In a survey carried out for BoF and McKinsey’s The State of Trend 2025 report, vogue executives recognized client spending urge for food as their high threat for 2025 — a priority pushed by as we speak’s macroeconomic local weather. Certainly, buyers throughout revenue ranges have traded down of their purchases — altering the kinds or portions of merchandise they purchase in pursuit of higher worth.
This pattern in behaviour is a key contributor to the continuing challenges going through the worldwide luxurious e-commerce market as we speak; companies like LuisaViaRoma and Ssense had been the most recent to file for chapter safety in August 2025 as they sought an overhaul of operations.
Nonetheless, for luxurious vogue and sweetness manufacturers, increasing their attain and broadening their client bases nonetheless requires diversifying retail channels and forging partnerships with wholesalers and multi-brand platforms. The problem lies in figuring out the place luxurious customers are buying as we speak and the way greatest to satisfy their evolving expectations.
Amazon entered this house with Luxurious Shops at Amazon within the US in 2020 – adopted by the EU launch in 2022. In the present day, Amazon Luxurious within the US options labels equivalent to Dolce & Gabbana, Stella McCartney, Balmain, Oscar de la Renta, Concern of God, Giambattista Valli, Rebecca Vallance, Irene Forte, Rodarte, and Dr. Barbara Sturm. The shop illustrates how luxurious manufacturers are experimenting with new digital avenues to achieve a wider viewers of customers, who more and more prioritise dependable and handy paths-to-purchase.
Earlier this 12 months, when BoF Insights and Amazon Trend & Sports activities surveyed EU5 clients (UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain), what mattered most to them when searching for vogue on-line was sensible advantages like confidence within the dimension and match of merchandise and free returns. Among the many frequent vogue buyers surveyed (those that bought vogue on-line greater than 5 instances within the final 12 months), 23 p.c have modified their earlier habits to now favour massive, well-known retailers for his or her dependability and handy providers.
Amazon Luxurious is trying to construct upon the success of Amazon, which works with a roster of notable mainstream vogue and sports activities manufacturers and retailers like Nike, Levi’s and Coach, leveraging well-known and trusted Amazon expertise for luxurious buyers. The shop presents a curated assortment of designer manufacturers and streamlined product pages with out scores or critiques. Luxurious companions may also faucet into Amazon’s retail advertising networks, creator partnerships and promoting merchandise.
Final 12 months, Saks additionally joined forces with Amazon Luxurious Shops to debut a “shop-in-shop” function. Hosted on Amazon.com, this curated storefront allowed Saks to retain full management over merchandise whereas providing clients the velocity and comfort they count on from Amazon. The transfer displays a broader pattern of multi-brand platforms experimenting with new methods to attach new and current luxurious customers with discovery and inspiration.
In spite of everything, multi-brand retailers had been cited within the BoF Insights x Amazon Trend & Sports activities survey because the main on-line vacation spot for vogue discovery, with 39 p.c of EU5 clients citing multi-brand web sites as their main supply of inspiration.
Manufacturers and retailers looking for to diversify their client base throughout generations may even discover the “Silver Era” — these aged over 50 — to be lively customers of multi-brand platforms. In response to The State of Trend 2025, they present a transparent desire for them, at a charge 17 share factors above the EU common. With these aged over 55 accounting for 72 p.c of complete US family wealth, this cohort presents a brand new avenue of untapped potential for luxurious manufacturers.
Now, BoF sits down with Jenny Freshwater, vice chairman of Amazon Trend and Health, to be taught extra about why and the way Amazon is increasing into luxurious, its aspirations to offer a brand new strategic channel for luxurious companies and the way it collaborates with manufacturers to strengthen their broader retail methods and presence on its shops.
What makes Amazon a fascinating platform for luxurious manufacturers as we speak?
Launching in Amazon shops provides manufacturers entry to the huge Amazon buyer base. Our client retailers with comfort in thoughts, however we now additionally present them with a curated, elevated storefront — so as to add to the luxurious expertise.
For a few of our clients, we’re providing their first luxurious buying expertise. They could be extra used to buying modern manufacturers on Amazon, like Michael Kors, Coach or Kate Spade. However they’re additionally inquisitive about exploring high-end luxurious and we enable for that discovery and the transition into luxurious for special day funding items or for enjoyable. And naturally, we provide the elevated buying expertise that returning luxurious buyers count on.
We take a look at luxurious as a spot for experimentation, so we are able to evolve for what that luxurious buyer would possibly need.
It’s the place all luxurious manufacturers — from rising designers like Kate Barton to extra legacy vogue homes equivalent to Dolce & Gabbana or Oscar de la Renta — can showcase their distinctive id and voice. We see Amazon as an extension of all the opposite digital and bodily channels that these manufacturers might have already got or take part in, to enhance their current retail methods with storytelling to Amazon clients.
How can luxurious manufacturers leverage the broader Amazon ecosystem?
When manufacturers come to Amazon Luxurious, they get full entry to all the things Amazon has to supply: advertising, streaming by Amazon Dwell, alternatives with Prime Video and extra.
Take Prime Video: manufacturers can present up on clients’ TV screens by dressing expertise or that includes in advertisements. We even have dwell sports activities broadcasts — the place tunnel walks and model presence have change into widespread. Exterior of our core retail providing, Amazon can assist manufacturers in driving visitors and providing experiences which can be distinctive to Amazon.
The Amazon Influencer Program is among the world’s largest affiliate programmes, and we work with among the largest names within the sport. On the excessive finish, we have now influencers which can be driving tens of millions in gross sales every month. Influencers are utilizing their Amazon digital storefronts and distinctive audiences to inform every model’s story. That may seem like a content material creator shopping for a product, loving it and sharing that with their audiences, however we additionally facilitate manufacturers working with particular content material creators on telling their story collectively.
We just lately hosted a weekend-long celebration within the Hamptons with Saks, so we’re participating in real-life experiences with manufacturers — for customers and content material creators to attend.
How are you catering to Amazon clients’ behaviour by the luxurious providing?
We all know what our clients are on the lookout for in Amazon shops and what they count on from luxurious — an elevated buying expertise, with a extremely curated number of well-established and rising manufacturers. In impact, we’re embracing their current buying behaviour.
We attempt to make discovering new and rising manufacturers easy and handy for patrons. We wish to supply each vogue buyer the labels that they love. Our driving motivation as we speak stays the identical as once we launched in 2020 — targeted on increasing our number of manufacturers to satisfy the Amazon buyer expectations.
A few of our clients additionally wish to see extra parity throughout the core Amazon buying expertise and luxurious, so we’re taking that suggestions on board. We’re consistently testing new methods to raise the buying expertise for our clients and we take a look at luxurious as a spot for experimentation, so we are able to proceed to evolve for what that luxurious buyer would possibly need.
Which luxurious manufacturers are likely to carry out nicely on Amazon?
It’s the manufacturers which have a strong choice, those who discover participating methods to inform their model story on Amazon Luxurious, that resonate nicely with our clients.
One of the primary manufacturers that launched with us is Oscar de la Renta Their collections have constantly resonated with our clients. They’ve streamed runway reveals on Amazon Dwell, participated in editorial shoots, labored with our luxurious content material creators, and consistently spend money on their Amazon Luxurious model retailer, which isn’t solely stunning however seems genuine to their model.
The Saks partnership on Amazon additionally exemplifies this. At launch we had been capable of give our clients a digital expertise of the enduring home windows of Saks on Fifth Avenue at their flagship retailer — one thing distinctive to their model. We blended Saks’ experience with our comfort and ease, providing manufacturers another choice to achieve new clients on Amazon Luxurious.
What are among the new technical options manufacturers can profit from on Amazon?
We’re integrating conversational AI and digital try-on options for each core and luxurious buying experiences. All people desires the product ordered on-line to suit when it arrives, so we’re investing in dimension and match, in order that our buyer doesn’t have to enter the return cycle. That’s constant throughout core and luxurious — you need it to suit, whether or not it’s a luxurious merchandise or not.
In relation to conversational AI options, we have now developed Rufus — Amazon’s generative AI-powered buying assistant. For instance, if you happen to wished to kind in “luxurious presents on your mum”, Rufus would intuitively ask the subsequent follow-up questions like, “What model does your mother gravitate to?” or “What’s your funds?”, which makes it simpler to house in on these outcomes. It’s nice for patrons to seek out the merchandise and the manufacturers that they’re on the lookout for — and possibly even uncover new manufacturers that they didn’t know existed on Amazon.
We’ve highly effective instruments we use to guard manufacturers and our clients together with Model Registry, which supplies manufacturers the power to develop their model with Amazon whereas higher defending their model and mental property rights. We even have Challenge Zero, which presents manufacturers trademark safety and permits them to straight take away counterfeit listings of their merchandise from our retailer.
Amazon’s automated know-how and AI scans billions of tried adjustments to product element pages day by day for indicators of potential abuse, together with the creation of recent listings and adjustments to current listings. Amazon’s proactive controls blocked greater than 99 p.c of suspected infringing listings earlier than a model needed to discover and report them.
Luxurious development as we speak has change into extra complicated. What are the core challenges going through manufacturers?
Luxurious manufacturers, multi-brand retailers, department shops and brick-and-mortar, all should work out how one can attain clients who’re practising extra intentional buy behaviour, whereas additionally buying in a really crowded surroundings.
For instance, we’re seeing clients buying a lot earlier for vacation reward objects this 12 months, which indicators to us that clients are being very intentional about their purchases proper now. Our choice from Rebag can be performing nicely, as it’s aligning with a few of our clients’ preferences for pre-loved luxurious objects.
We’re seeing clients buying a lot earlier for vacation reward objects this 12 months, which indicators to us that clients are being very intentional about their purchases proper now.
Manufacturers want to supply participating, inventive, personalised experiences, and we have to meet clients the place they’re, the place their passions are and encourage or entertain them. Normally, we should be adaptable at the moment.
How does Amazon assist luxurious manufacturers infrastructurally?
We assist these manufacturers develop incrementally — they’ll leverage us for quite a lot of infrastructural assist, equivalent to fulfilment. They will lean on us for comfort, to satisfy client expectations round velocity, after which, after all, scale.
We’ve a lot of choices across the fulfilment house. Manufacturers can promote with us — we purchase the stock and we promote it as Amazon. They will additionally put their stock in our fulfilment community, so we maintain all of the fulfilment — or you should buy on Amazon and be fulfilled out of regardless of the model particularly makes use of for fulfilment.
We recognise that each model could also be in a distinct place and for various companies, a kind of fashions is most interesting. We enable buyer choice, irrespective of the fulfilment know-how.
What are you enthusiastic about for the close to to medium-term at Amazon Luxurious?
For This autumn, we’re leaning into how clients interact with extra visible storytelling and extra personalisation. For example, completely different clients will like very completely different color palettes or have completely different ranges of curiosity in what’s trending. We recognise that we are able to enhance our person expertise by design, making it simpler and extra handy for patrons to buy. We’re testing out some visible styling help too.
I’m excited with the progress we’ve made in 2025 — we have now elevated our luxurious choice simply this 12 months by 75 p.c. We’re enthusiastic about what’s coming — as we speak, you’ll largely see girls’s vogue, though we do have males and a small quantity of youngsters. However we’re enthusiastic about increasing into luxurious magnificence, jewelry and males’s. We see an enormous potential in house, in youngsters, and we’re simply getting began.
New fashion inspiration utilizing AI, supporting our manufacturers with AI-backed styling recommendation for our clients and a few bespoke buying experiences are all coming. After which, after all, worldwide growth. We’re persevering with to develop our luxurious choice worldwide. It’s an thrilling time at Amazon Luxurious Shops.
It is a sponsored function paid for by Amazon as a part of a BoF partnership.
