Amazon.com is buying women's fashion retailer Shopbop.com for an undisclosed amount.

Shopbop sells a wide variety of women's fashion - clothes, jewellery, handbags, shoes, and other accessories - which you can search by category, brand or designer. The site will continue to operate as a stand alone entity, rather than being bundled into Amazon's apparel and accessories store.

Shopbop started as a "bricks-and-mortar" operation in 1999. The company will continue to work from its Madison, Wisconsin headquarters.

Amazon may have started selling just books, but the US store now has 32 categories of products including everything from furniture and kitchenware to musical instruments and pet supplies.

Read the whole press release here (http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=822227&highlight=). ®

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