From MSN Money:
It’s no secret that Amazon is upending retail, with a new bankruptcy filing or store closure announcement coming nearly every day since the beginning of March from traffic starved bricks-and-mortar retailers.
And the digital beast is showing no signs of letting up.
As KeyBanc Capital Markets pointed out in a Wednesday research note, Amazon is continuing to add new private-label brands. Nine of the 14 brands Amazon now offers are exclusive to Prime members. A Prime membership costs $99 a year.
“Amazon is one of the most disruptive forces in retail and technology today,” KeyBanc analyst Edward Yruma said in the note. “We think it will continue to take market share and also benefit as total share accorded to e-commerce continues to grow.”
. . . .
Amazon’s fashion lines that are exclusive to Prime members include Amazon Essentials, its men’s and women’s basic apparel; Buttoned Down, its men’s dress shirts and Ella Moon, its line of women’s bohemian-style casual clothes. Its fashion lines available to all include Franklin & Freeman, which offers men’s dress shoes; mae, its line of women’s intimate apparel and Society New York, its line of women’s dresses and handbags, according to KeyBanc.
. . . .
In January, it was reported that Amazon is preparing to launch an athletic apparel line to compete with the likes of Under Armour , Nike and LululemonAthletica , as well.
Link to the rest at MSN Money and thanks to Felix for the tip.
Amazon has sold Amazon Gear, Amazon logo merchandise, for some time.
There is no competing with Amazon because it’s a different paradigm. Woe to those who think a change in CEO’s or drapery color will do the trick.
For smaller companies, there is a simple solution: work *through* Amazon. It requires a different mindset and business model but they get to leverage Amazon logistics and online storefront instead of having to compete against it.
Several large-ish and established online names like Tiger and Monoprice do it along with hundreds (thousands??) of much smaller retailers.
@ Felix
This. Amazon has been the savior of many, many small businesses who market and sell through Amazon. And that brings in more money to Amazon than its own sales do.
Adapt or die. The choice is yours. But if it’s die, expect no sympathy from buyers who have their own financial worries to fret about and deal with. Charity — and caring — begin at home.
I can imagine the plight of store owners a hundred-odd years ago, when Sears Roebuck steamrolled in with their mail-order business.
“We’re in the shoe store business. Not the department store business. And definitely not in the mail-order business!”
And here is today’s follow-up:
http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/companies/online-retailers-new-warehouses-heat-up-local-job-markets/ar-BBzBtnS?li=BBmkt5R&ocid=spartandhp
“Retailers and logistics companies have been opening warehouses at a record pace to ensure online orders reach customers as quickly as possible. Now they’re struggling to find workers to staff them.”
“Amazon Is Causing Catastrophe by Being the Most Disruptive Force in Retail and Technology Today”
They’re acting like that’s a bad thing.
Now if they’d just put that much effort into Wal-mart (where my mom forgot to check the dates and ended up with candy with a ‘sell by’ date of before last Halloween.)
And as far as on-line goes, we have hardly any problems with Amazon compared to other on-line stores (and Amazon fixed them faster.)
Disruption can be good, it’s how we move forward.