In their latest bid to “conquer clothing,” Amazon will soon allow its Prime customers to try on clothing at home, before they buy it.
Prime Wardrobe — still in beta but looming on the fractured horizon of the smoldering retail landscape — will let subscribers “fill a cart with apparel, shoes, and accessories” and then it “gives you seven days to try everything on, and only charges you for what you keep, requiring no upfront payment.” It even covers shipping both ways.
While the service isn’t exactly innovative (Trunk Club, Stitch Fix and other similar outfits offer more or less the same), the Prime Wardrobe model will have a few key differences, including a discount structure tied to the number of kept items, and also the important distinction of being included with the full suite of Prime services, making it an objectively enticing offer. Also, “over a million products” are rumored to be eligible for the service, which is so many products.
Another factor that sets Amazon apart is that they genuinely don’t give a fuck about their profit margin, even though they continue to push into territory that lives and dies by that very metric. They care only about revenue and growth, because their shareholders care about revenue and growth. And as long as they have enough cash to remain solvent, it doesn’t really matter what it costs to chase those two things.
So while an entire industry wrestles with the issue of profitability in 2017, Amazon keeps on devouring everything in sight with little regard for cost or casualty.
You can read more about it at Racked.
