Prime Wardrobe, Amazon’s “try before you buy” shopping service first announced last summer, is officially out of beta and open to all Prime members in the U.S. as of today. The service has been gradually opening up to more customers over the course of the year, so many Prime members may have already had access before today’s official unveiling.
Prime Wardrobe is Amazon’s answer to the increasingly popular personalized shopping services like Stitch Fix and Trunk Club, which send a curated box of clothing to customers on a regular basis. These services allow consumers to try on clothing and other items in the home, then keep what they like and send back the rest.
However, Amazon’s service is more of a DIY version – instead of using stylists, you fill your own box with at least three and as many as eight items at a time. You then have a week to try on the items and return those you don’t want before being charged.
Like many of its rivals, Prime Wardrobe isn’t just aimed at women – it features collections for men, children, and baby, too.
The service is largely meant to help address one of the biggest problems with shopping for clothes online: fit.
Clothing designers have their own interpretation of sizing, and it’s often difficult for shoppers to get a sense of how something will really look without trying it on. Items may be too short or long, too long or tight in some spots, or shoppers might have an issue with how the fabric feels, the draping, the hemline, the quality of the workmanship, and other concerns.
Home try-on eliminates this obstacle to online clothing shopping, because it makes it easy to send items back when they don’t work.
Not all of Amazon’s online inventory is included in Prime Wardrobe, which means you can’t just browse the site and pick anything you want for home try-on.
Instead, you have to visit the Prime Wardrobe section to fill your box.
The site favors Amazon’s in-house clothing brands, but also features a good handful of bigger names, like Lilly Pulitzer, Tommy Hilfiger, Adidas, Guess, Levi’s, Calvin Klein, Nine West, Fossil, Lacoste, Hugo Boss, Stride Rite, Disney, Puma, Crazy 8, Gymborree, New Balance, Stuart Weitzman, Rebecca Taylor, J Brand, A|X Armani Exchange, and many more.
The retailer says that during its beta period Prime members have ordered “thousands of styles.” Women have bought denim and dresses; men bought tops, jeans and casual pants; for kids, shoes have been most popular.
Also of note, Amazon says its private label brands Lark & Ro, Daily Ritual, Amazon Essentials, and Goodthreads are the top-ordered items. That means Prime Wardrobe is doing well for Amazon, at least, even if it’s a more limited selection of clothing than online shoppers may have wanted.
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