Amazon Launches first Fashion Imaging Studio in India

The American electronic commerce company, Amazon, opened its first fashion imaging studio, Blink, in Gurgaon, India. Overall, it is the third such studio in the world with the first two being in New York and London. The studio is spread over 44,000 sq. ft. and first of its kind in the country.

The fashion imaging studio is equipped to produce large volumes of high-quality images, by collaborating with various brands and partners. It is provided with 16 photography bays, an editorial suite, video editing facilities and creative spaces.

Since the start of this year, the company added around 50 top fashion brands under its umbrella such as Steve Madden Jewelry, Juicy Couture Watches etc which debuted in India via Amazon. New Balance, Forever 21, Forever New and Marks & Spencer are yet other niche brands which are offered to the customers through the online platform of the company.

The Head of Buying and Merchandising, Marks & Spencer India, Ritesh Mishra said that their association with Amazon Fashion allows them to reach a wide customer base across the country and with an offering of over 1,500 styles on the website; they are able to make it more convenient for customers to shop quality clothing collections in India.

He added, “The launch of the new Amazon Fashion Studio is really exciting and we’re looking forward to showcasing more of our latest styles and outfit ideas.”

According to India Business of Fashion Report 2017, the Indian fashion retail market which was worth Rs 2,97,091 crore in 2016 will grow at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 9.7 per cent to reach Rs 7,48,398 crore by 2026.

With a stronghold of offline players in the fashion market, e-commerce too has emerged as one of the go-to platforms for the customers to satiate their fashion needs. With this, the industry has witnessed the rise of some major players such as Amazon, Flipkart, Myntra among others.

E-commerce fashion market of India is expected to grow 4x to around Rs 2 lakh crore by 2020. Also, two of every three products sold would be branded apparel. Currently, Rs 900 crore of the Rs 7000 crore India fashion market is digitally influenced, with 85 per cent of the customers preferring to use mobile over desktop to buy products online.

Today, online fashion portals account for four to five per cent of the total fashion market as compared to the sales from the retailing stores. On the basis of a report, this will increase to 11-12 per cent by 2020, multiplying over 4x to Rs 1400 crore.

The Business Head of Amazon India, Arun Sirdeshmukh in the launch said, “With this studio, we will continue to strengthen our relationship across the entire industry- with brands, designers and creative talents. This is a part of our plan to innovate in how fashion is displayed on the site," he said