American Apparel And Postmates Pair Up

Whether it was intended or not, Amazon is largely responsible for creating a culture where consumers no longer appreciate but demand their products are delivered rapidly for no extra charge. While the eCommerce giant has managed to narrow this window to one or two days, an unlikely brand is saying that it should take no longer than an hour.

That’s the word from American Apparel, which announced a partnership with on-demand delivery service Postmates on Monday (March 21). Postmates Senior Vice President of Business Holger Luedorf praised the move as a necessary measure to bring American Apparel’s logistics capabilities in line with what its younger consumers expect.

“The combination of American Apparel’s real-time, local inventory paired with Postmates’ superior delivery technology and national footprint is changing the way customers can access their favorite brands,” Luedorf said in a statement. “One- or two-day shipping is no longer an option; we are creating entirely new customer expectations.”

While Luedorf and American Apparel might be hitting the express delivery point hard, it only applies to a subset of 50 products the retailer is dubbing as “basics.” These will include “hoodies, T-shirts, socks and more,” and they’ll be shipped out of 79 of the brand’s storefronts — a coverage area of 31 metro and suburban regions.

The boon from the partnership is obvious for American Apparel, but Retail Dive noted that it maintains a certain momentum for Postmates as well. In a busier March than most on-demand delivery companies have had, Postmates worked with Revolve during SXSW to deliver clothing to attendees and with Everlane in San Francisco and New York City to do much the same for that retailer as it’s doing now for American Apparel, which claims that it is “the first official and largest in-app apparel partner” for Postmates.

If that doesn’t impress millennial clothes shoppers, maybe plain white socks and t-shirts will.