With Amazon Growing Share, Fashion-Based SMBs Get New Marketplace Option

The apparel market is a rapidly changing place, a fact underlined by Amazon’s rapidly growing share of the market.

A year ago, PYMNTS research shows, Amazon claimed 9.5 percent of the market. Today, that has swelled to 14.5 percent. And for smaller boutiques and retailers, Jane CEO Taleeb Noormohamed told PYMNTS, that is something of a troubling trend.

That’s because Amazon isn’t an ideal selling environment for many small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) as these businesses are not really big enough to stand out. What smaller boutiques need is an online marketplace built for their needs, which is what Jane was created to offer them.

“We’re not trying to create another Amazon,” Noormohamed told PYMNTS. “What we’re trying to do is to create space for these merchants to be able to be successful reaching customers. Our job is to create for them a space to do what they do best, which is to bring really great products to market. We’re going to make sure that they have access to as many customers as they can, so they can do what they do well, which is to curate products.”

It’s not about trying to compete with Amazon so much as filling in a segment that is really part of Amazon’s wheelhouse to offer a different avenue and option for apparel merchants and consumers. The last year has forced boutique merchants, who likely had mostly based their business in the physical world before 2020, to pivot to digital. Jane’s mission is to create a space to guarantee those small sellers “don’t get lost in the wave of big marketplaces taking all the oxygen in the room,” he said.

The key, he said, is building a more unique and improved curated experience.

Prioritizing The Curated Customer Journey

More than simply a place to present the product to customers, Noormohamed said, Jane is also looking to present the story of the product to the consumers, so they really understand exactly what they are buying at the time they are buying it. A big part of the value proposition Jane offers is that customers will get exactly what it is they think they are getting, meaning the product description is clear and informative, and there’s good imagery so the customer is very clear on the offering. That boosts conversions, but more critically, it means Jane’s return rate is very low.

Moreover, he said, it makes the customers more confident in buying from Jane — and more likely to do so in the future. That means the pressure is always on for the marketplace, making sure there is a very real connection between what it is offering and what normal people want to be purchasing to wear or put in their homes.

“Our fashion director is always researching what is happening and where customer trend is going for our customer demographics,” Noormohamed said. “And we’re very proactive in letting sellers know where the opportunities reside. The way that we interact with our sellers is important. We have to make sure that they have access to real people to answer questions, making sure that there is a platform that works for them, making sure that we are proactive in letting them know what is happening on trend.”

And that isn’t a one-and-done effort in the world of apparel retail. First because tastes, trends and styles are in a constant state of flux. But more critically of late, the industry itself is in a state of flux. So, the right way to offer a marketplace for SMBs is going to change continually.

The Shifting Market For Boutiques

Jane is a marketplace for SMBs, but it has also started to make sure that there is space for brands on the site, Noormohamed said. And the company has done more to boost the smaller sellers than detract from them.

“What that does is it allows us to showcase brands alongside smaller boutiques in an environment that is very much about collaboration, very much about the idea that having brands on your site actually elevates smaller merchants and smaller boutiques by making people feel very, very confident in what they’re getting,” he said.

And more change in the industry is very likely on the way in 2021 as the COVID-19 vaccine circulates and consumers get back to the business of shopping in person. It’s a coming reality that he said doesn’t worry him, even though it means Jane will lose the tailwind of consumers shopping for apparel nearly entirely online.

He said he thinks both consumers and merchants have changed over the course of the last year. People will get back to shopping in stores — there is something about the experience of seeing and touching something before purchasing that is a wonderful experience in and of itself that consumers will want to get back to. But even factoring in the desire for that experience, there is also the desire for variety and the fact that both consumers and merchants have learned their options are much wider than simply what’s available in easy traveling distance.

“We’ve been able to connect a boutique in Nashville with a customer in Los Angeles,” he said. “We’ve been able to connect a seller in Dallas with someone buying something in Portland. I think this has, in a way, democratized access to the customer in a way that those boutiques and small sellers wouldn’t otherwise have. And I think customers have gotten excited and used to that.”

This means they will likely keep using it — even when they aren’t forced to by a global health crisis.