They Need Utility

This is how Amazon got me: convenience and low prices on regularly-consumed items. Whoever thought up Amazon Parent (the name was changed five years after
the program launched in the U.S.) is a genius. My household has been happily
diaper-free for years, but we’re still leaning on subscribe and save for
scheduled deliveries of routinely consumed goods. I’m still one-click
buying—especially when Google calendar reminds me that my daughter has a
birthday party to attend in four days and I don’t have time to head to the local
stores to buy a gift.
Amazon Parent changed how my household shops.
When I read about the new Prime Wardrobe, I thought, “This is another way to get customers for life.” Prime Wardrobe is Amazon’s new monthly clothing box
service: Amazon Prime customers can pick three or more items of clothing, shoes
or accessories for delivery. The box shows up, and they can spend a week
deciding whether to buy the items or return.
The competitive advantage that Stitch Fix, Gwynnie Bee, Wantable, Le Tote and MM LaFleur have over Prime Wardrobe is the promise of a monthly selection
curated by people dedicated to translating a very specific aesthetic to your
wardrobe. With Prime Wardrobe, you have to search through the site’s offerings
and set your own selections.
However, the you-can-pick approach will suck in people who will think, “Amazon carries the swimsuit I wear to swim laps. I go through three a year.” Or
they’ll think, “My daughter goes through dance tights at an unbelievable clip
and the nearest dance supply store is 45 minutes out of my way. Hello, regular
delivery.” Or they’ll think, “I don’t know what my husband is doing to his
socks, but this is the sixth multipack I’ve bought in a year. I bet they’re
cheaper online.”
And they’ll start carefully scheduling regular purchases of frequently-replaced items, and throw in the occasional clothing impulse purchase
if they’re short on regular deliveries one month. Not all clothing purchases are
about personal style; some are about the workhorse items we replace regularly.
You know, the stuff you’d pick up at Walmart or Target? That’s where Wardrobe
Prime will make money.
So what? Much has been made of how Amazon has had misfires in the fashion world. But fashion is not the same as clothing, and selling clothing can make
money.
Imagine what happens when Amazon nudges new parents toward Prime Wardrobe by pointing out they can arrange for deliveries of onesies and blanket sleepers as
their baby grows? Other child-oriented retailers are already modeling this kind
of no-friction, plan-ahead buying: BabyGap’s Outfit Box offers a subscription
model where buyers get a new box of baby clothing with five mix-and-match pieces
every three months, and each shipment automatically goes up a size from the
previous one.
Who cares? Every other box-of-the-month club out there.
The advantage those boxes have is curation and the promise of delivering something unexpectedly delightful on a regular basis. While Wardrobe Prime is
starting off with the customer driving the selections—indeed, working off the
same model as Subscribe and Save—it’s a hop, skip and a jump away from shaking
up the service with selections from their Interesting Finds stream and offering
that as something like “new goods based on your previous buying history and
likes.”
Another group that should be eying this nervously: mail-order retailers. A lot of them do not offer free returns, and the model for many shoppers is to
order a coveted item in different sizes, keep that one that fits best and eat
the $7.95 shipping on the returns. With Prime Wardrobe, people will be able to
order multiple sizes and return what doesn’t work without paying at any step in
the process.
Amazon Prime keeps finding ways to smooth the retail transaction. Effective retail, like rotisserie chicken, reaps results when you encourage consumers to
set it and forget it.
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