A Wren Says

Part of the reason Amazon has been going so hard to fight counterfeits and fraudulent sellers on their site has been because they want to lure more luxury brands to the site. Cue their Luxury Stores. While customers were (allegedly) asking for access to shop luxury brands on the site, Amazon has had some issues with the adoption of the platform.

As a very quick background, the Luxury Stores is a section of the site where customers can shop luxury brands on the platform. It first launched in 2020 in the U.S. through invitation only. They began with apparel, later added beauty, and then in 2022, they expanded to Europe. They have also been able to work with What Goes Around Comes Around to at last get major luxury brands on the site, all be it as resell items.

There have been some growing pains for the site on the consumer side. The invite-only strategy while prestigious, wasn’t targeted enough. The people with the income and interest to buy luxury goods didn’t necessarily get the chance to shop the site. And even though they were able to secure Oscar de la Renta, they struggled to lure major, “every knows them,” luxury brands.

Now, they continue to have issues with brand buy-in. A big issue is the number of counterfeits and fraudulent sellers on the site. This led Amazon to create their Counterfeit Crimes Unit in 2020 to address these fears. Then there is the issue with the lack of data sharing. Because Amazon is the retail site, brands don’t really get to make any connections with the people who buy from the site, and that hurts them in terms their own marketing goals. With the new expansion to Europe, Amazon has promised to be me more open in sharing with those brands. But an issue they simply can’t address: The reputation of the site for low prices and deals. That won’t be going away any time soon.

As time progresses, it will be interesting to see how they cultivate public interest in and use of the Luxury Stores platform.  I will continue covering different aspects of this venture throughout this week.

Sources used:

Benveniste, A. (September 15, 2020). At Amazon’s new ‘Luxury Stores,’ you can’t buy anything unless you’re invited. CNN Business. https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/15/business/amazon-luxury-stores/index.html

Choudhary, V. (June 16, 2022). Amazon Briefing: Amazon seeks to revive interest in Luxury Stores with expansion to Europe. Modern Retail. https://www.modernretail.co/retailers/amazon-briefing-amazon-seeks-to-revive-interest-in-luxury-stores-with-expansion-to-europe/

Masters, K. (July 28, 2020). Biting the bullet: Luxury beauty brands on Amazon. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kirimasters/2020/07/28/biting-the-bullet-luxury-beauty-brands-on-amazon/?sh=86f395876776