TT Vol. 82

Calm, WINDOW SHOPPING, The Row & Amazon Brick & Mortar

Tourist Trapp

Jan 30, 2022

Clockwise from Top.

Calm App

Raquel is a devoted power-user of Calm, the nighttime adult bedtime stories app, and really identified with this New York Times profile:

Thousands of other adults are now sleeping with storytellers, both famous and not. In our never-ending quest to get a good night’s sleep, bedtime stories are the latest weapon in the arsenal.

Every story seemingly narrated by someone with a British accent quietly and slowly describing drinking tea in a cottage. Raquel’s preferred celebrity soothers are Priyanka Chopra and Mary Berry.

I, on the other hand, have never needed a soporific and fall asleep instantly when my head hits the pillow. But for those of you needing a little something right before bedtime, Calm offers a free trial.

The Row

A lot of shows last week, with couture week happening in Paris, FW22 Men’s wrapping up and women’s Fall shows starting up. Cutting through the noise, The Row’s FW22 presentation generated tons of buzz.

The Olsen’s don’t really use much color in the The Row, but when they do - **chef’s kiss** The styling was on point (nude stockings!), with the inevitable Philo references pouring in.

The show got ALMOST as much attention as Mary Kate did for wearing Salomon Speedcross’s out in public.

Amazon Fashion Store

LA suburb Glendale is getting the first Amazon fashion store - to be called “Amazon Style” - later this year. It will be 30,000 square feet, an indication that this is a serious endeavor on the part of Amazon. Call us skeptical, but the raison d’etre doesn’t sound that ground breaking:

When shoppers walk into the store, they’ll see “display items,” featuring just one size and color of a particular product; the remaining inventory for each product will kept in the back of the store. After logging into the Amazon app on a smartphone, they’ll scan a QR code on the item to view additional sizes, colors, product ratings and other information, such as personalized recommendations for similar items.

Sure, that is much more advanced than your typical Nordstrom or concept store. But not particularly difficult for someone like Amazon to pull off. We do LOVE that shoppers don’t need to physically interact with store team members while in the dressing room. Post-COVID, no one wants to have to peak out of the fitting room to ask for an additional size.

However, what this really seems to be is a way for Amazon to get really accurate data around customer preferences. There are plenty of companies trying to come up with the best algorithm to predict what any given customer wants at a moment in time - think The Yes, StitchFix, etc. But those companies rely heavily on questionnaires combined with sales data, and it’s not working out great for them.

Understanding style, brand and color preferences in a real fitting room experience for thousands of customers around the country seems like a huge opportunity for a Big Data company like Amazon, which recently surpassed Walmart as the #1 apparel retailer in the country.