Amazon has launched a new bid into luxury with the rollout of a couture shopping experience that will feature established and emerging fashion houses and brands.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s Luxury Stores launched on Amazon\u2019s mobile app Tuesday with the iconic fashion house, Oscar de la Renta. The designer\u2019s store features its pre-Fall and Fall\/Winter 2020 collections of ready-to-wear apparel, handbags, jewelry, accessories, and a new perfume. More brands will launch within Amazon\u2019s Luxury Stores in the coming weeks and seasons, the company said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would guess that somewhere near 100 percent of our existing customers are on Amazon and a huge percentage of those are Prime members,\u201d Alex Bolen, CEO of Oscar de la Renta, told<\/a> Vogue. \u201cFor me to get more mindshare with existing customers in addition to getting new customers \u2014 that\u2019s the name of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new store concept is only open to invited Prime shoppers in the U.S., and allows customers to see items in 360-degree detail. Luxury brands will have more independence over how they stock their stores and their pricing through Amazon\u2019s merchandising tools, which allow them to create and personalize the content of their store. They will also be able to offer their own customer services to shoppers to answer specific questions about their collection and choose how they pack and ship to their customers, the company said.<\/p>\n

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Amazon\u2019s Luxury Stores come at a tumultuous time for luxury retail as the pandemic keeps high-end brick-and-mortar stores closed and department stores such as Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, and discount retailer Century 21 file for bankruptcy. <\/a>French luxury goods conglomerate Kering and fashion powerhouse LVMH Mo\u00ebt Hennessy Louis Vuitton reported a respective 29 and 28 percent drop in revenue during the first half of 2020 compared to the same time last year as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe impact of the epidemic on revenue and annual results cannot be precisely assessed at this stage without knowing the timetable for the return to normal business in the different areas where the group operates,\u201d LVMH told<\/a> investors in August. \u201cAfter a second quarter severely affected by the crisis, we can hope that the recovery will materialize gradually in the second half.\u201d<\/p>\n