The Four Things That Need To Change for Amazon’s Luxury Platform
There are a lot of posts about Amazon's new luxury platform. I’m skeptical. Simply put, Amazon is about scale. Luxury is not about scale. Hence the issue.
For this to work, it's not about the features and functions Amazon offers. For this to work at Amazon, you have to believe these things:
People will search more branded terms on Amazon, rather than constantly looking for cheaper, high-rated replacements. Currently the majority of Amazon search terms are unbranded. And the trend keeps accelerating.
People will start coming to Amazon more to get inspired, rather than looking for consistently low pricing. People are more likely to do this other places.
Authenticity is talked about, but delivered? In the consumer's mind? Amazon has not conquered its trust problem, and site assortment is a wreck compared to your average Madison Avenue showroom - uncluttered, refined.
Consumers, unaided, need to think about Amazon in new ways.
Steve Jobs famously said, your brand can only occupy essentially one simple idea in the consumer's mind. "AWS" is its own space. "Alexa" is its own space. Amazon Luxury, however, means something like Light Darkness.
Remember eBay Express? This is Amazon Express. To be successful, they will have to break this out.
This may or may not be a big swing for Amazon, but for it to be a huge meaningful business on Amazon, it has to take a huge risk. I'm not quite convinced this is a "huge risk." Feels more like an attempt to stretch up-market, to use Loren Padelford's phraseology. I would much rather them fix the problem of why I can't buy a simple Nike shoe on Amazon. Then again, Amazon thinks long-term, but where else can you find luxury and dollar store (let's call some of this assortment what it is) in the same location? At some point Amazon is betting against human nature. It’s more like Amazon is taking a big counter-bet against consumer behavior and brand perception.
