Daily LInks
1. Balenciaga Partners with National Children’s Alliance Following Ad Controversy: The Kering-owned brand said the 3-year program with the Washington DC-based not-for-profit organization will help train almost 2,000 professionals specialized in dealing with child abuse. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Beijing pushes new regulatory measures to boost e-commerce activities in nation’s capital as online retailers struggle with weak demand: The initiative is expected to make it easier for online merchants to set up bricks-and-mortar stores in the Chinese capital to help increase sales. – Read More on SCMP
3. With Growth Top-of-Mind, Luxury Brands Focus on Digital Goods and Virtual Experiences: Luxury brands are attempting to capitalize on this opportunity by easing their once-stringent brand parameters and taking an “omnichannel approach” to reaching the affluent, and digitally savvy, Chinese consumer. – Read More on Retail Touch Points
4. Why Hong Kong luxury sales won’t suddenly rebound now mainland Chinese shoppers are back: Logistical issues surrounding cross-border travel with mainland China, closed-down stores, and the rise of shopping in Hainan all hamper a speedy recovery. – Read More on SCMP
5. Tesco and Lidl square off in yellow on blue trademark row: Tesco and its German discount rival Lidl traded allegations of copying brands and deceiving customers at London’s High Court on Tuesday in a dispute over Britain’s biggest retailer using a yellow circle on a square blue background. – Read More on Reuters
6. Large global M&A deals off to slow start in 2023: “Regulators are not succeeding and blocking a lot of deals, but they certainly, I think, around the world have been a little bit slower to sort of approve deals and let them flow through.” – Read More on S&P Global
7. Michael Kors owner Capri shares plunge after revenue falls across the retailer’s luxury brands: Revenue fell across the company’s luxury brands, which also include Jimmy Choo and Versace, dragged lower by slowing traffic in China. – Read More on CNBC
1. Why fabric fraud is so easy to hide: With complex, fragmented supply chains that sometimes rely on a literal paper trail, where each step in the chain might happen in a different country, it’s easy to see how mislabeling can happen. – Read More on BBC
2. Meta settles U.S. lawsuit over infinity-logo trademark: Meta has agreed to resolve a trademark lawsuit brought by blockchain nonprofit Dfinity Foundation over Meta’s infinity-symbol logo, according to a joint filing in San Francisco federal court. – Read More on Reuters
3. RELATED READ: Meta is still facing a separate trademark case over the Meta word mark, with a smaller (but older) company named Meta, accusing the Facebook and Instagram-owner of reverse confusion. – Read More on TFL
4. Millennials, Gen Z and Gen Alpha, luxury’s biggest consumers by 2030: The luxury market’s consumer base will reach 500 million by 2030, according to Bain. – Read More on SCMP
5. China’s luxury market shrank 10% in 2022: The luxury market grew 42% annually between 2019 and 2021 but its fortunes changed in 2022, after China doubled down on stamping out COVID-19 with city-wide lockdowns. – Read More on Reuters
6. Mickey Mouse Is About to Enter the Public Domain. Can Anyone Actually Make Money off Him? “They do have TM protection in connection with the early version of Mickey in connection of at least certain items of clothing and maybe other goods and services as well.” – Read More on the Observer
1. Chinese Investors Hunt Globe for Strategic Luxury Market Acquisitions: Chinese buyers are showing a greater interest in acquiring heritage brands that are no longer active but do provide a shortcut to showcasing heritage. – Read More on Jing
2. Excess stock a challenge for half of U.S. retailers: “Excess stock is a huge issue for U.S. merchants at this time of year. The key to avoiding inventory waste is by forward planning and having rapid response software that allows retailers to pivot quickly to fill order gaps and ditch items which are not selling.” – Read More on RCE
3. Footwear’s Trendy Comeback: Retail. On’s co-CEO said wholesale gives the company access to the “right customer quicker and at a bigger scale,” while its direct channel gives it a more “intense and direct connection” with its consumers. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Yuga Labs Reaches Settlement in Bored Ape NFTs Trademark Lawsuit: Yuga Labs, the parent company of the Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT project, has reached a settlement with Thomas Lehman, who built websites and smart contracts for Ryder Ripp’s copycat project “RR/BAYC.” – Read More on Yahoo
5. How designers are leveraging tech to apply the brakes to fast fashion: Consumers are becoming more conscious of the costs of fast fashion – and so are manufacturers as they reform their supply chains to increase transparency and, at the same time, avoid over-production and waste. – Read More on Tech Monitor
6. Amazon swings to a loss for 2022 as sales from e-commerce drop in Q4: Amazon’s revenue growth increased, even as its core e-commerce business came under pressure from growing recession fears. – Read More on Modern Retail
1. Coachella sues D.C. ‘Moechella’ music festival in trademark fight: The suit filed in federal court this week alleges that the D.C. pair “are intentionally trading on the goodwill” of the Coachella name and creating “confusion” by suggesting a nonexistent affiliation. – Read More on the Washington Post
2, Teens feel peer pressure to buy luxury goods endorsed by K-pop stars: “Consumers generally choose luxury goods that meet their unique tastes and preferences. But Koreans tend to make a safe choice by purchasing the most popular ones. To make better decisions, they often rely on celebrities who are associated with luxury brands.” – Read More on Korea Times
3. Why Amazon Marketplace didn’t survive in China: Amazon entered the China market in 2004 through a $75 million acquisition of Joyo.com, an online book and media seller. The joint venture rebranded to Amazon China at the domain Amazon.cn in 2011. – Read More on CNBC
4. Tiffany & Co. x Nike shoe collaboration divides social media: The two announced a collaboration on January 31 that will include a specially designed Air Force 1 sneaker and sterling silver accessories. The combination of the two brands marks the 40th anniversary of the Nike shoe silhouette. – Read More on SCMP
5. Billionaire Cucinelli Sets Profits Cap to Thrive for Centuries: In an industry that posts eye-popping margins, his namesake luxury cashmere house pours profits into better pay and working conditions. Investors, so far, appear to be on board. – Read More on Bloomberg
6. Kering recruits Estee Lauder exec for push into cosmetics: “We are building this new area of expertise within our Group to ensure that our brands can fulfill their potential in this category,” group Managing Director Jean-Francois Palus said. – Read More on Reuters
1. Estee fears bigger drop in profit on uncertain China recovery: “Outside of China, the travel retail looks strong” said Evercore ISI analyst Robert Ottenstein, adding that segment recovery in the country, however, remained an important question. – Read More on Reuters
2. Inside the Race to Get Forever Chemicals Out of Raincoats: Despite years of warnings from scientists and environmental activists, many apparel retailers only recently started sussing out how to ditch PFAS in outdoor apparel and gear. But the stragglers may not be able to straggle much longer: Bans on the chemicals are coming. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. ‘De-Influencers’ Want You to Think Twice Before Buying That Mascara: De-influencing videos may steer consumers toward cheaper alternatives, also known as dupes, or discourage them from spending money in certain categories altogether. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Resale platforms like ThredUp are rebelling against fast fashion: “There’s a conflicting feeling when you’re buying that brand, if you’re very aware of the aspects behind the companies. But I do think that if people could habitually buy those things secondhand, we would see the demand go down (for new fast fashion).” – Read More on Modern Retail
5. China’s e-commerce market sees at least 89 platforms close in 2022 amid Covid-19 controls, fierce competition, weak spending: Online shopping guide websites were the hardest hit, with 32 of these platforms shut down to account for about 36 per cent of overall casualties last year in the world’s largest e-commerce market. – Read More on SCMP
1. What Do 30 Million Zillennials Want? The Who, What and Why: This is the name for that hybrid population born between 1990 and 2000 (that’s 23- to 33-year-olds), which bridges millennials and Generation Z. – Read More on Forbes
2. Luxury stocks rally from China reopening, but world’s largest luxury market may choose to shop “in-house.” Years of zero-Covid measures have taught Chinese consumers they can get their fix of opulence on their own shores — and experts say this habit is here to stay. – Read More on CNBC
3. From Shoes to Insurance: Startups Latch onto the AI Hype Cycle. Silicon Valley’s attention has decidedly shifted. The new obsession: artificial intelligence. And every company is angling for a piece. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. Canada Goose Joins Growing List of Luxury Brands Offering reCommerce: “We’re leaning into where Gen Z and millennials are,” CEO Jamie Iannone said. “There’s a bigger focus on sustainability, and ‘re-commerce.’” – Read More on PYMNTS
5. The Nike x Tiffany & Co collab is a match made in branding heaven: Arnault believes constant novelty and creativity is crucial to the success of modern luxury brands. “You need to be a part of the cultural conversation.” – Read More on Fast Co.
6. Coinbase wins dismissal of lawsuit claiming it sold tokens illegally: U.S. District Judge Paul Engelmayer in Manhattan said customers who transacted on the Coinbase and Coinbase Pro trading platforms could not show that the company sold or held title to the 79 tokens, a form of digital asset, they traded. – Read More on Reuters
1. Bernard Arnault Takes on Elon Musk With SPAC Deal to Take Lotus Public: Lotus Technology, the electric-car maker owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., said Tuesday its agreed to merge with L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp. in a transaction that values the combined entity at about $5.4 billion. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Plenty of Demand for Brick-and-Mortar Luxury Retail: No longer mostly consolidated in New York and Los Angeles, areas such as Phoenix, Austin, and Nashville are gaining in popularity, according to recent foot traffic data from Placer.ai blogger Bracha Arnold. – Read More on Globe Street
3. Men dominated 2021 ranks of highest-paid CEOs in S&P 500: But execs. from Ross Stores, Coach-owner Tapestry, etc. among the top on female-specific list. – Read More on S&P Global
4. Europe’s luxury stocks have room to rise, but becoming costly: An index of European luxury goods retailers has rallied around 18% so far this year, outperforming the wider pan-European STOXX 600, which is up 6.2% in the same time frame. – Read More on Reuters
5. Rent the Runway Announces Corporate Debt Restructuring: The company says the transaction enhances its ability to pursue its growth goals by extending maturity to October 2026 and reducing cash interest payments significantly. – Read More in Press Release
6. German retail sales post surprise plunge in December amid rising prices: Retail sales decreased by 5.3% in December compared with the previous month, the federal statistics office said on Tuesday. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast a 0.2% rise in price-adjusted terms. – Read More on Reuters
1. We were told a fashion rental revolution was coming. It never arrived: Although the sharing economy has changed the way we live, fashion and accessories is the one sector where it has not taken hold, despite initial interest. – Read More on SCMP
2. Kering shares flat after Gucci names creative director: The label has been losing momentum in recent years after stellar growth in 2015-19. De Sarno will be tasked with reviving the fortunes of a brand that accounted for 2/3 of Kering’s profits in 2021. – Read More on Reuters
3. ChatGPT Spotlights Microsoft’s Early Efforts to Monetize AI: The software company said last week that it was pouring billions of dollars more into OpenAI, whose chatbot ChatGPT can answer difficult questions, write book reports and compose poetry in seconds. – Read More on the WSJ
4. China’s domestic e-commerce hits 13.79 trillion yuan in 2022, growing 4%: In 2022, overall domestic e-commerce sales recorded a steady increase, reaching 13.79 trillion yuan, up 4% year-on-year. Online sales in rural areas reached 2.17 trillion yuan, up 4.9% year-on-year. – Read More on Global Times
5. LVMH, L’Oréal Among Suitors for Stake in Aesop: LVMH and L’Oréal SA are among the luxury consumer companies weighing offers for a stake in Aesop that may value the high-end cosmetics brand at $2 billion or more, people familiar with the matter said. – Read more on Bloomberg
6. SPAC IPOs, deals fell in 2022: There were 86 SPAC IPOs in 2022, compared to 610 in 2021, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence data. The reversal of the SPAC market coincided with increased regulatory scrutiny and rising interest rates. – Read More on S&P Global
7. RELATED READ: Lanvin’s IPO – Can the Chinese Group Make a Name for Itself in Luxury? One need not look further than the group’s announcement of the SPAC back in March, in which it touted its “strong foundation in Europe combined with a unique position to capture significant growth opportunities in the world’s largest luxury markets – N. America and Asia. – Read More on TFL
1. Why China’s luxe shoppers are shunning the West: “A lot of consumers already have the habit to purchase locally for the luxury goods. And also, given the policy of repatriation, a lot of consumption will also happen in Hainan.” – Read More on Yahoo
2. Behind the second-hand luxury watch boom: Gen Z buyers who shop sustainability, scarcity, the lure of vintage & a rise in online selling. The difficulty of buying new models is another factor. Watch brands from Rolex to Richard Mille are seeing the benefits of entering the pre-owned market. – Read More on SCMP
3. Gibson and Heritage agree to end trademark and antitrust legal battle: Heritage Guitar Inc. agreed to drop its antitrust lawsuit against Gibson Brands Inc. in a settlement that also ended Gibson’s trademark counterclaims—which a Michigan federal judge had already deemed “baseless.” – Read More on Bloomberg
4. Fashion and beauty brands turn to ‘we made too much’ sales to offload inventory: She went on to say that packaging a sale under the guise of having too much of one product is a clever and easy way to get rid of unsold merchandise without having a big to-do about it. – Read More on Modern Retail
5. Gucci Names Sabato De Sarno as New Creative Chief: More recently, Gucci’s sales growth has lagged behind some major rivals such as Louis Vuitton and Dior, both owned by luxury juggernaut LVMH. Those brands tend to appeal more to older, wealthier consumers who seek out products that are unlikely to go out of style. – Read More on the WSJ
6. ‘Vegan,’ ‘sustainable’: How to spot misleading fashion claims. “Brands are really defining sustainability based on their own interpretations [of various sustainability buzzwords] in order to justify salary, growth and profit.” – Read More on Washington Post
7. E-Commerce Retail Just Passed $1 Trillion For the First Time Ever: E-commerce hit $1.09 trillion in the U.S. in 2022, with the last quarter accounting for $332.2 billion. A key driver? Mobile, which grew at twice the rate of desktop e-commerce. – Read More on Forbes
1. Italy Starts Seizing Large-Scale Fake E-Commerce Websites: Italian officials have this week begun seizing what could be one of the world’s largest networks of online fake shops that have defrauded customers by appearing to offer discounted goods from luxury brands that never materialize. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Following a wave of retail IPOs, delisting notices hit the industry: Investors are losing confidence in some retailers’ ability to perform in a climate where shoppers are pulling back spending, supply chain constraints impact operations and a possible recession is looming. – Read More on Modern Retail
3. ‘Cultural appropriation’ testimony derails ‘O.M.G.’ dolls trademark trial: A California federal judge declared a mistrial on Wednesday in a trademark lawsuit brought by toymaker MGA Entertainment Inc to contest claims that it copied designs for its “L.O.L. Surprise! O.M.G.” dolls from pop group OMG Girlz. – Read More on Reuters
4. Is Dall-E the Next Dior? How AI Is Trying to ‘Make It Work’ in Fashion: As the AI art generators that have been “stealing work” from artists and even winning art competitions begin to move on to new industries like fashion. – Read More on PC Mag
5. Building the Circular Economy: Finance leadership in the sustainable fashion revolution. The fashion industry it may be on the cusp of a revolution in how it sources materials based on reuse rather than new production. – Read More on Forbes
6. Skinny jeans still a great fit in shrinking economy, Levi CEO says: Bergh said the company’s top-selling women’s items were the 311 and the 721 – both skinny jeans – although half of its revenue in the bottoms category in the quarter came from looser and baggier fits. – Read More on Reuters