Nothing makes you angrier than buying an outfit online, only to discover a few days later that it does not fit.
To compete with successful personalized shopping platforms like Trunk Club, Le Tote, and Stitch Fix, Amazon has officially started Prime Wardrobe. This program enables their customers to try on clothes at home and choose which items to keep and which items to send back.
Let’s dig in and find out more about Amazon’s advanced shopping program!
What is Amazon Prime Wardrobe?
Prime Wardrobe is a program for Prime members that allows you to try clothes at the convenience of your home before you actually purchase them. Although the program was initially announced in June 2018 – it is now available to all Amazon Prime members (Amazon Prime paid and 30-day trial memberships and Amazon Prime Student paid and six-month trial memberships) and members of their Amazon Household.
Eligible items include women’s, men’s, kid’s lines, baby clothing, shoes, and accessories. You will choose what you want to try (eligible items have a “Prime Wardrobe” logo), and once your box comes, you have seven days to try on the things and send back what you do not want to purchase. You can try up to eight items at once, and there is no minimum dollar threshold.
Before the completion of your seven-day try-on period, head to Your Orders to check out and show which items you are going to keep and which you are returning. You have until the end of the try-on period to postmark your returns using the given return label. For the more forgetful of us, Amazon will send you reminders along the way to make sure you will not get charged.
How Does Prime Wardrobe Work?
There are few easy steps you can follow and get your order.
Step 1: Include Prime Wardrobe items in your Prime Wardrobe Cart.
Prime members can add a minimum of three items and a maximum of eight items with the Prime Wardrobe icon: to their cart.
Tip: You cannot include more than one exact item at a time in a single order (for instance, same size and color). There is no minimum dollar threshold for a Prime Wardrobe order.
Step 2: Place your Prime Wardrobe order.
Keep in understanding this checkout will be different from the regular checkout for other items on Amazon.com, but the process is similar.
Step 3: Wait for your Wardrobe.
Typically, orders will reach 4-6 business days (keep in mind this is a longer expected delivery time than most 2-day shipping Prime items). Once the items come, you have seven days to try on all the things in your order and decide what you will have or send back.
Tip: Amazon cannot ship these items within two days because they prefer to send the order in as few boxes as possible.
Step 4: Check out and inform what you decide to keep. Within the seven days, you can access your order in Your Orders and mark what you are keeping and sending back.
Tip: You can only checkout once. If you change your mind, Amazon says:
Marked keep on something you want to return: Request return for a bought item in the Online Return Center.
Marked return on something you want to keep: Keep the article, and Amazon will charge you when we do not receive it.
At the end of your Prime Wardrobe try-on period, you are charged for the total value of your order if you have not finished checkout by 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.
Step 5: If you choose you do not like the item(s) sent, you can return what did not work out.
Any items you chose not to buy must be placed in the resealable Prime Wardrobe box or bag using the enclosed, adhesive prepaid return label. Prime members have until the end of the try-on period to postmark returns at the UPS drop-off location of their choice.
Step 6: Verify the unwanted items have been returned.
Prime Wardrobe will send an email to notify you when all your return items have been received. If you’d like to follow the process of your return package, you can visit amazon.com/returns to view the return status. These are the simple steps that make the process easy.
What kinds of clothes and brands are part of Prime Wardrobe?
There are lots of brands available that have already been liked by customers.
The service has clothes, shoes, and accessories from lesser-known labels as well as national names like Levi’s, Calvin Klein, AIX Armani, Adidas, J Brand, and Theory as part of Prime Wardrobe, and they can choose from women’s, men’s, kid’s, and baby clothing, shoes, and accessories. There are affordable options, designer options, and everything in between. Shop them by the category you want.
Prime Wardrobe competes with similar services from companies like Nordstrom’s Trunk Club, and inventive startups like Rent the Runway and Stitch Fix, except that you do not have to pay a fee for every box you get or spend additional money on a membership to the service (considering you already have Prime). But if what you need is for someone to find the right clothes for you, you can pay $4.99 per month for a curated styling version of Prime Wardrobe called Personal Shopper.
Expert Insight on Amazon Prime Wardrobe
David Cooley at CPC Strategy recently tested out the new Prime Wardrobe program said.
“Once you select your category of interest (men, women, baby, etc) Amazon takes you to a page with various products grouped together by brand, style, or occasion. In many ways, this page is similar to the experience you would get on a brand’s Amazon Store.“
Cooley ordered six apparel items total via Prime Wardrobe – mostly shirts.
“Unfortunately, Amazon would not allow me to order the same shirt & color in various sizes. Once I selected my 6 items I was directed to the checkout page, which is separate from my normal Amazon checkout,” Cooley said.
“At the time of the order placement, my credit card was only charged $1 (to verify it was a valid card) and a few days later, my items arrived. Ultimately, I decided to keep half of the items I ordered and sent the rest back to Amazon using the prepaid reusable bag provided.”
When it comes to buying clothes online, customers have many hangups – the most prominent being “fit”.
“With apparel, I want the items I order to fit right. Each brand has its own unique cut, set of styles, and sizing charts – so it’s really helpful when I’m shopping a brand I haven’t worn before to be able to try on the product before making a commitment to purchase,” Cooley said.
Prime Wardrobe is a great shopping hack
Prime Wardrobe simply makes it way more comfortable to shop online by allowing you to try on clothing and shoes before buying to it — all at no additional cost. What looks excellent in 2D does not always look great, and return processes can be annoying or difficult to do correctly. But plenty of us continues to shop online because the in-person shopping experience is so drawn out, and for many, kind of insufferable. To keep online shopping comfortable, more and more services with “try before you buy” policies are popping up, as well as subscription services that help take some of the anxiety out of updating your Wardrobe.
Amazon Wardrobe is no complex, and, unlike many alternatives, it comes at no extra cost with your Prime membership.
Margin For Improvement
There are some things people wish were better. Even within the style silos, some colors or finishes of items are not regularly available through Wardrobe. For instance, what we discovered from reviews is that when a customer tries to have Clarks chukkas are on their last legs, so when she saw the company’s name on the list,and selected a fresh, beeswaxed brown option. She could not get it in the Wardrobe cart, no matter how hard she tried. Later, she’d find that at least one of the chukka model colors was available, but not her preference. She’d never been so close and yet so far, which can be frustrating when you are creating an entire look.
The other question mark was availability. A customer made his picks during the freak blizzard in February 2021, and maybe every other man in the country also decided to go virtual shopping because many colors were sold out in my standard size. Fewer sold-out options would have been excellent.
Another customer gave feedback about Prime Wardrobe that while there was a large selection to pick from, not all the items she wanted to try were Prime Wardrobe-eligible. Also, the search and filtering function does not always work. If there is just one style or size available in something you are looking for, it will still come up in the results — even if you specify your size. For instance, even if you specify that you are looking for a size 15 shoe, you get only available results in size nine because that brand offers the shoe in size 15.
As the service matures, we hope that there will be a more comprehensive selection of items and sizes available and a better search filter.
Special discounts associated with Prime Wardrobe
On occasion, Amazon may increase special offers to Prime Wardrobe customers. If they are going a Prime Wardrobe promotion, but there is a better Amazon promotion available at the time of your initial order placement or checkout, you will receive a better discount.
When there is no Prime Wardrobe–specific promotion running, Amazon will accept other Amazon promotions related to the items in your cart at the time of initial order placement or checkout. Discounts cannot be combined, but you will always receive the best of any relevant discounts.
The bottom line
Overall, Amazon Prime Wardrobe is being appreciated. Customers still plan on using it again the next time either they lacked choices for the first time. They want more options in the closet and will continue to recommend them to friends and family.
It was a little disappointing that more styles and sizes were not available, but the selection still surpasses what’s available through clothing subscription services. Plus, you do not have to commit to anything or pay for items upfront. It is strongly recommended to try Prime Wardrobe the next time you want to buy online.
