Specialty Retail vs Amazon: Same Story? WD Partners releases new Amazon-centered WayfinD Issue
New Issue includes latest research on how to beat Amazon at their own game.
Jul 17, 2018, 13:24 ET
COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 17, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Specialty retailers might believe they're superior fashion players, but they can't ignore the apparel industry's incoming Goliath. Amazon will soon dominate the $217 billion-dollar US apparel market. Upending fashion conventions is one thing. Volume and scale are another. Can specialty retailers survive Amazon's rise in apparel?
Sometime this year, Amazon will become the biggest apparel retailer in the U.S. Amazon's clothing and accessory sales could jump 30 percent this year to $28 billion, according to Cowen & Co. Some analysts even estimate Amazon's apparel sales could climb to between $45 billion and $85 billion by fiscal 2020.
How has Amazon come to dominate apparel so quickly?
Amazon has been selling apparel lines for other brands through its Marketplace since 2002.1 Early on, it positioned itself as a partner, not a competitor. Then sometime around 2016,2 Amazon made its move, deciding to become an apparel maker itself and now Amazon has launched at least 50 private-label apparel brands.
But Amazon is not invincible. There have been some missteps along the way and there is one thing specialty retailers have over the growing retail. This issue distills research from over 3,000 consumers and it's clear this one thing could beat Amazon at their own game.
On this fourth Prime Day, WD Partners explores the rise of Amazon's place in apparel and what it means for specialty retail in the latest issue of WayfinD (a publication on the future of consumer culture). WD compares Amazon's growth in the apparel industry to specialty retailers, how retailers can step up to adopt a convention-busting way of life and shares research on ways to beat Amazon at their own game.
Lastly, this thought-provoking issue investigates the rise of surveillance commerce and imagines what would happen in a world where Amazon bought big box retailer, Target.
Happy Prime Day.
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About WD Partners
WD's mission is to drive and shape the future of customer experience. With a passion to solve our clients' challenges and anticipate their future needs, we are customer fanatics that pride ourselves on being on the forefront of change. WD's integrated services include: strategy & insights, brand & design, operations consulting, architecture, engineering and construction services. We are thinkers that do.
1 https://www.nytimes.com/2003/01/24/business/amazon-beats-expectations-of-analysts-in-4th-quarter.html
2 https://www.wired.com/2016/02/amazon-fashion-private-label-brands/
SOURCE WD Partners
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