Your Galaxy Phone

Another unhappy ending for a flash-sale shopping site.

Three months after Gilt Groupe sold for a fraction of its valuation, Amazon has decided to shut down its fashion discount competitor MyHabit, according to a person familiar with the move. Amazon launched the website five years ago near the height of the flash-sale craze, but MyHabit has struggled in recent years as the one-time popular fashion niche has become less popular and Amazon has prioritized other fashion initiatives.

Women’s Wear Daily reported employees have been told that the site will shutter at the end of May (subscription). In January, the CEO of MyHabit took on a new role at Amazon as general manager of its new private-label fashion business, according to his LinkedIn profile.

An Amazon spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Amazon has quietly launched several of its own fashion brands under names Lark & Ro and Franklin & Freeman. Sources say this division will be a huge focus of Amazon’s fashion business going forward. CEO Jeff Bezos confirmed as much when he recently told Fortune magazine that it was one of the areas inside Amazon where he was spending time. “I think there’s so much opportunity for invention there,” he said.

Flash sales, on the other hand, has become an increasingly difficult business in recent years. The model exploded in popularity following the last recession, as designer brands were desperate to sell excess inventory in any way they could. But as the economy rebounded, there was less excess inventory to go around and some brands got smarter about how much inventory they produced.

There have also been segments of the fashion industry that have refused to do business with MyHabit, because of the association with Amazon, which some still view as a brand that represents commodity goods.