Amazon Prime Wardrobe

I think that fashion retailers will be getting quite concerned right now as Amazon has announced that it is going to be rolling out its try-before-you-buy Amazon Prime Wardrobe service in the UK.

This service started off in the States back in June, was rolled out last week in Japan and has now hit the UK.

The way it works is that you get between three and eight items of clothing and, depending on the value of the items you keep, you get a discount.

At the moment it’s 5% on orders worth over £100 and 10% on orders worth over £200.

Amazon started selling clothing ten years ago in the UK and although it doesn’t give a separate breakdown of apparel sales, it is thought that it is growing by 7% a year at a time when a lot of apparel retailers are having problems or closing down.

I just wonder whether Amazon could do to fashion retailers what it has done to bookshops? Time will tell.

 Sports Direct

The second thing I wanted to talk about today was the Sports Direct purchase of troubled bike shop chain Evans Cycles.

Sports Direct’s Mike Ashley managed to buy the chain out of a pre-pack administration but said that in order for it to survive, he’ll have to get rid of half of the stores.

Cycling has waned in popularity since the huge boom following London 2012 but Evans is not alone in its bike troubles – Halfords is also suffering, as is top end cycling apparel maker Rapha, who had to sack a load of people at its London HQ last month.

I’m glad that Halfords didn’t get it as two wrongs don’t make a right, but it seems that the only retailer in the cycling sphere that’s doing well is Wiggle.

I personally believe that the company has to concentrate on delivering a better customer experience by offering proper bike fitting and value-added services rather than having a ton of space with bikes scattered everywhere. It would hopefully reduce inventory and could mean that smaller shops would be able to punch well above their weight.