Why Amazon will have success selling workout clothes

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From Yahoo Finance:

Amazon has been quietly staffing up to launch its own activewear brand, Re/code reported this week based on “brand manager” job listings at the Seattle-based e-commerce giant. The job posts say Amazon wants to hire people “to build authentic activewear private label brands that have compelling and unique DNA and deliver amazing consumer-valued innovation.”

Activewear typically signals running shorts, yoga pants—all manner of stretchy outerwear made for fitness. And you might have heard it called something else: “athleisure.”

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If this move by Amazon comes as any surprise, it shouldn’t. The company has been beefing up its apparel business for a few years, and this was an inevitable next step. And while the $44 billion activewear market (according to NPD Group) is overcrowded with players, from Nike, Adidas, and Under Armour to Lululemon and Gap-owned Athleta, Amazon can almost certainly invade the space and have some success.

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Amazon is already the biggest US clothing retailer online, and has been for a few years. But a report last year from Cowen & Co. predicts that in 2017, it will also become the biggest clothing retailer, period—climbing over brick-and-mortar giants like Macy’s, Kohl’s, and Nordstrom.

Think about that for a moment: A website launched in 1994 originally as a bookseller became the biggest apparel giant in America—and made it look easy. It’s all about timing: just as Macy’s and Kohl’s are faltering (both reported 2% drops in holiday sales this week, sending their shares plummeting), Amazon is picking up steam. It is “eating the department store,” Bloomberg writes.

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It all started with Amazon acquiring shoe retailer Zappos in 2009. (It actually purchased another fashion retailer, Shopbop, three years earlier, but Zappos was arguably the real kickstart.) Zappos not only marked the beginning of Amazon’s clothing ambitions, but it also taught CEO Jeff Bezos the lesson about the value of customer service and shipping ease. If items are easy to return, people are willing to buy things online that in the past they would have wanted to try on in a store, Amazon has proven.

Link to the rest at Yahoo Finance

16 thoughts on “Why Amazon will have success selling workout clothes”

  1. My wife appears to get a lot of apparel delivered from both Amazon and other sources. (She is a large size.) Breadth of selection seems to have something to do with it – she never seems very happy after a physical shopping trip.

    There is a similarity with bookselling. Do you want to have to buy what the store put on the front table and the endcap, or the meager selection racked “spine out” somewhere, and then struggle to find a clerk? Or would you rather browse through everything that could possibly be in stock…

  2. Not to understate Amazon’s success, but considering how fast Macy’s and stores like it are closing retail locations and bleeding money, I’m not sure this will shock anyone….

  3. I buy most of my clothes on Amazon and, coincidentally, I just placed an order of Marika Curves workout wear, as I need to relose what I regained. 😀

    If they offer their own line, I’ll try it–if they carry plus sizes.

  4. Clothing is one of the few things I still prefer to acquire off-line. With sizes being defined in a dozen different ways its always a crapshoot. I risk the occasional pair of shoes, but outside that I shop in a real store.

    Unless I already have the item and am ordering a replacement or similar, I guess I would rather go to the store where I can actually see it, touch it, and try it on before making the purchase. Ease of return was never easy for me, I’d rather just put the item back on the rack, try something else, and be done.

    • ^^^^

      Agree here. I have a hard time with sneakers. I can wear a 12 or a 13 depending on the style and brand. Seems odd, but different ones just fit me differently.

      Nothing worse than needing shoes, ordering them and then sending them back and waiting again.

      • I always replace my sneakers with New Balance, but the old model I’m wearing is never still available. The fit of new models is iffy, so I order two sizes with a plan to return one. So far that works.

        I buy shoes from Amazon sometimes; other times, Zappo’s. It all depends on price for the same model. Even though Amazon owns Zappo’s, the prices often vary.

    • I tend to be a two-step consumer when it comes to clothes and shoes. I prefer trying it on in person, but once I’ve determined that I like the fit, style, and quality, I’m happy to order/reorder online in different colors and whatnot as long as I’m confident that nothing’s changed. (I try to stick with very simple, classic styles so that I can wear it ’til it’s falling apart.)

      I’d give Amazon-branded stuff a shot because they make returns so easy. I’ll do anything to avoid going to a store. The average retail experience is a soul-sucking endeavor for me unless it’s a place within a 10-minute walk. That’s how much I hate shopping. Especially for clothes.

  5. When buying clothes on Amazon, be careful. There are third-party sellers who charge restocking fees and you have to pay for return shipping. There are a couple of sellers that routinely sell items that are huge compared to the stated sizes. The companies get plenty of one-star reviews, but they apparently continue to lure in customers. I suspect they make their real money on the restocking fees.

    Another thing to watch out for: seller’s location. Many of the sellers are in China so delivery takes a long time.

    And the Asian sizes are not necessarily what Americans will think they are. Example: an extra-large from some sellers is a size eight in US sizing. I learned that when looking for a bulky, baggy sweater.

    Now when I shop on Amazon for clothes, I filter the search to bring up only those with Prime shipping, then I buy only those that have free returns. Sometimes I stray from those “rules” but only when I’m positive the item is what I want.

    • For me, the most valuable part of Amazon shopping is the comments/reviews. I always look at the most popular ones, then the most recent ones to see if something has recently changed.

      As a shopper, I have far more information available to me on Amazon than I do in any retail store.

    • Yeah, I always look to make sure it’s Amazon Prime and eligible for free returns.

      I much prefer trying stuff on at home than in stores in those dressing rooms. Ack, I hate store dressing rooms.

      And with shoes, I like to keep them on for several minutes to an hour. Not walking, just on. Because sometimes, something annoying takes a few minutes or longer to manifest. And I always walk only on carpet in case I have to return them. I’ll just sit on the couch with the shoes on to get a feel, preferably in the afternoon or evening as recommended (feet swell as teh day goes on).

  6. I must be missing part of the equation here. If the malls are closing, where are folks going in their yoga pants? Why do they need them anymore?

  7. I thought about going to Target for new socks this evening. It’s a five minute drive. But I didn’t want to get out of the chair. Click, click. Now a six-pack of white athletic socks will be on the porch Thursday. I feel like Dobby. Liberated.

    If I like them, I’ll probably hit the Buy Again button for the next 30 years.

    • I almost hit the buy button for some cereal last night, but then realized I’d reached the height of laziness. I also thought about the shipping box being added to the landfill, so today I managed to drag myself to the grocery store.

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