For a few years now, Amazon has been trying to muscle its way into the online fashion space.

The company, which first began selling clothing in 2008, made a strategic acquisition of BuyVIP in 2010, has continued to add big names to its store – including Gucci, Hugo Boss, and many more – and was even rumoured to have been involved in an attempt to buy Net-a-Porter.   

Now Amazon has opened a massive photo studio in London. So, is Amazon about to dominate the world of online fashion retail? 

Amazon’s new photography studio is 46,000 square feet, and is planned to create more than 500,000 images of clothes for its site each year.

All very impressive. But there is a problem. People do not associate Amazon with fashion. Luxury goods are, by definition, an exclusive commodity. And when consumers purchase them, they expect to feel special.

It would be odd to buy high-end fashion items from a brick-and-mortar store that also sells flower pots and washing up liquid. But, for some reason, Amazon does not seem to think that this is a problem when it comes to buying luxury items online.

However, so long as the company continues to sell luxury items under the Amazon brand, its fashion ambitions may be destined to fail. This is a fact that seems obvious to me, and may, in part, explain why the company has struggled to win over the fashion market to date. But Amazon seems to have completely missed this point.

It is all well and good to try and become the world’s biggest retailer. But some goods simply do not fit into that vision. Amazon would perhaps do better to sell luxury items under a new brand. Separating their efforts in this way may allow them to appeal to both the everyday and luxury markets in a way that may just not be possible with one brand.

Do you think Amazon can be successful fashion retailer?

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