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Not sure if this was posted. This was from WSJ online.
myhabit.com
Amazon Joins the Fashion Flash-Sale Bandwagon
Amazon.com jumped on the fashion flash-sale bandwagon, starting a members-only website Tuesday that sells heavily discounted designer apparel.
Amazon’s entrant, MyHabit.com, is late to the party. It comes years after competitors such as Gilt Groupe popularized the business model.
MyHabit is similar to those sites. It offers up to 60% off designer brands such as Vera Wang. The sales typically last 72 hours and start at noon Eastern time, when the site sends emails to members.
The site has a simple, clean look. Members who click on Tuesday’s offerings from i.am clothing are directed to a product page. There, a built-in Flash video player shows the clothes on a male model, who does a little twirl to show the threads from all angles.
A Gilt spokeswoman declined to comment on MyHabit.
The head of MyHabit, longtime Amazon executive Maria Renz, said the site has been in the works for about a year. Amazon customers said they wanted private sales, she said. When asked why Amazon decided to launch the flash-sale site after competitors had been in the business for years, Renz said that “we are focused on building great customer experiences, and that is a priority for us.”
Renz said Amazon procures the products specifically for MyHabit and has it already stocked in its fulfillment centers when the sales start. That allows Amazon to offer free four-day shipping and paid one-day shipping, she said. She said MyHabit also shoots the videos for the website in its fulfillment centers.
“We built a site that we think is best in class in terms of technology,” Renz said. “We’re coupling that with Amazon’s capabilities to offer free shipping and free return shipping.”
Anyone with an Amazon account can sign up for MyHabit now, but Renz said she couldn’t say whether the site would limit membership, as competitors such as Gilt do.
myhabit.com
