Image Courtesy of Amazon
May 5, 2025
Can Saks Help Amazon Fully Break Into Luxury Selling?
In a major thrust to entice more luxury brands to sell on its platform, Amazon has introduced “Saks on Amazon,” a storefront on its Luxury Stores platform.
The partnership is reportedly linked to Amazon’s move last July to take a minority stake in Saks Global to support the purchase of Neiman Marcus.
Saks on Amazon features a “refined luxury assortment curated by Saks Fifth Avenue,” with orders fulfilled by Saks and customer service, including returns, handled by Amazon.
Brands reaching the platform as part of the Saks’ partnership launch include Dolce & Gabbana, Balmain, Etro, Stella McCartney, Erdem, and Fear of God, with additional brands launching in the coming months. Designer brands opt in to be included on the Amazon-Saks storefront.
Emily Essner, president and chief commercial officer at Saks Global, said in a statement, “We are delighted to collaborate with an incredible group of forward-thinking brand partners for launch, and we look forward to expanding selection with additional brands as we evolve the experience.”
Amazon has gained traction in recent years in setting up storefronts for more aspirational fashion labels, including Coach, Polo Ralph Lauren, and Michael Kors, as well as in securing premium beauty brands, including Clinique and Lancôme. However, it still faces challenges gaining access to high-end brands.
The 2020 launch of Luxury Stores was designed to overcome perceptions that Amazon is too transactional for high-end selling. Compared to the typical Amazon shopping experience, Luxury Stores includes more lifestyle imagery and storytelling and doesn’t include star ratings and reviews on its product pages, dynamic pricing, or “customers also bought” pushes.
The site launched with Oscar de la Renta as its brand partner but has only slowly added other niche luxury labels, including Sergio Hudson, Rodarte, and Altuzarra.
The Saks’ partnership appears to at least double the number of luxury labels across the Luxury Stores platform. Being able to use “Saks” branding is also expected to better establish credibility with luxury shoppers.
Saks’ branding is prominently displayed on the Luxury Stores platform and listed as a drop-down menu on Amazon’s homepage. To promote the partnership, Saks is launching an editorial campaign that includes using its storefront windows at its Saks Fifth Avenue flagship in Manhattan to showcase items available to shop on Saks on Amazon.
Jessica Ramírez, co-founder of retail consultancy The Consumer Collective, told Vogue Business that she sees Saks on Amazon as a “white-space opportunity in terms of non-traditional retail partners” for independent brands following the closure of MatchesFashion and the collapse and sale of Farfetch.
Jenny Freshwater, Amazon’s VP of fashion and fitness, told WWD, “As you talk to brands, I think it’s one of the things that is most exciting — it’s bringing that Amazon customer, the vast customer base, to luxury but also what we can do in terms of innovating in the luxury space to make experiences that are more shoppable and more delightful.”
Discussion Questions
Will the Amazon-Saks partnership significantly help Amazon gain better access to major luxury and emerging designer labels?
What advice would you have for luxury brands on whether or not to sell directly on Amazon?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Patricia Vekich Waldron
Contributing Editor, RetailWire; Founder and CEO, Vision First
Jeff Sward
Founding Partner, Merchandising Metrics
Georganne Bender
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
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Having Saks on its marketplace is great news for Amazon, which has long since wanted to develop more of a presence in the luxury arena. The Saks name adds credibility, and it brings a greater selection of high-end labels to the site. I am not sure it is enough to turn Amazon into a luxury powerhouse, but it’s a step in the right direction. For Saks, this is a short-term play about generating quick revenue without much thought to the long-term implications.
Obviously having Saks is a plus for Amazon. I wonder, though, whether the sterile ecom experience can begin to replace the five-senses advantage that a physical store provides.
Precisely. Exactly.
Nope. Saks’ own site couldn’t provide sensory CX. (esp when disconnected from the store inventory. Ran into old school calling store locations to find item.) Transactions, most likely while doing other tasks, is not satisfying luxury. Lux products are embodiment of lifestyle (either inherent or aspirational)…
The main benefit of the Saks partnership is separating higher-end brands in a dedicated space rather than shuffling them into the no-name brand-a-palooza that is the Amazon environment. I guess the Saks moniker is as good as any to mark it off but many of these brands are no longer designer-led. They are BINO (brands in name only) that have been licensed to the hilt, with some well past their prime. Even so, they still enjoy cache with some consumers and Amazon needs this “best” layer, even if it will be driven primarily by perception.
If Saks weren’t such a mess right now, I’d be willing – without reservation – to judge this on its own merits, but…
but Saks is a mess right now, and it’s hard to separate the inherent benefits (of “partnering” with Amazon) from a perception of utter desperation. I’ll leave it there.
Amazon may be able to gain more exposure to luxury brands through this partnership, but it may have difficulty establishing itself as a credible luxury retailer. Amazon’s mass-market approach contrasts with the luxury consumer’s desire for an exclusive and personalized shopping experience.
Additionally, maintaining a high level of customer service and brand prestige can be challenging within Amazon’s current framework.
A luxury brand could significantly expand its audience by selling directly on Amazon due to the platform’s extensive customer base. The company may be able to gain increased visibility and access to a global market, potentially resulting in a boost in sales and brand recognition.
It should also be noted that leveraging Amazon’s advanced logistics and distribution network may enhance delivery efficiency and customer satisfaction.
Amazon’s search results will help the end product be found. But where does that leave the Sak’s brand? A conduit, middleman… a shop within the most known platform there is. It does provide country by country opportunities….as Amazon runs segregated domains.
Will be interesting to see what Sak’s long term game plan is
The Saks store on Amazon is better looking than Amazon’s typical item list, and shipping is free. It’s free on the Saks site too, but I would imagine shipping is faster via Amazon.
I’m not sure if the true Saks customer will shop via Amazon, but it is a good way to expose Amazon’s designer junkie shoppers to the Saks brand.
I will never think of Amazon as a luxury retailer. Never. Amazon is a conduit, a convenient means of acquiring luxury goods I otherwise might not have easy access to. And I will know they are luxury goods because of the originating retailer and brand. That confidence has been built over time in brick and mortar stores by the access to real, live product that those stores provided. And now Amazon is a purveyor of those luxury products. That does, not in my mind, make them a luxury retailer. Any more than my phone or my computer is a luxury retailer. They are just where I push a couple of buttons in order to acquire the luxury goods I am seeking. Sak’s needs the eyeballs and Amazon needs the halo effect. Mission accomplished.
Amazon as a source for any investment pieces in apparel. No thank you. Cheap and cheerful with little if any quality control, all day long.
Now you can buy your fake Birkin and a real Birkin on the same site!
Good one!
Having Saks will likely help Amazon convert some of their loyalists to a higher tier but I’m doubtful that a lot of new luxury shoppers will consider Amazon as a go-to for goods
Amazon might become another place to find specific high end, new or resale, items that happen to be lux (categorically)… and if underpriced (vs overall market) then ripe for flippers to buy.
We have certainly come full circle. At one time, luxury brands avoided Amazon like the plague. I can still remember when showrooming was a thing. Now, the fates of companies like Saks have declined to the point that Amazon is a potential lifeline for these companies. Hmmm..
For Amazon, this is a bit of a victory lap. They are so dominant now that even some of their most adamant detractors are now partners.
Hyperbole aside, I’m curious about who at Saks asked their customers about this. Saks’ issue is that its aging customer base isn’t being replaced with younger customers. This isn’t a Saks problem, it’s a department store problem, and from where I sit, this isn’t going to solve that issue. I suspect the target Saks’ customer appreciates the store experience, they like prusing the assortments, and they like getting doted on by Saks’ attentive sales staff.
I don’t see this moving the needle much for Saks. I also don’t see this moving the needle for Amazon. They pick up a bit of cred for luxury brands, but at the end of the day, I’m not sure that means much for their customers. So, how should a high-prestige brand like Saks strategize using Amazon? I think it’s probably a pretty good outlet for them. Markdowns, resale items, bargains. They need to figure out how to do this without diluting their brand.
Amazon tech has the capability to cannibalize itself… by search functions that find dupes/knock offs. The end still benefits Amazon in revenue
Luxury shoppers expect emotion, exclusivity, and connection – things that are hard to replicate online. While this partnership could help Saks boost its e-commerce presence and give Amazon a path into luxury, without a true experiential element, it risks falling flat. Success will depend on the items curated for Amazon, the platform experience, and whether it resonates with the right consumer.
Part of luxury shopping, however, is a business. The personal assistants & stylists of the HNWI. Or the entertainment industry. It’s the business of finding lux goods, cross-brand, fast and with decent returns policy. That’s high returns business, but possibly lengthy relationship with the shoppers (vs end users)
Having Saks as a partner to promote luxury merchandise can help Amazon, but does it work the other way around? Most of time, brands charging higher prices benefit from a feeling of exclusivity and a luxury experience. Saks stores provide that, but moving to the Amazon platform takes some of that away. It’s too soon to see results, and I hope that I’m wrong. If nothing else, it gives more exposure to the Saks merchandise. That’s a win for Saks.
Amazon has been growing its Luxury Stores assortment since 2020. As the middle market hollows out, Amazon invests in delighting upscale consumers. Partnering with Saks will further differentiate Amazon’s offerings from value-oriented retailers like Walmart.
Luxury brands should look at the Amazon-Saks model as a short-term experiment, not a full strategy. Amazon gets more reach, and Saks adds trust, because Saks is already an established name in luxury retail; its presence gives Amazon more credibility that Amazon might not be able to build on its own for the luxury brands.
Amazon needs to update its platform in a way that gives brands full control and offers a premium customer experience. If this experiment succeeds, it can become a base to attract more big luxury brands in the future.