Can Amazon ever make it in fashion?
Have you ever found yourself browsing for a novel on Amazon, only to get hijacked by its loafer selection? Me neither. Ruth Diaz, its fashion vice-president in Europe, is out to change that. Not that its numbers need boosting. Amazon fashion is huge, although you wouldn’t necessarily know it because, in order to find it, you have to click on a pull-down menu on the left-hand side of the home screen. Then, in order not to be bombarded by a zillion different shoes, most of them not what you asked for, you have to get savvy with your filters.
Once you do that, you’re in the land of plenty, with bargains and good quality merchandise galore. Find, one of Amazon’s own labels, designed in-house in London, is an excellent source of well-thought-out, affordable classics – think camel corduroy single-breasted coats, ankle boots and block-heeled loafers and unlike Zara’s, you won’t find them on everyone else.
Which is strange as almost 90 per cent of British consumers shop on Amazon, according to Mintel, the world’s leading retail analysts. In the US, the site accounts for around 50 per cent of all online clothing transactions. But so far, its reputation in Europe as a source of aspirational style as opposed to functional fleeces and trainers (it sold 12.5 million pairs last year and five million pairs of leggings), is trailing. “There’s so much to do,” concedes Spanish-born Diaz over the phone from her office in Madrid. “The good news is, this company is incredibly open to new ideas and very keen to be seen as a credible force in fashion.”
Diaz was appointed head of Amazon’s European fashion arm in the autumn of 2020. Not ideal timing. Within months of starting, instead of rolling out a visionary new programme of lush images and a refined search engine, she found herself implementing or changing some 150 procedures to keep staff safe. As the weeks passed, she began to work with
‘This firm is very keen to be seen as a credible force in fashion’
the British Fashion Council, the Institut Français and the Camera della Moda in Italy, to create digital storefronts on the platform for local designers whose businesses had been flattened by Covid. She also introduced another 500 labels last year. So far most of Amazon’s designer brands are diffusion ones. But in her dreams, Diaz sees Bottega Veneta and Saint Laurent on there. “Why not? This is a scale seen nowhere else.” But is it Fashion? Or just clothes?
Definitely the former, says Diaz, who has a penchant for Armani and watching catwalk shows performed by her two small daughters. She’s also mad about tech, so this, she says, is her dream job.
It has been a long time coming. Now 45, she worked at Amazon for 10 years in departments including toys, furniture and sport before landing the big one. Before that she worked for Buyvip, an online fashion company, and for Pricewaterhousecoopers. She was also CEO at entradas.com, an entertainment website.
It’s an impressive CV and she now has an impressive number of levers to play with.
Amazon fashion may not come gift wrapped in tissue paper but it arrives speedily, at competitive prices and has an unrivalled number of potential customers. Despite the UK’S diminutive size, it is the world’s third largest online market – behind the US and China – and we’re only part of her remit.
While a big chunk of her job is about logistics and number crunching, it’s also about “making the shopping experience smoother for the customer and telling them a story. We don’t just want to be pumping product.” Enter AI and Stylesnap, an Amazon initiative launched in 2019 that helps customers use screenshots of themselves to find products that suit them, and which she plans to refine.
Her time at Entradas could come in handy, too, should Amazon decide to spin some collections off some of its more fashion-compatible Amazon Prime content. Diaz hints this may happen. The unprecedented impact Netflix’s Emily in Paris had on sales of high-end Chanel ready-to-wear has not escaped her. Amazon already sells collections designed by contestants on Making the Cut, an Amazon Prime competition to find the next big global fashion brands, hosted by Heidi Klum. But what about something more sophisticated – a line of outfits inspired by the Marvellous Mrs Maisel, Prime’s hit dramady set in the 1960s? “We’re very keen to experiment,” she says. “Fashion is such an important part of how we express ourselves and how we want to be seen.”
Meanwhile, aspirational fashion shoots are now interspersed with more perfunctory, familiar Amazon images and there are some interesting innovations. The Drop – another of Amazon’s own brands, designed by influencers and inspired by street style – is a limited edition collection that only stays on the site for 36 hours. To avoid waste, clothes are only produced once they’re ordered. Aficionados opt in for text or email alerts so they know when new styles are dropping.
“We were one of the first brands to sign up to the Paris agreement. We want to be carbon neutral by 2040,” says Diaz. “We’re trying to make customers clear about what’s sustainable.” She pauses. “There’s a long way to go... But one of the draws of this job is Amazon’s size. It can really create change.”