Daily LInks
1. Shein shifts shipping strategy to bring China-made goods closer to U.S. shoppers. E-commerce giant Shein is sending more low-priced apparel and home goods to U.S. warehouses from China to speed up shipping times for shoppers, according to data from global trade analysis firm ImportGenius. – Read More on CNBC
Lawyers face conflicting strategies for adopting AI. Practice leaders facing confusion over whether, how and when to embrace the wave of new digital offerings must also consider the concept of the “hype-cycle”, as outlined by consultancy group Gartner. – Read More on the FT
How fashion became one of Denmark’s biggest exports. The export of Danish fashion which has grown 84% over the last 10 years (as opposed to an 8% rise in domestic sales). That means fashion now accounts for 5% of the total export of Danish goods. – Read More on CNN
Meta Platforms hit with US trademark lawsuit from tech company Metabyte. Meta Platforms was sued on Friday in California federal court by staffing and tech-services company Metabyte, which accused the social-media giant of violating its trademark rights. – Read More on Reuters
FTC Poised to Sue Amazon for Antitrust Violations Next Week. The Federal Trade Commission is expected to sue Amazon.com Inc. for antitrust violations next week, according to people familiar with the matter – marking the agency’s fourth swipe at the online retail giant this year. – Read More on Bloomberg
ICYMI: Luxury goods sector sounds alarm over hit from loss of VAT-free shopping. The luxury goods sector has made a fresh plea for the government to urgently reinstate VAT-free shopping, after it warned the UK can no longer afford to remain “uncompetitive” and said the tourist tax is hurting business. – Read More on the Evening Standard
1. FTC Names 3 Amazon Executives in Suit Over Prime. The FTC disclosed new details in its lawsuit against Amazon, publicly naming 3 executives who the agency says played a key role in a scheme to enroll customers unwittingly in the company’s Prime program and make it difficult for them to cancel their subscription. – Read More on the WSJ
2. And speaking of the FTC: The Federal Trade Commission has brought its first antitrust lawsuit under chair Lina Khan challenging serial acquisitions by private equity firms. – Read More on the FT
3. China’s middle class puts luxury spending on hold as uncertainty swirls. Only 28.6 percent of more than 4,500 people polled listed luxury spending as a financial goal, down from more than 50 percent five years ago. – Read More on SCMP
4. How Gen Z Envisions AI Improving E-Commerce. Gen Z appear eager to use artificial intelligence when engaging in one of their favorite activities—online shopping, according to a new study conducted by the Harris Poll and e-commerce tech company Rokt. – Read More on AdAge
5. California’s big oil lawsuit is a ‘huge deal,’ Center for Climate Integrity head says. California is the first oil-producing state to file suit against the companies for knowing and then lying about how the fact that their products cause climate change. – Read More on NPR
6. US retail sales smash expectations in August. US retail sales accelerated much faster than expected in August, bolstered by recovering gas station sales and strong clothing sales. – Read More on S&P Global
1. Jefferies and Goldman Diverge on Luxury Industry Outlook. Luxury-goods makers face a choppy near-term outlook, according to Jefferies and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. analysts, though that’s where the similarities in their opinions end. – Read More on Yahoo
2. Burberry Street Fashion Week Ad Sows Confusion in London. The Bond Street tube station on the London Underground was temporarily renamed “Burberry Street” as part of a London Fashion Week marketing campaign for the British luxury brand, leading to confusion among Londoners and tourists alike. – Read More on the NY Times
3. Companies Might Be Forced to Report Their Impact on Nature. A New Framework Aims to Help. The Taskforce on Nature-Related Financial Disclosures, or TNFD, on Monday issued its final reporting framework, which aims to make it easier for companies to identify their impact on nature, and take action to mitigate it. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Walmart ignored rampant sexual harassment at West Virginia store, EEOC claims. The complaint filed in West Virginia federal court says the manager of the Lewisburg store told an employee he wanted to be her “sugar daddy,” offered her money for sex, groped her and tried to force her to perform a sexual act in his office. – Read More on Reuters
5. E-Commerce Platforms Must Prioritize the Consumer-Influencer Relationship. In China, content-based platforms are generating a growing proportion of e-commerce. Savvy content-based platforms are leveraging AI to this trend and carefully curate their influencer relationships. – Read More on HBR
1. UK focuses on transparency and access with new AI principles. Britain’s anti-trust regulator, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), is, like other authorities around the world, trying to control some of the potential negative consequences of AI without stifling innovation. – Read More on Reuters
2. Regulators Are Trying to Stop Greenwashing Before It Gets Worse. From banning ads to suing over dubious claims, governments are starting to fight back against companies seen as misleading consumers on sustainability. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. So You Want to Be a Luxury Brand? “We buy the luxury brand because it’s something extraordinary,” he says. “It also connects us with a particular group of people who appreciate that and admire that.” – Hear More on Kellogg
4. Kering bets on Gucci shake-up to revive fortunes. While analysts largely see the merits of Kering’s moves, many warn that the results will depend on execution as it looks to tackle not only Gucci’s flagging sales but also problems around its cohesiveness as a group run from Paris but overseeing many of Italy’s biggest luxury brands. – Read More on the FT
5. TikTok debuts new tools and technology to label AI content. TikTok already updated its policy to address synthetic media, which requires people to label AI content that contains realistic images, audio, or video, like deepfakes, to help viewers contextualize the video and prevent the spread of misleading info. – Read More on TechCrunch
6. Can the cotton industry protect its workforce in a changing climate? “Smallholders are disproportionately impacted by the fact that they have very little financial resilience and very little climatic resilience, and an even smaller voice within the industry and cotton’s complex supply chains.” – Read More on Reuters
1. Bootmaker Dr Martens to offer repairs in sustainability step. Dr Martens plans to launch a shoe repair service in Britain next month as it seeks to polish its sustainability credentials, encourage customers to extend the life of their boots, and create a new revenue stream. – Read More on Reuters
2. RELATED READ: As Regulations Loom & Price Tags Rise, Brands Lean into Repairs. No shortage of brands – both in luxury and the fast fashion realms – are leaning into repair initiatives in order to engender goodwill among consumers, who are increasingly conscious of the ESG elements of the fashion business, and also to boost the value of their brands. – Read More on TFL
3. A normal IPO market still “a ways away.” IPO activity has remained subdued in 2023 after plummeting in 2022. However, some momentum has been picking up, and the execution of the $4.87B Arm Holdings has added to the enthusiasm for the nascent recovery of the transactions. – Read More on S&P Global
4. How Thom Browne’s Gray Suit Conquered American Fashion. Browne’s signatures have become as recognizable as the logos of far more profitable brands. “You know instantly when someone is wearing Thom Browne.” – Read More on the New Yorker
5. Russia’s Fashion Industry Tries to Fill Gap Left By Western Brands’ Exit. The YOU clothing brand has cast itself as an alternative to Spain’s Massimo Dutti, which has closed more than 500 shops. “We cannot produce everything abroad.” – See More on Barron’s
6. Shein vows to cut clothing waste. Its waste is allegedly low by industry standards thanks to its “direct to consumer” business model, which sees it produces items in batches of 100-200 pieces, then uses tech to analyze each item’s popularity with consumers, before ramping up production of top sellers to meet demand. – Read More on Reuters
1. UK ‘Tourist Tax’ Creates Gap with Europe, Says Burberry CEO. “Unfortunately there is a gap,” said Jonathan Akeroyd, chief executive officer of the British luxury fashion chain. This is “disappointing especially as it’s our home market,” he added, speaking ahead of London Fashion Week. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Epic Games’ new chief creative is an IP expert. At this point, gamers expect to be greeted by a cavalcade of brand and IP mashups whenever they flip on their favorite Epic Games title, making Wen, an executive who cut his teeth by helping mash different characters together into shared fictional worlds, an obvious fit. – Read More on Digiday
3. AI regulation is within sight — with an eye on preserving innovation. Regulation can make it hard for all but the biggest companies to grow, confined by industry rules that are shaped at times by incumbents. Big banks, for example, have only gotten bigger since the Dodd-Frank Act. – Read More on Axios
4. RELATED READ: Regulating Artificial Intelligence: A Running Tracker of AI Legislation. Despite such lags in regulation, a growing number of new AI-focused bills coming from lawmakers at the federal level are worth keeping an eye on. – Read More on TFL
5. Sustainability Is About Your Workforce, Too. People sustainability takes a holistic approach to corporate human capital practices, including diversity and inclusion, well-being, employee safety, and fair pay. It raises these human capital issues to the C-suite and obliges chief HR officers to work with chief sustainability officers on these programs. – Read More on HBR
6. Garment Workers Are Getting Closer to a Fair Wage. To date, 275 individuals and groups have endorsed the FABRIC Act which is being introduced in the Senate by Kirsten Gillibrand and in the House by Jerry Nadler. – Read More on the Nation
1. Luxury Sector Cut at Barclays, Deutsche Bank on China Woes. Luxury-goods companies face the risk of disappointing sales growth in China that will weigh further on their stock prices, Barclays Plc and Deutsche Bank AG said, cutting their ratings on the industry. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Is That a Model or AI? Its hyper-realistic models don’t by default indicate that they’re AI-generated. “The responsibility to disclose that the models are AI-generated lies with the company or user.” – Read More on the WSJ
3. After a century of marrying risky artistry with commercial savvy, the fashion industry has all but abandoned design talent. European brands — even houses with a long history of producing high fashion — started to conceptualize fashion as luxury. Luxury means status and money — that $5,000 handbag with a telling logo. – Read More on The Cut
4. Four Asian nations to lose $65bn this decade as heat and flooding shock clothing industry. Brands, investors and regulators are not prioritizing in planning for climate risks in the countries that collectively represent 18 percent of global apparel export due to the industry’s focus on mitigation rather than adaptation measures. – Read More on the Independent
5. AI Regulation Takes Baby Steps on Capitol Hill. The much-hyped forum on artificial intelligence, which was closed to the press and the public, was meant to set the tone for collaboration between the world’s biggest tech companies and Congress as it seeks to pass bipartisan AI legislation within the next year. – Read More on Time
6. American Eagle sues Westfield over San Francisco mall conditions. American Eagle filed a lawsuit against shopping mall owner Westfield, accusing the company of allowing its San Francisco Centre mall to “deteriorate into disarray.” – Read More on CNN
1. U.S. v. Google: What to Know About the Biggest Antitrust Trial in 20 Years. The Justice Department’s case is aimed at Google search, and whether the company has used illegal agreements to sideline its rivals and harmed consumers and advertisers in the process. Google pays billions of dollars to Apple, for example, to be the default search engine on the Safari browser. – Read More on the WSJ
2. How Tony’s Chocolonely Created a Purpose-Driven (and Profitable) Supply Chain. The first step in shifting the paradigm, therefore, is to invest time in getting to know all actors in the end-to-end supply chain, from market proposition to sourcing raw materials. – Read More on HBR
3. $90 Barbie dress helps drives Zara growth in the inflation-hit fashion industry. The retailer is also trying to entice more aspirational shoppers with deeper pockets. For example, last week it launched a collection with celebrated fashion photographer Steven Meisel, with a campaign featuring supermodels. – Read More on Fortune
4. RETRO READ: The Evolution of Zara: How the Copycat Became a Bona Fide Fashion Destination. Zara – which boasts more sophisticated designs and quality of goods, as well as a more successful supply chain than its closest rivals, sticks out as the brand that is most prominently pioneering the move towards emulating the brands it copies. – Read More on TFL
5. Ripple says it will fight the SEC lawsuit “all the way through.” Ripple is among crypto companies such as Binance and Coinbase which are being sued by the SEC for violating laws. – Read More on CNBC
1. TikTok Popularizes Products. Can It Sell Them, Too? TikTok has cemented itself as an essential advertising venue for brands aiming to reach its young users. Now it is beginning to introduce TikTok Shop to all of the app’s users in the U.S., hoping to add a major new revenue stream. – Read More on the New York Times
2. RELATED READ: As TikTok Prepares for U.S. E-Commerce, Could it Be Looking to Luxury Resale? A number of signs suggest that TikTok might make a fully-fledged luxury resale play as part of its impending stateside e-commerce push. – Read More on TFL
3. eBay Launches Luxury Consignment. eBay has introduced a new consignment service, giving users direct access to expert sellers who will list and sell their luxury items on their behalf. Launching initially for designer handbags, the service will expand next year to include additional luxury categories, including jewelry and watches. – Read More from eBay
4. Where Should Your Company Start with GenAI? It can generate new prose, computer code, images, narration, music, and videos as well as ingest and summarize, critique, improve, and reformat almost any manner of document or analysis. – Read More on HBR
5. Adobe, others join voluntary US scheme to manage AI risks. The private commitments backed by the Biden administration are seen as a stopgap given that Congress has held discussions on potential AI legislation but little has been introduced and nothing significant has become law. – Read More on Reuters
1. TikTok is wading into South-East Asia’s e-commerce wars. TikTok, which in 2020 moved its global headquarters to Singapore, is eyeing South-East Asia’s nearly 700m consumers to bolster its fortunes. – Read More on the Economist
2. Google pledges $20 million for responsible AI fund. Google says the project will “support researchers, organize convenings and foster debate on public policy solutions to encourage the responsible development of AI.” – Read More on Axios
3. RELATED READ: How Does AI Fit into Companies’ ESG Frameworks? A Look at “Ethical” AI. In the absence of explicit legal requirements, companies, like individuals, can only do their best to make themselves aware of how AI affects people and the environment and to stay abreast of public concerns and the latest research and expert ideas. – Read More on TFL
4. What to know about Congress’s inaugural AI meeting. “We’re reviewing recent regulatory proposals to get a sense of Hill priorities,” said Solaiman, adding that they’re working with folks from their machine learning and R&D teams to prepare. – Read more on MIT Tech Review
5. Surging e-commerce imports threaten Japan’s retail sector. “Ordinary consumers have become more familiar with overseas products,” said Kazuyoshi Nakazato, CEO of Zig-Zag, a provider of cross-border e-commerce support. “Imports of inexpensive items will grow in the future.” – Read More on Nikkei
6. Why luxury brands are courting gamers. The global gaming market is forecast to generate revenue of up to $188 billion in 2023, with one in two Gen Z consumers spending money on video games. – Read More on Jing