Hot on the heels of books and electronics as top-selling retail categories, fashion at Amazon.in has seen a steady growth in brands, styles and selections.
“We can’t replicate the offline showroom experience, and we’re not looking to,” says Mayank Shivam, Category Leader for Fashion, Amazon.
The online webpage structure provides huge scope for marketing and representing brand image, says Mayank. A website has much more space for showcasing content than an offline showroom, and by creating a page for the brand the online showroom is information-centric.
“We want to represent brands right,” Mayank says. “And brands have been pleasantly surprised by how much of their branding can be brought out by an online showroom.”
He cites wristwatches as an example: things like dial size have to be represented accurately, and the size of the image and the possible zoom angles are selected carefully by photography experts Amazon has invested in, he claims.
Every wristwatch comes with a photograph of a person wearing it on their wrist, to give the right image.
“What could be a better trial room than your own house,” asks Priyanka Bedi, an Amazon executive.
Amazon is focusing on local sellers as much as big fashion labels, says Mayank. It has various programmes that seek to educate local boutiques about how far they can reach by leveraging the infrastructure provided by an online marketplace.
Small and medium local boutiques are major contributors to Amazon’s ethnic wear collection, and they employ special teams to talk to sellers and encourage them to sign up with Amazon.
While the company is firm in not wanting to exclude desktop shopping, its focus is “mobile first”, Mayank says. Bringing the Amazon marketplace to a variety of devices across platforms used by Indian shoppers, is another of its investment priorities.