Original title: Amazon has secretly made a website selling luxury goods Source: 36Krypton

Author |M.C. NANDA

Translation & Editing |Aijing Wang

BoF learned that Amazon's vertical footwear e-commerce company has been running a luxury brand website called “VRSNL” for several months, and the products also include Bottega Veneta's coveted “cloud bag.”

NEW YORK, USA — Rumors that Amazon (Amazon) will launch an e-commerce platform focusing on luxury goods have sparked a buzz in the fashion industry. But regardless of Amazon's final plans, it's not the first company to enter the luxury vertical market. BoF learned that Zappos, a footwear retailer owned by Amazon, has been silently operating an online store featuring brands such as Bottega Veneta and Rick Owens for several months.

This website, which was launched in September last year, is called VRSNL (read as “Versional”), and an app has also been launched to sell luxury brand fashion, shoes, and accessories that are not usually sold by Amazon or its high-end fashion e-commerce Shopbop.

Both the website and app are operated by Zappos (whose Las Vegas headquarters initiated and undertakes the main operations, according to another person familiar with the matter). Despite this, VRSNL still hasn't gotten too noticeable and hasn't launched a marketing campaign. As of last Tuesday, VRSNL had only one five-star review on the Apple Store. The Instagram account of the same name had no posts, and only 16 followers.

●VRSNL sells Bottega Veneta's popular cloud bag | Photo Credit: VRSNL

Shopbop, a subsidiary of Amazon, currently sells mainly luxury ready-to-wear brands such as Jason Wu, as well as sunglasses and accessories from luxury brands such as Gucci. The establishment of VRSNL helped Amazon directly enter the battle of multi-brand luxury retailers such as Net-a-Porter, Farfetch, MatchesFashion, and Ssense. In recent years, as more and more consumers buy high-end fashion online, the business of this type of retailer has grown rapidly.

There is no obvious “Zappos” brand logo on the VRSNL website, but users are prompted to enter information about their Zappos account when checking out. Therefore, VRSNL does not emphasize its “Zappos origin” to a large extent. In an interview with Footwear News, a vertical media outlet in the industry in May 2019, Zappos chief operating officer Arun Rajan saw this as one way to boost luxury goods sales.

“VRSNL allows Zappos to follow trends, and these trends eventually converge in our Zappos Style Room (Style Room), which has a broader foundation, even though they are often not the first trend-setting customer groups,” he said. “This is how many of our brand partners do market segmentation, so we also want to have our own channel to map this kind of market segmentation.”

VRSNL's inventory includes many of today's hottest luxury brand items, such as Bottega Veneta's “Pouch” cloud bag, which comes in three colors and costs $1,250.

A person familiar with Amazon's plans said that as the website begins to be promoted in the future, more brands — including Martine Rose's Napa, United Standard, and ROA — will enter the website in the next few weeks.

Amazon's various platforms are about to rise as a new force in luxury e-commerce. Amazon is largely the largest online retailer in the US. Its global network consists of warehousing, special aircraft, trucks, and vans, and fulfills online orders faster and cheaper than its competitors. Amazon also has an unrivalled customer database. Prime members now exceed 150 million, and can provide free next-day delivery and other benefits.

However, VRSNL is probably not Amazon's main force in entering luxury fashion. The site seems somewhat out of touch with the more comprehensive approach first reported by WWD in January this year. According to WWD, Amazon will invest in a new distribution center in Arizona and 100 million US dollars in marketing funds for its comprehensive plan.

A person familiar with the matter said, “VRSNL is still basically in the testing phase.”

In the US, Amazon is second only to Walmart in terms of clothing sales, but it's also difficult to attract fashion consumers — more of a destination that is thought to be easy to stock up on cheap basic goods. Amazon has achieved some success in attracting popular brands, but there are still many people who cannot avoid it because of the fake goods problem. At the same time, Amazon's growing number of internal brands may also compete.

Last November, Nike terminated its two-year sales agreement with Amazon. Luxury players such as Louis Vuitton and Dior's parent company LVMH (LVMH) said they have no plans to cooperate with Amazon.

For Zappos and Amazon, VRSNL seems like a fresh starting point. VRSNL has an independent website. The section called “The Remix” mainly publishes original editorial content about the brand's history, as well as editorial content focusing on designers and other multi-brand retailers such as Ssense.

Amazon has previously launched a wholesale model to sell high-end products: the luxury beauty platform “Luxury Beauty” sells high-end cosmetics and skincare products, such as Sunday Riley face oil and