Honest Review of Amazon's New "Prime Wardrobe" Service

I have to admit this morning when I came into the office and started the mundane ritual of checking several email accounts to catch up on what happened while I was sleeping, I was intrigued by an email sent to my personal account.  Amazon Prime sent me and no doubt, hundreds of thousand other prime members an "Exclusive Invite" to try Prime Wardrobe, a new way to shop online! Here is how it works, first you have to be an existing prime member.  If you don't know what Amazon Prime is yet, allow me to explain quickly to you.  Consumers are becoming more and more reliant on having special "can only find online" items and more and more regular everyday items (think dog treats, cotton balls, books etc) delivered to their homes every.single.day.  Amazon saw the trend and pounced.   They figured a way to make shopping online irresistible by seducing consumers with a yearly plan that would guarantee FREE, two-day delivery on everything they ship for about $100 a year.  Free shipping on almost everything you can find on their site including that cheese clothe you need to wrap your thanksgiving turkey in? Delivered right to my front door? within two days? for FREE!? I locked in early and have never turned back.  I will admit this perk works.  I could be at a Barnes and Noble wandering the aisles for a new read, when I glance at the price and I think to myself,  "hmmm I wonder how much Amazon has it for?"  Sure enough, I end up ordering online.  (This was when I was buying books, I'm now a library rat and borrow everything I read, but you get the point.) Now that we have got the understanding and the power Amazon has acquired over the last 8 or so years lets dive into their latest endeavor.  So, when I got this email about their new service, I was thrilled and immediately clicked on the link.  The landing page explains that "prime members can order three or more pieces from their curated selection and have it delivered free of charge and have up to 7 days to try the pieces.  You will be charged for the pieces you keep with $20 off a purchase over $200 or return any or all pieces in a return bag for free.  Great concept right?  Think of sites like Stitch Fix or Daily Look without the stylist or the great pieces!

So here is what you see when you enter the Prime Wardrobe page.

Screen shot of the landing page, looks promising, right?

From this screen you can choose where you want to go, if you choose "women" here is what you get.

Looks promising right?  So as the titles might suggest you can shop by occasion or by your style trendy, romantic, sporty and casual.  I chose the "shop by occasion" "desk to dinner" option and then every single other tile available.  I was completely underwhelmed by their two page per tile options, some a page and 1/2 with just three choices on the second page. (Did we really need a second page for that Amazon?) And that is mostly how I feel about the selections Amazon has in the fashion department, underwhelmed.  One, I think it is on a higher price point, most pieces are over $100, which is ok, not my first option but thats not so bad.  What is bad is that there really aren't any pieces that I feel I MUST try on and potentially own.  It is a feeling I have felt almost every time I peruse their ladies fashion page.  Underwhelmed.

Listen to me Amazon, I appreciate your ambition, I really do.  You are the online retail giant that has scared book stores big and small, changed the way we buy and listen to music, movies and original programming, you have threatened supermarkets and the way people shop in them, you had Etsy shaking in it's boots when you annoucned your own "handmade" department and your latest triumph is putting the fear of gawd into big box stores like Walmart!  You are big and powerful, no doubt about it.  But here is the thing, you are a bit arrogant too.  Now please don't revoke my membership because I am "critiquing you", I love you guys.  I swear I do!  And now that you know it is coming from love and a real desire to want to use this very smart service, please accept my humble criticism or let's say feedback.  You have got your tentacles in everything and you just aren't doing anything particularly well, specifically your fashion picks.  This might sound harsh, but you can't just do everything and anything you want because you want to.  Online retailers like asos, h&m, and zara eat, breathe and sleep fashion.  It is their singular mission and they do it well. Their sites are high fashion, inclusive (both in models of color and models of different sizes), high glam with a huge variety of categories to choose from, I mean they just do it well and we appreciate them for it. (Don't we ladies?)  I enjoy just visiting their sites and quite often get into trouble by filling up my cart with pieces that I don't need but MUST have.

Bottomline: Not impressed even though I really, really wanted to be.


Thanks for reading.

LifestyledbyErica 💋