Daily LInks
1. Ebay pins hopes on second-hand luxuries and collectibles: Ebay’s strategy means tapping into a luxury clothing resale scene that is estimated to grow to $37bn by 2025, up from $27bn in 2020. Meanwhile, the used sneaker market is set to become a $30bn industry by 2030, and resold luxury watches would make up a third of all global watch sales by 2025. – Read More on the FT
2. Adidas Says Consumers Are Struggling. In Reality, They Are Getting Selective: Consumers could be getting choosier where they spend rather than cutting back altogether. Demand for Nike’s goods still looks strong. – Read More on the WSJ
3. Sustainable Fashion in China: An Emerging Trend in the Apparel Industry: While the sustainable fashion industry makes up only a small portion of the fashion and apparel industry overall, numerous indicators suggest there is growing market potential. – Read More on China Briefing
4. US consumers cut back on buying luxury goods before the holiday season: Spending cuts on luxury goods were sharpest among middle-income Americans with yearly incomes of $50,000 to $125,000, and those with yearly incomes of less than $50,000 a year. – Read More on the National
5. Amazon earnings: “The good news is the consumer is still spending. The bad news is they’re not spending on e-commerce.” Analyst anxiety is largely based on perceived waning demand for online purchases as customers save for travel and concerts, or for grocery and gas bills amid decades-high inflation. – Read More on MarketWatch
1. Amazon faces $1 billion class action lawsuit in the UK over alleged antitrust breach: Amazon harms its customers by directing them to its “featured offer,” resulting in better-value deals being hidden and consumers ending up paying more for products, according to the suit, which is expected to be filed with the Competition Appeal Tribunal. – Read More on CNBC
2. U.S. retailers fill store shelves with leftover inventory: Retailers are betting that shoppers won’t mind picking through 2021’s discounted decor and styles, but there’s a chance that shoppers will lose interest when they feel that some of last year’s on-trend merchandise is “no longer relevant.” – Read More on Reuters
3. L’Oreal Sales Rise as Lower-Priced Cosmetics Gain Ground: In a reversal of roles, performance at the company’s mass-market consumer-products arm, which sells Maybelline New York mascara and Garnier shampoos, outperformed its luxury arm. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. Sales Rise at Hermès, Gucci-Owner Kering, Defying Price Increases: “We end up selling to affluent people who have a behavior on their own, which isn’t necessarily totally aligned with economics or GDPs ups and downs. Our client base reacts to different stimuli.” – Read More on the WSJ
5. Kering says still paying rents, employees in Russia: “We have to protect our brand and our trademark in the country, and to do that you have to be there,” CFO Jean-Marc Duplaix told analysts on a conference call. – Read More on Reuters
1. London’s Luxury Brands Suffer Tax-Free Shopping “Hammer Blow.” London’s luxury emporiums were up in arms after new Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt scrapped his predecessor’s decision to let foreign visitors claim back value-added tax. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. ASOS sees big loss as shoppers cut back on fashion: The firm saw a loss of nearly £32m in the 12 months to August, compared with a profit of £177m last year. The firm expects shoppers to cut back further this year as living costs soar. – Read More on BBC
3. The Once-Hot Market for Metaverse Land Is Attracting Risky Bets: Virtual property, such as that on Decentraland, has become an investment strategy for some, even as values have tumbled alongside crypto prices. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. Japanese luxury shoppers are embracing omnichannel: In Japan, where online shopping prior to the pandemic was not as popular as it was in the United States, Europe, and China, the jump in digital activity is noteworthy. – Read More on McKinsey
5. Gen Z fast fashion comes at an inhumane cost to Shein workers: Shein is no stranger to criticism; in the past, the company has been accused of mismanaging customer data, ripping off designers, and producing products containing harmful toxins. – Read More on Fast Co.
1. Fashion Industry Gets Torn by Europe’s Soaring Energy Bills: Thousands of small factories and workshops that supply brands like Gucci and H&M have watched their business models unravel amid the surge in natural-gas and electricity prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. – Read More on the WSJ
2. Report finds ‘horrific’ working conditions at Shein: In two factories, employees were working up to 18-hour days and were given only one day off a month. The working conditions and reported hours directly violate China’s labor laws. – Read More on Yahoo
3. Controversy Persists Over Amazon’s Use of Data to Favor its Knockoffs: “They copied the general shape, they copied the access points, they copied the charcoal color, and they copied the trapezoidal logo badge.” – Read More on Forbes
4. Most Metaverse users don’t even make it a month: Meta is struggling to keep users engaged with glitchy features and empty worlds. Even employees appear not to enjoy the platform, saying there is a “quality” problem. – Read More on Business Insider
5. Retailers, Brands and Tech Platforms Bet Big on Live-Streamed Shopping in the U.S.: Some U.S. marketers see live shopping as a critical way to build awareness and trust among young consumers, attract new customers and collect data on shoppers, including their behavior online before making a purchase. – Read More on the WSJ
1. Why E-Commerce Disruptors Are Trading Like Brick-and-Mortar Dinosaurs: 1stDibs, a furniture-focused seller with a market capitalization of $240 million that’s already said it’s working with bankers on options that could include selling itself, is holding up slightly better than its peers. – Read More on The Information
2. When Climate Collaboration Is Treated as an Antitrust Violation: Across Europe and the U.S., regulators are discussing whether corporate climate collaborations violate antitrust law. Companies need to keep an eye on this debate. – Read More on HBR
3. Lanvin Group Trims Valuation to $1 Billion Ahead of SPAC Listing: Lanvin trimmed its equity value to $1 billion from a previous $1.25 billion in March. The adjustment in part reflects a decline in the value of the euro in recent months and lower trading multiples of listed global luxury companies. – Read More on Bloomberg
4. IPO activity fell sharply in Q3 as stocks dipped, recession fears climbed: The number of IPOs throughout the world fell by more than 45% in the period from the same quarter in 2021. The total amount offered in those IPOs that did move ahead plunged by nearly $73 billion. – Read More on S&P Global
5. Half of ‘Big Retail’ Thinks Consumer Digital Experience Could Be Better: “The majority of U.S. and U.K. retailers have introduced or plan to adopt innovations to track omnichannel customer purchasing data,” with 48% percent of U.S. and U.K. retailers having already adopted this strategy. – Read More on PYMNTS
1. U.S. retail sales unchanged; consumers showing resilience: Consumers are not rolling over yet, with a report from the Commerce Department showing a measure of underlying retail sales rising last month, thanks to strong wage gains and savings. – Read More on Reuters
2. Low-Price Apparel Chains Lure Inflation-Weary Shoppers: The land grab is raising the stakes for such retailers as Gap Inc. and Macy’s as they grapple with inflation-hit customers and uncertainty around consumer spending. – Read More on the WSJ
3. Legal dispute over EU’s green label for nuclear, gas could last over 2 years: “Our goal is to prevent greenwashing and to help investors identify economic activities in line with our environmental and climate objectives,” a commission spokesperson said. – Read More on S&P Global
4. “Mark Zuckerberg is telling us he doesn’t think he has a core business.” Meta spent $10 billion in 2021 in early efforts to build the metaverse and Zuckerberg informed shareholders in 2022 that the company will continue spending heavily to create the metaverse and will bleed money for 3-5 years. – Read More on Yahoo
5. ASOS in talks with lenders to amend terms of $391 million facility: The retailer said the move would give it significantly increased financial flexibility, against an uncertain economic backdrop. – Read More on Reuters
1. ‘Recession? What Recession?’ Say Luxury Shoppers: LVMH’s results have been helped by the fact that the euro has been whittled down compared to the dollar. – Read More on Bloomberg
2. Luxury’s Resilience Hasn’t Been Tested Yet: LVMH CFO Jean Jacques Guiony pointed out that, so far, a “preannounced recession…has not materialized” and spending on luxury goods tends to be more impacted by, say, real-estate prices than a slowdown in economic growth. – Read More on the WSJ
3. How Amazon’s big private-label business is growing and leaving small brands to protect against knockoffs: There’s generally nothing illegal about copying brand-name products. It’s a business practice that, in some capacity, is widely used by most major retailers. – Read More on CNBC
4. Millennials and Gen Z Are Fueling a Boom in the Second-Hand Watch Market: Annual sales of second-hand watches will jump to 35 billion Swiss francs by 2030 from 20 billion francs now, consulting firm Deloitte said in an industry report that surveyed consumers and watch brand executives. – Read More on Bloomberg
5. Should Data be a Luxury for the Fashion Industry? Luxury (like many other industries) is suffering from widening expectations, from products and locations to service and attention, and even more subtle aspects such as the feeling of “am I really special to this brand?” – Read More on Retail Touch Points
1. Roblox says policing virtual world is like “shutting down speakeasies.” San Mateo, Calif.-based Roblox is deploying bots to patrol user-generated games and press buttons to detect any dangerous content that players have disguised. – Read More on Reuters
2. Activist Bluebell Wants Richemont Succession Plan Made Public: The activist investor’s co-founders Giuseppe Bivona and Marco Taricco made the request in a Sept. 27 letter to the listing and enforcement department of SIX Exchange Regulation AG. – Read More on Bloomberg
3. Nike to Crack Down on Sneaker-Buying Bots, Dealing a Blow to Resale Market: In a sweeping update to its rules for U.S. shoppers this month, the sneaker giant said it could cancel orders placed with automated ordering software or technology on its website or apps. – Read More on the WSJ
4. Chinese fast fashion retailer lobbies up: Shein has hired its first federal lobbyists as the company moves to expand its U.S. footprint despite concerns over the brand’s sustainability and labor practices. – Read More on Politico
5. Uniqlo owner set for record annual profit, but all eyes on China showing: The company, Japan’s biggest retailer, has posted strong performances in U.S. and Europe in the first 3 quarters of the year, but investors will look for signs of a recovery in China, its biggest foreign market with nearly 900 stores. – Read More on Reuters
1. Christmas in October as Amazon, US rivals fight for bargain shoppers’ attention: “Online will be important for the big retailers over the holidays, just much less so than it has been the past couple of years. Consumers are coming back to stores.” – Read More on S&P Global
2. TikTok chases Amazon with plans for U.S. fulfillment centers: The move signifies TikTok’s commitment to e-commerce as its next major revenue stream, following the explosive growth of its ads business. – Read More on Axios
3. Real Time in-Store Inventory Data Is the Consumer Hook Big Retail Needs: Amid the inflationary pressures and paycheck-to-paycheck pressures, it may be the case that now, more than ever, Big Data may make all the difference to retailers’ top and bottom lines. – Read More on PYMNTS
4. Proposed New York law aims to protect fashion models from exploitation: The bill, which aims to protect everyone from models to makeup artists, was introduced in spring 2022 and will once again be considered in the 2023 legislative session, which starts in January. – Read More on the Guardian
5. India’s New Rich Fuel Brand Expansion for Tata’s Jewelry Arm: “There is a lot of latent demand for luxury from India and high net-worth individuals are going to explode. This is just the beginning for luxury.” – Read More on Bloomberg
1. Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Metaverse Struggles: Zuckerberg successfully overhauled his company a decade ago, getting it to focus on how its products worked on smartphones instead of desktops. He signaled a similar shift last year, saying that investing in the metaverse would allow Meta to make the leap from one technological era to the next. – Read More on the New York Times
2. Retailers Kick Off Black Friday in October Again, This Time with Too Much Stuff: Retail profits will decline as many companies race to cut prices faster than their peers. Morgan Stanley analysts say this dynamic could hurt margins and fuel an earnings slowdown. – Read More on the WSJ
3. Former Sephora stores reopen in Russia under new ownership: In a message on its website, Ile de Beauté thanked returning customers, promising a wide range of international brands, and said that previously purchased gift cards would still be valid. – Read More on Reuters
4. Global Luxury Goods Sales Expected to Hold Up Well, Says Citi: “Following 6 years of stellar outperformance, the luxury goods sector has slightly underperformed this year. In recent months however, luxury shares have outperformed despite economic pressures, reflecting a solid 2H22 demand outlook and receding geopolitical and Covid risks.” – Read More on Investing
5. Nike Korea unveils policies banning resellers: The updated terms and conditions indicate that returns or refunds will be refused and give Nike the right to cancel orders if they appear to have been made with the intention of reselling them. – Read More on EconoTimes