Dive Brief:

• Amazon is boosting its fashion and apparel business in India by partnering with the Fashion Design Council of India to find established designers as well as up-and-comers through fashion schools and feature them on a new marketplace.

• Fashion is a top seller for the online marketplace in India—among the top three—and one that has grown fourfold in three months, according to Vikas Purohit, head of fashion at Amazon India.

• The online marketplace offers apparel from the designers’ stores, and aims to partner with as many as 100 designers in a few months.

Dive Insight:

Amazon has had success with apparel sales in India, and this effort leverages and expands on that. The online giant has encountered far less success with similar efforts Stateside, though, because apparel retailers here seem to be wary of the process. Amazon has featured apparel from department stores and apparel retailers on its U.S. site, and has launched a program that allows its Prime members to access their fulfillment benefits through some of those channels. 

But that may not be the most savvy move for such retailers, at least not in the States, writes Sharmila C. Chatterjee in Fortune magazine. 

“The online behemoth is well on its way to becoming a competitor,” Chatterjee writes. “By placing their products on Amazon’s site, they are helping to legitimize Amazon as a shopping channel in this upscale market. Further, despite the product link ultimately going to the retailer’s site (rather than Amazon selling it directly), they still lose a tremendous amount of control over their brand. “