOS does this already. My partner regular orders the same clothes in multiple sizes, and sends back the ones she doesn't want in the bag they're sent in, with the prepaid return label.
- Shanea93 9y agoAdding to the UK perspective, the following companies all do it as well and are representative of both older and younger shoppers: * Boohoo * Pretty Little Thing * Missguided * Marks & Spencers (non-food) * House of Fraser (under 20Kg) * Debenhams Outside of these, with "Collect Plus" now being next-to ubiquitous in the UK (over 6,000 participating stores) any store using Collect Plus (or DPDs Ship-to-shop) can offer free returns via the stores. As an example of how useful this is in general, the tiny corner shop on my street is a Collect Plus collection point.
- 6stringmerc 9y agoPsychologically it strikes me as quite a similar approach to micro-transaction mobile gaming. I mean, the incentive to "save" by purchasing more really bothers me on a fundamental level. As in, my imagination is running wild with what percentage of the eventual Customer Base are, for lack of a better term, suffering from a Compulsion or Addiction to Buying Things? I'm sure an algorithm could spot it, but why bother? They're good for business, right? Between housewares, groceries, and now clothes, is there any more clear philosophy that Amazon wants us to never leave the house and socialize with one another? I mean, it's not that far from potential reality. Between mobile phone self-isolation and never having to actually go to stores where people work to make a living, this is kind of an unnerving future. Well, for those of us who want to preserve some shreds of humanity under the shadow of the Amazonmandyias Bezos is building.
- mtberatwork 9y ago> Between housewares, groceries, and now clothes, is there any more clear philosophy that Amazon wants us to never leave the house and socialize with one another? Well, I suppose you might have a point if your only source of interaction with other people is at a mall. However, the less time I spend in a shopping mall or grocery store, the more time I have to get outside, take a bike ride, hike with the family, sit outside at a cafe, garden, etc. If anything, the less time I need to waste at a physical store, the more free time I have to leave the house and socialize with others in a much more authentic setting.
- MrLeap 9y agoNothing can divert the "for your convenience" consolidation train unless we accidentally trigger some really unexpected economic / instinctual landmines along the way. So, it's up to us on an individual level to preserve our own humanity. It plucks some discomfort cords in me to see the same trajectory you do. It hurts even more to see society roll over for it. We're corralled and herded to their nearest wedge issue that resonates so we can focus all our discomfort and unhappiness at marketeer sanctioned foci. A few people say things like "huh automation, where's that going to go when there's no unskilled jobs?" "Nah that's not a problem, job retraining and economics and stuff but HEY check out this buffet of exaggerated wedge issues. Don't the guys on the other side really piss you off? Haha yeah." Millions of people divided into black vs. white issues where both sides are mostly reasonable people pissed off at the other side's crazies. Crazy is distributed evenly enough to support this system. The ebb and flow of the number of crazies on either side of the issue is balanced with media magnification and non-reporting. Keep the fight going, never come to any conclusions at all costs. The psychographics industry mastered provoking conspicuous consumption in the 80s and 90s. Household debt peaked in the early 2000's partially because of this. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_debt#/media/File:U.S._Household_Debt_Relative_to_Disposable_Income_and_GDP.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Household_debt#/media/File:U.S... I think that over time, so much has wealth and.. potential has been sucked away that it's somehow more profitable for the industry to move on to influencing and directing outrage. "The attention economy" is the new state of things. Too much production for humans to consume it all. We have articles talking about "peak attention". How dehumanizing is that? Your attention and your thoughts have been commoditized. Companies pump it like oil and sell it back to you. We live on a mountain of abstractions that dehumanize us as individuals and stir us all together into a slurry of hardly dissimilar demographic chunks. It'll be interesting to see what's next.
- gnicholas 9y ago> Pick well and you get a bonus discount. But pick poorly and the most it costs you is a trip to UPS In the video, they say/show that it includes a printed prepaid label and home-pickup. So you don't even have to go to UPS.
- gnicholas 9y agoThe article has been updated in light of this comment.
- datamingle 9y agoMy girlfriend does this already, but uses the return system from various stores. Buys identical things in different sizes to see what fits best, returns the ones that does not fit. Makes sense to have the discount if you keep items, savings from processing returns.
- bitL 9y agoAs a retailer I hate this style and we make sure we add a hefty restocking fee if an outfit is no longer in a pristine condition. We compete on price, strive to bring best deal US-wide to our customers, but can't really sustain/accept model allowing this. It's also unbelievably damaging to environment and customers like this aren't worth anything to us.
- berberous 9y agoWhat's your website?
- davb 9y agoI work at a company doing retail return analytics (pretty niche) and we've found that looking at returning customer segments gives a wider picture. In many cases, high returning customers can be your most profitable in the long term even after considering cost of returns. Particular segments keep more than any other (from a financial perspective) despite being returning a disporportionate amount of the things they buy. They're the most loyal, most tolerant and often the highest value customers.
- bitL 9y agoClothing retail is super low margin unless you sell high-end luxury goods. This approach eats basically all the profit and it's not worth for us to have an average gain of $0.01 on such a customer; we go gladly without them. It's also like some photographers buy an outfit for a photoshoot and return it back right after they are done. We can then only sell it off for scraps on eBay etc. giving us both headache and unnecessary work. If Amazon wants those customers and burn money on them, let them.
- cseelus 9y agoFor German customers this is nothing special. As a customer, you can order from any Retailer and return within 14 days without giving any reason, as we have a special "Fernabsatzgesetz" (Distance Selling Act). Nearly every Retailer offers free returns and above 40 Euro purchase value, returns even have to be free of charge. Many Retailers offer more than 14 days, 30 days is nothing special and some like Zalando (a Zappos clone) even offer 100 days of free returns.
- germanier 9y ago> above 40 Euro purchase value, returns even have to be free of charge This was removed from the law in June 2014. Retailers can now say that customers need to pay a carrier for the shipment back regardless of value. Some do, most don't. They can however never charge "restocking fees" or whatnot. The same day the EU Consumer Rights Directive was put in force so all EU customers now have this protection. (The Fernabsatzgesetz was removed in 2002 by the way. This topic is now regulated in the usual BGB.)
- uhnuhnuhn 9y agoAmazon's service is not about return policies at all. Customers don't pay up front for the clothes, they only pay once they decide to keep an item.
- blueside 9y agoI remember reading about a large company in Russia doing something at least 4 or 5 years ago (I think it was Lamoda?) where they sent along a "fashion assistant" with your selection of clothes. The fashion assistant drives to your place with all the clothes you want to try, waits for you to try them on, perhaps offers some suggestions, and then leaves with whatever you don't want. Has this type of idea ever been explored in the US?
- tuna-piano 9y agoFirst they came for the booksellers, and I did not speak out - for I was not Barnes and Noble. Then they came for retailers, and I did not speak out - for I was not Macy's. Then they came for the cloud, and I did not speak out - for I was not IBM. Then they came for grocery delivery, and I did not speak out - for I was not PeaPod. Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me. RIP TrunkClub and Stitch Fix?
- BlackjackCF 9y agoI think the moment that Amazon starts figuring out and recommending clothes to their end users... yeah, RIP TrunkClub and StitchFix.
- bitmapbrother 9y agoYou lost me at IBM. They don't even use their own cloud.
- dbecker 9y agoWow, borrowing a Holocaust quote. You just compared good customer service to the largest genocide in human history.
- DanBC 9y agoI think they have to do this, in the UK, under UK trading laws. It's a bit of a problem because, "this is why we can't have nice things", some people are arseholes. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37711091 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-37711091 > "I return half of what I buy," says 30-year-old Alex Demetri, who spends £500 to £700 on clothes each month. > She also admits to wearing some of her clothes first before returning them. > It is customers like Ms Demetri who are causing problems for shops, which are "struggling to cope" with the number of items returned, new research suggests.
- dragonwriter 9y agoSo, like every online clothing and shoe retailer has for years,since not long after it was Zappos initial distinguishing feature which everyone copied since it was so obviously highly preferred by consumers. By now, that's about as notable as delivering goods to your door in cardboard boxes.
- kin 9y agoBut the game changer is the 10-20% off your purchase. That's a pretty big deal. Not only that, but no upfront costs. Amazon already had free shipping and returns before for Prime users. This however is a completely different psychology to online shopping.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> But the game changer is the 10-20% off your purchase. [...] > This however is a completely different psychology to online shopping. “Buy more and get a discount which increases, within some range, based on quantiry” is not new in any area of retail, including online shopping.
- omarchowdhury 9y agoThat's exactly the value proposition that Jet is built on.
- kin 9y agoSure, discounts for buying more is nothing new, but no upfront costs? No place does that at Amazon's scale.
- dragonwriter 9y ago> Sure, discounts for buying more is nothing new, but no upfront costs? No upfront costs is isomorphic to “buy on credit with low-friction returns”.
- 9y ago
- Jazgot 9y agoThe best way to get clothes for photo sessions :)
- notfried 9y agoI think what's a game-changer here is if they only charge your credit card after the 7 days. It's not very clear, but they do say that you only pay for what you keep. And this could be huge. 15 items could easily be $1,000, and asking someone to pay a $1,000 just to try, even if they know they can return and get a refund, is a huge barrier. If Amazon would indeed charge you only after the 7-days, they could convert a lot of store buyers their ways.
- colinbartlett 9y agoIndeed this is a very common practice in the high end fashion business where people use personal stylists to help them pick clothes. The stylist grabs a bunch of products for the client, sends them "on memo" or "on consignment" and they pay for only what they don't return. Even when you're dealing with clients for whom floating a few thousand dollars is no big deal, the psychological impact of not actually hitting their card until the return is compelling enough to retailers that they are willing to give up the inventory for that 5 to 10 day period.
- pthreads 9y agoNot really. They can just put a hold on your card for 7 days without charging you.
- colbyh 9y agohuge difference. people will order clothes without paying, get them super fast, and feel free to return before they've even been charged. Amazon really is doing everything they can to remove purchasing barriers.
- dawnerd 9y agoNoticed there's a flag on certain items for Prime Wardrobe. Since there's a 3 item minimum I wonder if this is really just a way to force people to buy more than they normally would. They do the same thing (kinda) with Prime Exclusives, which are laughably almost always available at Walmart and Target for the same price or cheaper...
- thinkling 9y agoThe most annoying thing (to me) on Amazon is the fact that some items can only be bought as PrimePantry shipments. I understand PrimePantry for heavy/bulky items like laundry detergent. I don't get it for lightweight stuff like razor blades. I can't figure out why those items can't be bought as Add-On items to regular shipments.
- dawnerd 9y agoEven addon-items. I'd gladly pay extra to ship them. But no, gotta force me to buy 30 dollars of junk I don't need all for a little box of paperclips.
- MikeKusold 9y agoWhy doesn't Amazon leverage Zappos (an Amazon subsidary)? Their service and return policy (1 year) are amazing. It seems odd to compete with Zappos when it already has a loyal user base.
- thinkling 9y agoI think it's safe to assume that Amazon has a reason to not "leverage" Zappos, e.g. maybe Zappos margins are much lower or there's substantial upside to having people shop on the main Amazon site and throw some electronics in their cart while they're at it.
- wardrobetoss12 9y agoWhen Amazon can start offering more actual designer clothing via Prime and stop whatever relationships they have with resellers like Wiber LUX then I'll be incredibly interested. For now I'm sticking to Farfetch--their selection is unmatched, their customer service is fantastic, and they have awesome sales.
- suyash 9y agoJust wait till so many of these boxes will start to get stolen if you just leave them outside the house.
- xsmasher 9y agoRetail sales has "shrinkage" too; I wonder if the rate is higher or lower than package theft.
- losteverything 9y agoSo now knock off clothing will be the new electronics on Amazon. Fake clothing, fake brands.. who really knows. In our town there is a boutique in a strip mall. They cut off the tags from other store's products and put their on their merchandise. A high schooler kid was heard telling her friends her job is to do this.. Some were clearance from Walmart; others Kohls. Amazon should really figure out how to not allow knock offs.
- schitzapplebits 9y ago> So now knock off clothing will be the new electronics on Amazon. Fake clothing, fake brands.. who really knows. It already is, unfortunately, at least that's been my personal experience.
- mmagin 9y agoSo does this mean I'm going to start getting other people's bedbugs if I buy clothes on amazon?
- yalogin 9y agoI don't understand why this is a differentiator in clothes shopping online. The thing is you can return stuff without going to the store. But the most time is spent in browsing through items and trying them out. Returning items at a store does not take time at all. He cannot imagine that alone being a selling point for either Amazon prime or for trunkclub.
- tracker1 9y agoAs a large guy, this could be potentially a big deal (no pun intended). I hate clothes shopping, and usually wind up having to try on 2 sizes of everything, sometimes the larger size fits, sometimes the smaller... often I need to have a collar lifted regardless. Frankly, if custom ordering shirts/pants weren't hard to do right and as costly, I'd just do that.