US retail company Amazon is opening a physical apparel store that will be called Amazon Style, further expanding its presence in the bricks-and-mortar segment.
The first store will be open at the Americana at Brand shopping mall in the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale in California later this year, the company said on Thursday.
The store will offer women’s and men’s clothing, shoes and accessories from various brands.
With the tap of a button, shoppers can add the item to a fitting room or, if they don’t need to try it on, send it directly to the pickup counter
Simoina Vasen,
managing director of Amazon Style
Amazon Style is built around personalisation, said Simoina Vasen, managing director of Amazon Style.
“Personal styling used to be expensive and feel exclusive, but with Amazon Style’s sophisticated technology, unique store design and thoughtful curation, we have made it easier than ever for customers to discover items they will look and feel great in,” Ms Vasen said.
The National reported in August about Amazon's plans to enter the physical clothing retail business.
The e-commerce company will use machine learning algorithms to offer customised, real-time recommendations for each customer as they shop. Customers can share information such as their style, fit and other preferences to receive more refined recommendations.
Customers can also shop items on Amazon.com and request delivery to Amazon Style to try them on in a fitting room.
“If an item isn't perfect, customers can return it in store and we'll take care of the rest,” Ms Vasen said.
It is not clear which brands Amazon will sell in its stores, but it is likely to sell items across categories including electronic goods, household objects, sports equipment and clothing.
Amazon Style is the Seattle-based company’s latest foray into physical retail.
Currently, it has physical outlets selling books and groceries. It also runs pop-up shops across the US. Pop-ups bring the goods from the millions of products available on Amazon.com to shopping malls.
In February 2020, Amazon opened its first full-size, cashier-less grocery store – Amazon Go Grocery – in the Capitol Hill neighbourhood of Seattle.
In March it opened a convenience store in west London, its first physical outlet outside North America. As of July 2020, Amazon's physical retail store count reached 89, or 589 including supermarket chain Whole Foods. It bought Whole Foods for $13.7 billion in 2017.
The company’s first Amazon Style outlet is expected to cover almost 2,787 square metres – smaller than most big department stores that usually cover an area of about 9,290 square metres.
The new store aims to make physical shopping a seamless experience by using the latest technology, Amazon said.
Using the Amazon shopping app, customers can scan an item’s QR code to see sizes, colours, ratings and additional product details.
“With the tap of a button, shoppers can add the item to a fitting room or, if they don’t need to try it on, send it directly to the pickup counter,” Ms Vasen said.
“Amazon Style offers more selection than a traditional store of its size … more than double the number of styles … without requiring customers to sift through racks to find the right colour, size and fit.”
Shopping from the fitting room
Amazon Style aims to turn a fitting room into a personalised space for customers.
When customers enter the fitting room, they will find the items they requested while browsing the store, plus additional options chosen based on their preferences, the company said.
Customers can continue shopping from their fitting room without having to leave. Using the touchscreen, they can rate items in real time and request more styles and sizes to be delivered to their fitting room, Ms Vasen said.
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Pakistan v New Zealand Test series
Pakistan: Sarfraz (c), Hafeez, Imam, Azhar, Sohail, Shafiq, Azam, Saad, Yasir, Asif, Abbas, Hassan, Afridi, Ashraf, Hamza
New Zealand: Williamson (c), Blundell, Boult, De Grandhomme, Henry, Latham, Nicholls, Ajaz, Raval, Sodhi, Somerville, Southee, Taylor, Wagner
Umpires: Bruce Oxerford (AUS) and Ian Gould (ENG); TV umpire: Paul Reiffel (AUS); Match referee: David Boon (AUS)
Tickets and schedule: Entry is free for all spectators. Gates open at 9am. Play commences at 10am
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4-cyl, 48V hybrid
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 325bhp
Torque: 450Nm
Price: Dh289,000
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Kathryn Hawkes of House of Hawkes on being a good guest (because we’ve all had bad ones)
- Arrive with a thank you gift, or make sure you have one for your host by the time you leave.
- Offer to buy groceries, cook them a meal or take your hosts out for dinner.
- Help out around the house.
- Entertain yourself so that your hosts don’t feel that they constantly need to.
- Leave no trace of your stay – if you’ve borrowed a book, return it to where you found it.
- Offer to strip the bed before you go.
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
