Amazon Opens Its First Physical Clothing Store

Not sure why they don't just acquire Macy's for spare change and re-do it rather than opening their own, but Amazon does love to launch its own brands. 

Whether customers decide they need a tangible version of the intangible experience remains to be seen. JL 

Steve Dent reports in Tech Crunch:

Amazon is opening its first-ever Amazon Style physical clothing store with a high-tech shopping experience. The stores will offer double the number of styles of traditional stores, while not forcing customers to search for the right size or color. Instead, if you see a clothing item you like, you can scan its QR code using the Amazon Shopping App to see sizes, colors and other details. You can then send it to the fitting room or directly to the pickup counter if you don’t need to try it on. It also uses an AI-powered algorithm to recommend more products based on what you’ve already picked. The first store is coming to The Americana at Brand in Los Angeles.

Amazon is opening its first-ever Amazon Style physical clothing store with the promise of a high-tech shopping experience, confirming a rumor from last year. It will offer brands consumers “know and love,” according to Amazon, and an app will let you choose an item, size and color and send it directly to a fitting room or pickup counter. The first store is coming to The Americana at Brand in Los Angeles sometime “later this year,” the company said.

Amazon said it will offer “hundreds of brands” chosen by fashion creators and “feedback provided by millions of customers shopping on Amazon.com.” It didn’t specify which, but its online store currently carries products from designers like Oscar de la Renta, Altuzarra and La Perla. However, many luxury and high-end brands have resisted listing goods online with Amazon.

The stores will offer double the number of styles of traditional stores, while not forcing customers to search manually for the right size or color. Instead, if you see a clothing item you like, you can scan its QR code using the Amazon Shopping App to see sizes, colors, customer ratings and other details. You can then send it to the fitting room or directly to the pickup counter if you don’t need to try it on. As you might expect, it also uses an AI-powered algorithm to recommend more products based on what you’ve already picked.

You can open the fitting room door using the app, with all the items you’ve picked inside. Each one offers a touchscreen that lets you continue shopping and request new items to try on without having to leave. They’ll then arrive in “minutes” thanks to tech that Amazon also uses in its fulfillment centers.

You can feel free to buy items online that you found in the store, with the same prices in both places. Items can be returned in store, and any item you’ve scanned will be saved in the shopping app so you can revisit it later.

Amazon has already opened a number of Fresh grocery stores, along with book stores and even a hair salon. It didn’t say if it would use its cashierless “Just Walk Out” tech found in Fresh and Whole Foods, but it will use the Amazon One palm recognition service for checkout.