Amazon launches new INVITE-ONLY luxury shopping experience

Amazon has launched a new luxury shopping service — but customers need a special invitation to receive access.

On Tuesday, the online shopping giant unveiled Luxury Stores on its app, inviting select Prime shoppers in the US to be the first to use it. 

The new platform currently includes items from Oscar de la Renta’s pre-Fall and Fall/Winter 2020 collections of clothing, accessories, and perfume, and more designers will be added to the lineup in upcoming weeks.

The couture shopping experience will have several new features, including ‘View in 360,’ which allows customers ‘to explore styles in 360-degree detail to better visualize fit.’ 

This feature was in high-demand: Amazon says that customers have been asking for an immersive luxury shopping experience in which they can better understand the craftsmanship of what they’re buying. 

In the new shops, designers will have more control over how they present and sell their collections. 

‘We are always listening to and learning from our customers, and we are inspired by feedback from Prime members who want the ability to shop their favorite luxury brands in Amazon’s store,’ Christine Beauchamp, President of Amazon Fashion, said in a press release. 

‘We are excited to offer luxury brands the services and technology to build an inspiring, elevated customer experience. 

‘It’s still Day One, and we look forward to growing Luxury Stores, innovating on behalf of our customers, and opening a new door for designers all over the world to access existing and new luxury customers.’

Right now, customers with early access to Luxury Stores — presumably, those who have spent a lot of money on designer goods on Amazon — have already received invitations.

Those who haven’t can request an invite, and more will be extended over time. 

Beauchamp told Vogue that the decision to launch first on the app reflect a growing trend in shopping.

‘Mobile shopping is incredibly important for our customers. We find that the Amazon fashion customer overwhelmingly shops fashion in the mobile experience, so we began it with mobile, where our customer begins,’ she said.

‘In fact, in the past year [Amazon] customers have ordered over a billion fashion items on mobile.’

Meanwhile, Alex Bolen, CEO of Oscar de la Renta, praised Amazon’s ‘relentless focus on improving the customer experience’ and said he looks forward to telling our brand’s story in compelling and engaging ways to even more customers.’ 

‘I would guess that somewhere near 100 per cent of our existing customers are on Amazon and a huge percentage of those are Prime members,’ Bolen added in an interview with Vogue. 

‘For me to get more mindshare with existing customers in addition to getting new customers — that’s the name of the game.’

Bolen admitted that teaming up with Amazon will mean learning and adapting how it works, nothing that online return are quite high — almost 30 per cent — which means they need to carry more inventory.  

‘We have to learn on the fit side how we can get better, and Amazon is very interested in that problem. They’ve got teams of people that are thinking about this all day long.’ 

Oscar de la Renta also kicked off the new partnership with a video starring Cara Delevingne, who is seen modeling the designer’s clothes and shopping on the app. 

Amazon is not revealing its entire designer lineup, but WWD reported today that Roland Mouret has also partnered with the company. 

In fact, Mouret will not hold a show at London Fashion Week this season, instead debuted the new collection with a one-minute video on Amazon.

‘When something is described as luxury or not luxury, a lot of the time, that’s just snobbery,’ Mouret told The Guardian. 

While he used to focus on stressing the high-end aspect when selling his designs,  he acknowledged that now ‘all of my customers are on Amazon’.

‘That is the reality. We are all Amazon customers now,’ he said.