Amazon May Launch Its Own Clothing Line

“For Amazon, we know our customers love brands, numerous brands in this room…and that’s where the lion’s share of our business comes from”, Jeff Yurcisin, vice president of clothing at Amazon Fashion and CEO of Amazon’s Shopbop unit, said at the WWD Apparel and Retail CEO Summit on Tuesday. Amazon may get into private-name for those sorts of products, he included.

Despite this, clothing brands, especially a few big ones, do not sell all their offerings through Amazon, primarily because of lower margins.

Of course, there’s a reason many fashion brands won’t sell to Amazon. This isn’t so much about stepping on anyone’s toes, but rather choosing to fill in a gap that might have been left when certain brands stop selling their products on Amazon. Back in May, it emerged that Amazon was looking into selling its own private label groceries.

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To that end, Yurcisin added that Amazon is considering getting into the private label clothing business.

As the trend of online shopping is growing strong, consumers do not stick with one website but have an open attitude towards switching retailers. But a company like Lacoste does not want to offer its products on a website that may slash its prices (as Amazon does with books and other products) such that its brand comes off as down-market.

Amazon might have started out as a retailer, but over the years the company has evolved and expanded its products and services.

In defending the company on that front, Yurcisin said “We work just like any other retailer – we buy at full price, try super-hard to sell at full-price… then we follow a traditional markdown cadence”.

Thanks to Amazon Prime, the e-commerce firm already has a massive distribution chain in millions of American homes.

The company certainly seems enthusiastic about the plan.

The statement is significant because the efforts of Amazon Fashion have mostly been focused on getting clothing brands to agree to having their products sold on Amazon, which is better known for its efficiency and low prices as opposed to more fashion-centric concepts such as curation and presentation.