Amazon opens its 1st clothing store in Los Angeles

By Jacqueline Laurean Yates

Amazon has expanded in many ways throughout the years, and now the e-commerce giant has launched a brick-and-mortar clothing store.

The Amazon Style fashion retail space has opened at The Americana at Brand shopping mall in Los Angeles.

The new concept offers a selection of apparel, shoes and accessories. The items featured in the store also have QR codes providing information from sizing to customer ratings, the company said.

"We organized and designed the store a bit differently," Amazon Style vice president Simoina Vasen told "Good Morning America." She went on to share how the new concept is all about the QR code which allows shoppers to browse and scan while never grabbing clothes on hangers to try.

Amazon Handout via AP

Photo shows how clothing could be displayed at the company's new Amazon Style store concept. Amazon is set to open its first-ever physical clothing store later this year at the Americana at Brand mall in Glendale, Calif., that will push out personalized recommendations as customers shop and scan items on their phone and feature high-tech dressing rooms.

"Customers can shop the millions of items from amazon.com from their couch and deliver it to the store," added Vasen. "And we'll have a fitting room available for them when they arrive."

With the Amazon Shopping app users can also send items to a fitting room where they can use a touch screen to look through more options as well as request more sizes or styles to be delivered directly to their room, according to Amazon.

While Amazon has not revealed which specific brands will be featured, it said customers will have the option to browse emerging designers across hundreds of its top brands.

"Shoppers will find great looks at a broad range of prices, including trend-inspired pieces at affordable price points and sought-after styles that will become wardrobe staples," Amazon Style managing director Simonia Vasen wrote in the company's blog. "With Amazon’s vast fulfillment center network, the selection at Amazon Style will be frequently updated so customers can discover new items each time they visit."

Amazon.com Inc via Reuters

A touch screen at Amazon.com Inc's upcoming physical fashion store.

The clothing store isn't Amazon's first foray into a physical fashion store, the retail conglomerate has opened physical grocery stores, book stores, and in 2017, it bought Whole Foods Market.

In 2021, Amazon launched a hair salon in London for augmented reality hair consultations as well.

National Retail Federation senior director of retail and consumer insights Katherine Cullen explained to "GMA," "We're seeing a lot of new terms pop up whether it's hybrid shopping or multi-channel shopping, but really what it boils down to is this idea that we can't separate online and offline anymore those worlds are really blurring if someone orders an item online for pickup in a store.

Just this week, online furniture giant wayfair also opened its first brick-and-mortar store in Massachusetts. Also, stores such as Nordstrom, Ulta Beauty and Crate & Barrel have finessed hybrid shopping modelof buy it, deliver it, return it anyway the customer wants.

Amazon is advancing on these new concepts mostly by leveraging their massive inventory.

Editor's note: This story was originally published on Jan. 20, 2022.