{"id":102099,"date":"2025-05-12T15:07:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:07:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/?p=102099"},"modified":"2025-05-12T15:07:44","modified_gmt":"2025-05-12T15:07:44","slug":"overcoming-perception-can-an-online-retailer-successfully-break-into-the-high-fashion-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/2025\/05\/overcoming-perception-can-an-online-retailer-successfully-break-into-the-high-fashion-market\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming perception: Can an online retailer successfully break into the high fashion market?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 12, 2025 \u2013 A new partnership<\/a> between online retail giant Amazon and luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue may prove pivotal for Amazon as it looks to penetrate the high-end fashion segment. Yet, despite a flashy promotional video featuring handbags suspended from umbrellas on the Saks Amazon storefront, and the fact that traditional department stores have been struggling for years to stay competitive with e-commerce platforms, the partnership does not necessarily guarantee smooth sailing. <\/p>\n\n\n

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Ji Hye Kang, associate professor and chair of the textiles, fashion merchandising and design department in the College of Business and 溏心vlog免费B站. (Credit: Ethan Jedson)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In fact, according to research from 溏心vlog免费B站 professor Ji Hye Kang<\/a>, people are more inclined to express favorable opinions about a garment purchased from a traditional department store like Macy\u2019s than the same item sold on an online platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think before the pandemic none of us thought Amazon could be successful as a fashion retailer,\u201d said Kang, who is chair of 溏心vlog免费B站\u2019s Department of Textiles, Fashion Merchandising and Design<\/a>. \u201cThey were struggling to change their customer\u2019s perception that Amazon is a place for fashion purchases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a perception that persists today. By analyzing over 100,000 customer reviews of identical products sold on Amazon and at Macy\u2019s, collected through web crawling and scraping programs, Kang compared feedback on 21 items: six pairs of men\u2019s jeans and 15 women\u2019s bras that were available through both retailers. She found that consumers perceived identical products differently depending on the retailer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the years, Amazon has tried to change its image through acquisitions, including Zappos in 2009 and Endless in 2012. And while its apparel and accessories revenue have surged to approximately $64 billion annually, Kang\u2019s findings, published in the Australasian Marketing Journal<\/a>, indicate that Amazon continues to grapple with the challenge of attracting prestigious fashion labels and cultivating an image of sophistication. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Kang, a major issue for Amazon lies in the fact that it has no history in high fashion, and customers still perceive it as a general retailer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based on her research, Kang said customers believe \u201cthat Macy\u2019s is a more fashion forward and fashion-oriented retailer.\u201d  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

More than that, her analysis revealed that customers were more likely to leave positive reviews on Macy\u2019s website than on Amazon\u2019s for identical products. What stood out to her were the opposing attributes assigned by the reviews to each retailer. Customers spoke positively of Macy\u2019s, praising products\u2019 comfort and showing brand loyalty, whereas reviews of the same products on Amazon frequently cited concerns about quality assurance issues and sizing inconsistencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite Amazon investing in reliable third-party vendors to help ward against counterfeiting or knock-off items, Kang notes, \u201cA lot of consumers and my students do not want to buy fashionable items from Amazon because of the authenticity.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kang\u2019s research offers several strategic recommendations, one of which Amazon appears to be implementing through the dedicated page that features Saks Fifth Avenue merchandise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAmazon can be more proactive,\u201d says Kang. \u201cThey can make a distinctive section on their website that\u2019s dedicated to luxury brands; that way they can put all the luxury brands there and have them separated from more common products.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She acknowledges, however, the advantage that traditional brick and mortar department stores have\u2014which they may or may not be effectively capitalizing on. Kang says the fact that they have fitting rooms and a presence in the community enables them to lean into the customer experience, which can help to mitigate negative experiences customers may have post purchase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the study, \u201cMacy\u2019s can lead their consumers to adopt heuristic evaluation processes and maintain a high level of customer satisfaction.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I. \u2013 May 12, 2025 \u2013 A new partnership between online retail giant Amazon and luxury department store Saks Fifth Avenue may prove pivotal for Amazon as it looks to penetrate the high-end fashion segment. Yet, despite a flashy promotional video featuring handbags suspended from umbrellas on the Saks Amazon storefront, and the fact […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":102100,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-102099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=102099"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":102106,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/102099\/revisions\/102106"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/102100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=102099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=102099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=102099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}