Now Try Clothes Before Buying With Amazon Prime Wardrobe Service

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Amazon Prime subscribers in the U.S. can now try on clothes before buying them. Amazon’s new service – dubbed as Amazon Prime Wardrobe – is now available to all after being tested as the invite-only beta throughout the last year.

How it’s different from others?

Amazon’s new service sounds similar to the already running services such as Stitch Fix and Nordstrom’s Trunk Club. However, unlike services such as Stitch Fix, wherein the users are sent the curated item boxes, Amazon Prime Wardrobe is more on a DIY basis with customers selecting their own styles. Also, the feature is not just limited to women, as Prime Wardrobe extends to men, children and babies also.

“Our most fashionable benefit is now available for all Prime members in the U.S.  Customers can fill their Prime Wardrobe cart with eligible styles – from clothes to shoes to accessories, for men, women, kids and babies, try them on at home, and take up to seven days to decide what to keep,” Amazon said.

Under Amazon Prime Wardrobe, a prime member would be able to opt for three to eight items at a time and get it delivered to their doorstep. Thereafter, they would have a week’s time to try on the items and decide which ones to keep. “Customers will only be charged for the items they keep, and can easily return items that don’t work for free with the re-sealable box and pre-paid label included with their order,” Amazon says in a blog post.

Amazon Prime Wardrobe – to address two big issues

Clothes have not been the best selling items for Amazon, and a new NPR poll just proved it. The poll stated that regular Amazon shoppers do not prefer buying clothes and shoes on the website. Indirectly, however, they might be buying from Amazon when shopping at Zappos or Lark & Ro – both owned by Amazon. The poll by NPR and Marist College concluded that 92% of online shoppers made a purchase on Amazon, but they are not as interested in buying shoes and clothes from the platform. Only 20% of the Amazon shoppers stated that they go to Amazon for buying their wardrobe.

Further, according to the research firm One Click Retail, shoppers prefer Amazon to buy basic clothing like jeans, but not for trending designs. Elaine Kwon of Kwontified said that while Amazon with its incredible search algorithm offers a wonderful platform to shop, its browsing might not be the best experience. Kwon previously worked for Amazon Fashion.

So, with Amazon Prime Wardrobe, the company hopes to address this concern as well along with solving the biggest problem in the online shopping of clothes – fit. Clothing manufacturers and shoppers often have a different interpretation of sizing, leaving shoppers confused about the fit. Thus, the dress when delivered is too long, short or too tight. Also, it often happens that the fabric is not the same as shown in the online display or as perceived by the buyer. Further, buyers also encounter issues with the quality of workmanship, draping and so on.

Now, trying before buying would eradicate all such shortcomings of the online shopping experience, as now it would be easier for the customers to try on the selected items and send back those that they don’t like.

Amazon, however, is not extending the new feature to all the items online. The customers would have to pick from the curated items in the Prime Wardrobe section. The service mainly supports Amazon’s in-house items, but big brands like Adidas, Guess, Levi’s, Lilly Pulitzer, Nine West, Fossil, Hugo Boss, Lacoste, Disney, Puma and Gymboree are also on the list.

According to the company, during the beta version of the service, customers ordered “thousands of styles” with women and men buying denims and dresses, jeans, tops and casual pants. In the kid’s section, shoes were the most popular category. The company said that its in-house brands like Lark & Ro, Daily Ritual, Amazon Essentials and Goodthreads were the top ordered items.

Debuts Prime service in Australia

Meanwhile, Amazon continues to expand its Prime service to more markets. Six months after making its debut in Australia, the company is now launching its Prime service in Australia. Australian customers can pay AUD$59/year or AUD$6.99/month for the service. However, Amazon is charging just $4.99/month until January 2019.

The Prime plan also offers free two-day shipping on Prime-eligible products to around 90% of customers in Australia. As of now, the platform sells 60 million items only compared to the 500 million available on Amazon.com. Other offers to the Prime subscribers would be access to Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime reading, Twitch prime, Voice shopping via Alexa and an Australian Prime Day.

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