Amazon Style

Hello Investors!

I recently visited Amazon Style, a new high-tech clothing store that opened in Glendale at The Americana at Brand shopping center in May 2022. This is Amazon’s first Style store and it is certainly very different from any other clothing shopping experience I have encountered.

Amazon Style’s showroom only displays one size and color of each item.  Shoppers scan QR codes on the displays that will allow them to view available sizes and color variations that are stored in the back warehouse.  The clothes can then be delivered by staff to a fitting room, or sent directly to the cashier.

Amazon has also incorporated an artificial intelligence machine learning algorithm that offers personalized suggestions and real-time recommendations for shoppers.

One cool feature is the ability to scan a QR code next to a mannequin and select any or all of the components of the mannequin’s outfit for purchase.

In terms of brands, they have Calvin Klein, Amazon Essentials, Levis, and many typical brands that you’ll find inside a department store.

I scanned the QR codes of a few shirts and sent them to a fitting room.  I received a notification that my room was being prepared.

After waiting for about 10 minutes or so I got a notification that my room was ready.  So I made my way to my fitting room (#23), where, I’d say, all the magic happens.

I unlocked the fitting room using my app.  The room welcomed me by name.

The screen showed the shirts that I had scanned, plus a few others that Amazon’s artificial intelligence (AI) engine thought I might like.  The interface allowed me to choose other sizes or colors to try on.

That’s what’s going on nationwide. How about what’s happening a little closer to home?
Locally, in the Inland Empire, we are also enjoying record-low vacancies, at 6.1%, which is, coincidentally, the same vacancy rate as the nationwide number reported by the Wall Street Journal.  The brokerage I work for, Progressive Real Estate Partners, is doing its part to get these vacancies filled.

The coolest part of the fitting room is that when I ordered a different shirt to try on, it got delivered to the fitting room into a closet within a few minutes. This part is really hard to show with a photo, so you should really see the video!

I ended up getting a shirt the AI suggested rather than one of the shirts I picked. So if you’re someone who tends to spend a lot of time thinking of which clothes to pick, you will find it very convenient.  How does my new shirt look?

The check-out process is similar to Whole Foods and Amazon Fresh. You can use your app to generate an in-store code and you can choose to pay via credit card or palm scan. Since my palm isn’t registered to Amazon yet, I paid using my credit card which is already stored within the Amazon app.

I hope you enjoy my field trip to the Amazon store. Here are a few things to note:
  • They don’t sell kids’ clothing, at least not yet.
  • They don’t have a designated shoe section but some of the mannequins throughout the store are wearing shoes that you can scan the QR codes for.
Overall it was a fun experience and made clothing shopping a little less painful for me than usual. So if you’re in the area, or you just want to be one of the first people to experience this high-tech store I encourage you to check it out! And although this is the only Style store so far, a second one has just been announced to be opening in Columbus Ohio in the fall.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s newsletter and learned something. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time!
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Mike Lin, CRE