Amazon tries to Find a winner with new clothing line

One of the reasons Amazon is so successful is that it doesn’t let setbacks put it off.

New venture not working out? Let’s change it, and change it again, and change it one more time and if it still isn’t working? Well, we’ll just keep on trying.

When it comes to the company’s plans to launch a clothing line, I’d suggest that the first thing it should probably do is change the name.

I mean, Find? I suppose that it is at least easy to remember. Presumably customers’ friends are supposed to say “wow! what a Find” when they arrive decked out in one of the label's tweeds or trench coats. Maybe that'll be the scenario featured in an ad or two (you can post my commission for the idea to the Indy, thanks).

Still, I’m not sure. It’s true that I’m probably about as far removed from the target demographic as it’s possible to get. That said, consider George at Asda. It was, I think, trying to say that what you have here are classy, good looking clothes at Asda’s cheap prices and from a branding perspective it made a lot of sense.

I’m willing to accept that I might be wrong about this, but I’m not sure people will be so keen on waltzing around in the results of a Google search.

Silly name or not, the launch of Find has picked up some decent early coverage and, with Amazon’s marketing clout behind it, you’ll soon be seeing a lot more of it on Facebook, the aforementioned Google, and just about wherever else you go on the web. So maybe the name won’t really matter. It's going to be a cookie monster regardless.

The shares of M&S and Next shrugged in response this morning. But Amazon seems to want to Find customers among those who want something more than the sensible clothing with a touch of panache that those two mostly aim to provide.

They haven’t been all that good at it of late. Just look at their recent trading history. It suggests that Find could have found some of their markets rather easily. As it is, it’s set itself a tougher challenge.

But you wouldn’t want to place too big of a bet against the venture unearthing a profitable, if bumpy, new revenue stream over the long term.

In the (relatively) short term, as far as the UK is concerned, Amazon, like all retailers, will soon face a tougher challenge than even that posed by the fashion press: Finding a way of getting its clothes into the country when it chaotically crashes out of the EU.

A clothing industry body recently warned about the potential for long delays at ports, as have grocers and just about every other business sector you’d care to mention. Trouble is while the lights are on in Whitehall, no-one's home.

One thing that could play in Amazon's favour is that it has a lot of warehouse space. It's already very good at using the space that it has efficiently, but perhaps this most innovative of businesses can find a way to squeeze even more product in prior to doomsday?

With the rest of British retailers facing chaos, Find's silly name won't matter if Amazon can keep business flowing when they can't.