Amazon has launched a new site for the sale of upscale shoes and handbags called Endless.com. This is an interesting site for a few reasons:
Moving upmarket
Recognizing that the Amazon brand wasn’t great for buying a pair of Bruno Magli shoes, Amazon has created Endless.com, instead of using the increasingly cluttered Amazon.com template. Endless strips out all the things that made Amazon great (Customer’s who bought this, comments etc.). What is left is a much simpler and classier page design. Well shot, multiple product images, give you a good sense of the product. While descriptions are minimal or even non existent. But that’s okay, the pictures do more than words.
Remove barriers
Shoes are one of those things that are tough to buy sight unseen. I know I am size 12 in Nike’s but every other shoe is a toss up. I may be an 11 in another brand and when it comes to European sizes, who knows? Also, shoe pricing varies wildly. If you’re ever in New York, walk up and down Broadway near Houston and see how much the same pair of shoes will fluctuate in price. Shoes are wildly marked up, allowing for a lot of undercutting.
Endless.com addresses these barriers with three promises:
- FREE Return Shipping
- 365 day returns
- 110% Price Guarantee
You literally have no excuse for not buying shoes from them.
Customer Service
I dare you to find a phone number for Amazon.com. Amazon purposely makes it nearly impossible to call them. Endless.com adds it to their top nav. Since the margins on these shoes are greater, they can afford to provide phone support.
Overall, I really like that Amazon recognized that buying luxury shoes and bags is a totally different customer experience to buying books/DVDs/CDs etc. Endless.com allows them the freedom to properly serve their customers without being restrained by the Amazon.com business model and site features. Will it work? Hard to say, but I believe Endless.com has done what they can to give consumers a good experience for buying shoes online.
Amazon.com does have some phone information for some products… For example, this page actually invites the shopper to call and speak to an expert and place the order over the phone. They do this for some other relatively high priced items as well. But other than that, you’re right that it’s quite hard to get live customer support from Amazon.
(Naturally, Amazon Associates don’t like the phone order thing because they don’t get any commission for over-the-phone buyers that the associate sent over to Amazon’s site.)
As for Endless, I think they’ve done an excellent job overall. It’s an e-commerce experiment well worth trying, from their perspective. If it works well, I could see a similar spin-off site for their watches & jewelry section, as that’s one of the fastest growing e-commerce segments.
I was equally impressed by Endless. Once again, Amazon leads in the e-comm arena. As for purses, it’s a no-brainer. My skepticism, like yours in about buying shoes online. I have enough challenges finding the right fit in person. I’m sure we’re not the only ones.
I also like Amzon’s “Gold Box. New Deals Every Day.” feature.